184. What Happens When You Apply ‘Yes, And’ to Film Discussions
Seventh Row Podcast
What if the most powerful insights about a film don’t come from watching it alone — but from talking it through with curious people who notice what you missed, and help you turn half-formed thoughts into something deeper? In this episode, I share why I built The Long Take — A space for deep, layered, perspective-shifting conversations about film — and how a spirit of collaboration, attention, and trust can transform how we see movies…and ourselves We kick off Nov 2 with a zero-prep welcome session. 👉
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183. The Choral (TIFF 2025) with Ralph Fiennes: When queer characters don't make a queer film
Seventh Row Podcast
How can a film with a queer protagonist, written by a queer playwright, and directed by a queer man… not be a queer film? That’s the tricky question I'm tackling with The Choral, the WWI period drama that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). In this episode: my Ralph Fiennes/Nicholas Hytner fangirling, why the film works as a crowd-pleaser but flattens queerness and other marginalized identities, and the bigger questions it raises about reclaiming — or sanitizing — queer history. 🎟 Plus, a sneak peek at Living Out Loud, my FREE three-day summit on queer...
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182. Couture (with Angelina Jolie) and Alice Winocour's traumatized bodies (TIFF 2025)
Seventh Row Podcast
Alice Winocour's Couture is a backstage film about the fashion world — less about the clothes than the bodies who wear them, shape them, and photograph them. It's a film about the ways that commerce and fashion (and medicine) shape and damage women's bodies. As a Winocour fan and researcher since 2015, Alex Heeney connects Couture to Winocour's explorations of traumatized bodies, outsiders, and backstage stories throughout her body of work. 🎟 If you want to explore a film together in conversation — not just listen in — join me for Living Out Loud, my free Queer and...
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181. Between Dreams and Hope and queer survival (TIFF 2025)
Seventh Row Podcast
At TIFF, Alex dives into Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi's Between Dreams and Hope, a powerful film about a trans man in Iran navigating the dehumanizing maze of gender-affirming care — and connects it to two others, from Canada and France, that reveal how patriarchy, money, and bureaucracy shape queer and trans survival. These aren’t straight reviews so much as reflections on how films spark curiosity, uncover hidden systems, and resist erasure. ✨ Don’t miss it! This October, join me for Living Out Loud — a FREE three-day live online summit all about queer and trans stories and...
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180. Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (TIFF 2025)
Seventh Row Podcast
Joachim Trier’s new film, Sentimental Value, is already a buzzy hit. Alex Heeney has been thinking and writing about Trier’s films for more than a decade, and this one sharpened her sense of what she values in his work. In this episode out of TIFF, she look at the film's portrait of a complicated family, the way it reframes familiar Trier themes, and how it speaks to his other films. ✨ This fall I’m hosting an exclusive live event where we’ll unpack Trier’s work together — the kind of deep-dive conversation you can’t get from the podcast. 👉Spots will be limited, so make sure...
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179. What if we told stories about women beyond their love lives?
Seventh Row Podcast
What happens when a story that once felt modern… suddenly doesn’t? And what does that tell us about the limits — and possibilities — of the stories we tell about women? In this solo episode, Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney tracks a shift in perspective — hers, and maybe yours too. 📍 How a 2021 film reopened an old question 📍 Why Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) once felt strikingly modern — and what I see in it now 📍 And what this tells us about how our expectations for stories about women have changed — fast Along the way, I dig into: How the marriage plot...
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178. What happened when Hazel trusted my film curation
Seventh Row Podcast
What happens when you watch a film — not just to be entertained — but to reflect, notice, and share? In this episode, Alex Heeney (curator of Reel Ruminators) sits down with Hazel Shaw, a UK member of the community, to uncover what really makes this unique movie-of-the-month space so rewarding — and how it sparks discoveries you might not expect. Together, they talk about: What happens when you watch films that aren't suggested by an algorithm Why gathering with film lovers from around the world can change the way you see a film Why some of the most surprising film conversations...
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177. 45 Years (dir. Andrew Haigh) with Lindsay Pugh (10th anniversary)
Seventh Row Podcast
Ten years on, 45 Years hasn’t lost an ounce of its emotional weight. In fact, it might just cut deeper. On this episode, host and Seventh Row Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney is joined by Lindsay Pugh () to revisit Andrew Haigh’s masterpiece about a childless couple celebrating their 45 the wedding anniversary in the same week that a traumatic secret from the past comes to light. We talk about: What makes this story hit differently as we have aged Why the film’s focus on emotional repression, delayed gratification, and public performance feels so radical How Haigh’s queer lens shapes...
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176. Materialists (dir. Celine Song)
Seventh Row Podcast
In this episode, Alex Heeney digs into Celine Song’s Materialists, a film about Lucy, a matchmaker struggling with her own love triangle. Will Lucy (Dakota Johnson) choose love — in the form of her poor ex John (Chris Evans) — or money with eligible bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal)? And can love and money even co-exist? With its charming cast, elegant blocking, and standout sound design, Materialists could have been a sharp, class-conscious rom-com. But for all its promise, it ends up skimming the surface. You will hear: What works well in the film, including the visual...
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175. How three very different films ended up in conversation
Seventh Row Podcast
Join me (Alex Heeney) on a journey through three films I programmed inside Reel Ruminators — a British political thriller, an Indigenous Canadian documentary, and a queer South African drama — and discover how their contrasts actually illuminate one another. By the end of this episode, you’ll see how exploring differences between films can reshape your own viewing of film as an art form. 🎧 In This Episode You’ll Discover Hidden threads connecting three very different films—and how noticing those threads can deepen your own film palate. Time as a storytelling tool in...
info_outlineAt Sundance 2025, Alex saw a lovely debut feature from a Tunisian woman director, Where the Wind Comes From. And it made her think about how difficult it can be to find films by women from Africa and the Middle East. But she can recommend several first features from Tunisian women directors that you can watch right now.
In this episode, Alex discusses why it's so hard to see films by women from Africa and the Middle East. She talks about why you should watch for Where the Wind Comes From in the future and two films by Tunisian women that you can watch now: As I Open My Eyes (2015) and Under the Fig Trees (2022).
***Join the Seventh Row newsletter to stay updated on Reel Ruminators, free Q&As, and unique opportunities to watch under-the-radar films: http://email.seventh-row.com
Related Episodes
Women at Cannes Ep. 5: Reviews of Cannes 2022 films by women, including Under the Fig Trees
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