Inspired by this month’s Chicago Critics Film Festival (May 1-7) here in town and the Cannes Film Festival (May 12-23) abroad, we’re asking female film pros “What makes you rebellious?”
“Everything about me is rebellious. I have a company called Defiant by Nature for a reason. I don’t really consciously think of myself as rebellious but I know that I am by the way everyone in the world as reacted to me since the time I was a very little girl. I never thought I should be quiet and I never thought I shouldn’t be who I was, and luckily I had parents who supported me in that.”
–Marielle Heller
Writer/Director of Nightbitch (2024); actress in The Queen’s Gambit (2020); director of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
“My parents probably have a lot to say on this topic. From my perspective, my rebellious spirit is cultivated by my deep skepticism and a lack of drive to be liked by everyone. It’s nice to be liked, of course, but I have a strong personality, and it’s not going to gel with everyone — and that’s okay. Those two factors combined probably lead me to conform less and free me to act in ways that feel true to who I am.”
– Alessandra Lacorazza
Writer/Director of In The Summers (2024)
“My mom can tell you better than I.”
– Olivia Kuan
Director/Cinematographer of The Herricanes (2023) and The Catfish Killer (2022)
“What makes me rebellious is my fearlessness in using my voice to say what needs to be said. I’m unafraid to speak up, to agree to disagree, and to challenge limits in pursuit of growth and authenticity. Standing up for myself and my beliefs is essential to who I am, and I bring that fearlessness to every story I tell. My approach isn’t about dressing reality in aesthetics when the truth is raw or difficult —perhaps because I resonate with the honesty of neorealism. I’m drawn to telling stories that others might shy away from because these narratives deserve a voice. I’ve taken countless risks to reach this point, and even though each new challenge still comes with fear, embracing risk has become essential to my growth, both personally and creatively. With each leap, I bring more depth and insight to my projects. In one of my favorite films, Interstellar, the idea that ‘change is inevitable, and as humans, we must adapt’ resonates deeply with me. For me, rebellion is a commitment to adapt while staying true to the stories that matter, no matter how challenging they may be.”
– Anna Buksowicz
Production Designer of Nowhere to Run (2025) and The Double Life of My Secret Husband (2024)
“I’m rebellious in my refusal to be easily categorized. I don’t believe artists—or women—need to shrink themselves into something legible to be successful. I’m interested in longevity, depth, and work that takes risks emotionally and creatively. Choosing patience over shortcuts and substance over optics—that’s my quiet rebellion.
– Freya Adams
Writer of Gloria (2018) ; actress in New Amsterdam (2008), The Rookie (2022) and Taste the Revolution (2024)
“I’ve reached a point in my career where I can be freer—I don’t worry about the future or feel pressure to have it all figured out. For women, the expectation to excel both at work and at home is so real. Rebelling against that means embracing vulnerability and challenges to my authority and world view. It’s not always easy, but it’s incredibly liberating. Having spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector, I’ve seen firsthand how f*cked up it is. People like Vu Le have given me the courage to call out the dysfunction. If that makes me the least popular person at a funder roundtable, so be it! I love working at Kartemquin where I’m surrounded by colleagues who embody that same rebellious spirit and that shared energy is what keeps me going.”
– Betsy Leonard
Executive Director at Kartemquin Films
“What makes me rebellious is that I don’t wait for someone else to discover the films I have already found, or to create the showcases I know they deserve. When a film captures my imagination, I build an occasion around it…I think of myself as a cosmic hostess on behalf of the film. Before the lights even dim, the audience has been welcomed into the unexpected and guided toward a new way of seeing. I set the scene, make the introductions, and create the conditions for the film and the audience to discover one another. Sometimes that means offering historical context and careful research. Sometimes it means handing everyone a bubble wand so that, when a bubble machine appears on screen, the audience can fill the room with bubbles of its own. Both are forms of attention; both bring us closer to the film…The director is also rarely the whole story. I delight in pointing out the other rebellious women, whether in the cast or crew, whose intelligence, labor, and talent contributed to the totality of a film. The performer who found something astonishing inside a role, the editor who determined its rhythm, the producer who made it happen, or the designer who created its visual world is not a footnote. Her work is inseparable from what we see. That, for me, is rebellion: trusting my own instincts, refusing to conform to other programming norms, and believing midnight movies should be served with dessert. Cinema can and should sharpen the mind, complicate history, haunt the senses—and still be experienced with gelato and bubbles.”
– Stephanie “La Gialloholique” Sack
Chicago-based film programmer and creator/curator of Giallo Gelato at the Logan Theatre
I got divorced in 1987 and decided that I had to get out and reinvent myself. But how?…One night I went to a party given by the Chicago International Film Festival and started talking to the Development Director of the Festival. He said, “Why don’t you come to work for us?” I thought, “Oh, my gosh, what a fantastic opportunity”, so I went for an interview and made the change. Now, again, I was only a volunteer, but hey, it was an amazing job. Making that change was rather rebellious because I really knew very little about the film festival. I worked in the smallest area you could imagine, but I had a telephone, and that was all I needed. Vanity had no role here, I just did what I was told to do. My job was to arrange interviews for the movie stars and film directors…I was given a list and that was all. In addition, I was given the job of contacting all of the window [dressers] on Michigan Avenue in order to secure a film theme before and during the showing of the film festival. No one told me how to do my jobs—I just had to figure them out myself which gave me power and self-confidence…I worked at the film festival from 1987 to 1995 in public relations and then Michael Kutza called me in 2021 and told me that he was writing his memoir, and he asked if I could help him with it. We worked together all during Covid and got the book written, published, and promoted. Now we are planning a documentary film about Michael’s life, and the creation of the Chicago International Film Festival…I was raised by a single mom and my brother was shipped off to Military School, so I had to figure out a lot of things myself. This gave me independence. Mine is a story of making do with the hand that I was given. I was given a lot but I was also denied a lot. Don’t measure everything in money, but rather the richness you can have in living… Rebellion can mean going through the back door and coming out through the front.”
– Lynda O’Connor
Owner of O’Connor Communications, Inc.
Entertainment Publicist for the Chicago International Film Festival (1987-1995)