Filmmaker Heidi Van Lier has the singular talent of crafting meaningful films with interesting voice-over. A narrative technique that for other filmmakers falls flat, rendering a one-dimensionality to characters, serves Van Lier in her sophomore feature Monday as a perfect fit for character and story development.

Joe Swanberg’s Hannah Takes the Stairs falls short entirely of its great expectation. Rather, it serves primarily as a study of narrative ambiguity.

Frank V. Ross' Hohokam studies moods and moments with an acute vision about miscommunication and communion, leaving the audience, atypically of a character study, on an end note of hope.

Filmmakers Ashley Sabin and David Redmon kept their eye strictly focused on the personal throughout their feature documentary Kamp Katrina, and this choice primarily explains the relevance and resonance it imparts to its audiences.