Tendaberry

Houston Cinema Arts Festival

Post-film discussion with “Tendaberry” star Kota Johan and Houston-born and raised writer/director Haley Elizabeth Anderson

The opening-night selection for the 2024 Houston Cinema Arts Festival, from writer/director Haley Elizabeth Anderson, is a kinetic portrait of Dakota (Kota Johan), a twentysomething New York City transplant adrift in post-pandemic Brooklyn. When her boyfriend (Yuri Pleskun) is called back to his native Ukraine to care for his ailing father, Dakota is forced to navigate the city and its hardships alone and pregnant. Buzzing through the streets, she flits from job to job, moment to moment, creating memories of her own along the way.

Tendaberry makes use of Anderson’s own DV recordings, photographs by Helen Levitt, and the video diaries of Nelson Sullivan, who captured New York City's dilapidated 1980s downtown in 1,900 hours of footage, to craft an Impressionist character study of person and place. Audacious, ambitious—words do little justice when describing the scale of the collection of memories contained in this feature-length debut, an ecstatic love letter to New York City and the changes each season can bring to a life.

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Underwriting for the Film Department is provided by Tenaris, The June Leaf and Robert Frank Foundation, and the Vaughn Foundation.

Generous funding is provided by The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea; Nina and Michael Zilkha; Lois Chiles; Foundation for Independent Media Arts; Franci Neely; Carrin Patman and Jim Derrick; Ms. Laurence Unger; L'Alliance Française de Houston; and ILEX Foundation.

Tendaberry

Directed by Haley Elizabeth Anderson
(USA, 2024, 115 minutes, in English)
Brown Auditorium Theater, digital

Location

Caroline Wiess Law Building
1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005
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