Gush

Pieced together from a near decade’s worth of personal archives, Fox Maxy’s Gush delivers a kaleidoscopic diary of horror and survival. The film flows seamlessly through found footage, documentary sequences, and digital animation as it weaves through a stream-of-consciousness meditation on the impact of sexual violence and healing through collective joy. At first, it is a fiery manifesto on the sovereignty of land and the body, then an ode to the bonds of friendship before morphing into a celebration of what it means to endure. Maxy’s film is a work defiantly without limits, refusing to be categorized. After building a body of work that established her as an artist to watch within the experimental film space, Maxy’s feature film debut is a continuation of her signature freestyle and sumptuous approach to the medium. Gush blends an intimate collage of personal footage and fixations that — true to its director’s form — creates something like its own cinematic language. It’s a film that speaks to viewers on its own terms and demonstrates the radical possibilities of personal filmmaking. (Sundance Film Festival)