Jessi Cape

Food is a universal language, and in the melting pot that is Manhattan’s Chinatown, it’s also a passion-filled battleground. In Mam, our protagonist Jerald narrates as we watch him navigate the restaurant world on NYC streets, hustling relentlessly, juggling gigs, even sleeping in his car. He’s scrappy, paying his dues as he works toward owning his own Vietnamese restaurant. The kitchen is “his secret place, his happy place,” and he sneaks into empty kitchens late at night to cook.

Director Meredith Alloway’s feature debut, Forbidden Fruits, co-written with playwright Lily Houghton, has the DNA of a cult classic. At the film’s Monday evening world premiere, the Paramount Theatre audience was fully engaged, laughing from the first frame, collectively gasping, groaning, and cheering loudly to make their instant fandom known.

Mandy Horvath is a bilateral amputee crawling to the summit of Africa’s tallest mountain on her hands – knuckles down going forward, palms flat going back, arms propelling her across ants, unsteady terrain, magnetic rocks, and ice. When the camera pulls wide to show her moving alongside her team, all of whom have their legs, the scale of what she is doing becomes almost incomprehensible. The Ascent begins and ends on Kilimanjaro.