Neo-neorealism and place-based filmmaking

Filmmaker and Fulbright scholar Micah Magee shares development for her upcoming project GRASSHOPPER, a coming-of-age, coming-of-place story on the Baltic island of Bornholm.  Loosely inspired by Aesop's fable and the grasshopper as a symbol in the arts for indolence, improvidence and creativity, GRASSHOPPER’s main character prefers to rest, observe, and explore rather than produce, despite the oncoming “winter” of climate change and military build-up in the Baltic. 

Micah’s reflections on her 'place-up' approach to writing, casting and location will open to a discussion on how the film’s distribution might be intentionally reimagined in a local vein to open avenues of communion and power between audience, community, and (non)actors, rather than following the more traditional 'top-down' Netflix distribution model of her previous works.

Micah Magee is a writer/director of fiction feature films. Her fiction feature PETTING ZOO, a “piercingly authentic, diamond-in-the-rough debut” (Variety) about teen pregnancy and body autonomy in San Antonio, Texas, premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival & SXSW and went on to garner directing, acting, writing, audience, critics and ‘best film’ awards before European theatrical and U.S. Netflix release. Narrative short HEIMKOMMEN, co-created with the East Berlin youth ice hockey community, was awarded Short Film Lola in Gold (German Academy Award). Micah is currently developing a new feature project, GRASSHOPPER, in collaboration with harbour communities on the Baltic island of Bornholm. Teaching engagements include Harvard, the European Film College, and the DFFB in Berlin. Since 2023, Micah teaches narrative directing at Temple University’s Film and Media Arts Department.