‘My First Film’ Trailer: Zia Anger’s Feature Debut Is a Filmmaking Hall of Mirrors Starring Odessa Young

Zia Anger is haunted by a long-abandoned film project in her feature directorial debut “My First Film.” A filmmaker, performance artist, and celebrated director of music videos for the likes of Beach House, Angel Olsen, Mitski, and Zola Jesus, Anger fuses ideas from that unrealized project with echoes of a touring stage piece she started in 2018 for this MUBI release, out at the end of August. Odessa Young stands in for Anger as the young filmmaker Vita, who 15 years before started making a film about a young woman adrift after becoming pregnant. IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film below.

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Here’s the official synopsis: “Vita (Odessa Young) revisits her first chaotic attempt at filmmaking — a semi-autobiographical feature made 15 years prior about a young woman who decides to leave home after becoming pregnant. Blending past with present, reality with fiction, Zia Anger’s ‘debut’ film navigates the tumultuous intersection of personal experience and narrative innovation, reflecting on the transformative power of artistic self-reflection.”

Perfume Genius writes an original score for the film, which first premiered at the CPH:DOX festival. Anger’s laurels include participation in the Sundance Institute’s screenwriting intensive and a place among Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Anger has credits in front of the camera, too, from Film Independent Spirit Award winner Ricky D’Ambrose’s “Notes on an Appearance” to John Trengove’s “Manodrome,” starring Jesse Eisenberg. “My First Film” star Odessa Young has been acclaimed for her performances in intense films like “Mothering Sunday” and “Shirley.”

The performance that inspired “My First Film” began at the Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, with Anger giving a desktop presentation of clips from an abandoned film called “Always All Ways, Anne Marie.” As the performance expanded with Anger’s commentary — revealing the artist at an emotional crossroads in her life — she took it on the road around North America and eventually streamed it during the pandemic.

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The cast for “My First Film” also includes Devon Ross (“Irma Vep”), Cole Doman (“Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party”), Timothy Griffin Allan (“I Saw the TV Glow”), Philip Ettinger (“Wildcat”), and Eamon Farren (“Twin Peaks: The Return”).

“My First Film” premieres in theaters August 30 before it streams globally on MUBI beginning Friday, September 6. Watch the trailer below.