‘Union County’ Producer Stephanie Roush’s Sundance Diary
Plus, some thoughts on the Wim Wenders controversy and a Valentine's Day double feature.
Famously amorous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.” This Valentine’s day, the madness was a double feature of “Wuthering Heights” and Send Help (“Wuthering” Help? Send “Heights”?). And the reason was: What better way to spend our second campiest holiday1 than with one’s partner, a large gummy, and a campy double feature loosely about people in love?
This was my first Valentine’s Day double feature, and conceptually I love it. It’s communal; it’s great for couples, singles, and polycules alike; and it sure beats going to a fancy dinner where you’re surrounded by other couples overspending for pasta and wine on account of Pope Gelasius I being scandalized by Lupercalia.
In practice, this specific double feature left much to be desired. To be more specific: fun. I expected each of these films to be dumb. I hoped that they would be dumb in different ways than they were (i.e., the fun way).
Send Help was the sort of dumb where every scene lasted too long, various beats kept repeating themselves, and it never committed to its wild swerves. I kept wishing it was either Lost or Misery, rather than just miserably lost. To everyone giving this thing 3.5 stars on Letterboxd… I love Rachel MacAdams too, but I’m sorry, I really don’t understand???
As for “Wuthering Heights,” Alison Oliver is a delight and Hong Chau gets one funny moment that made me think, OK, maybe Emerald Fennell is a little bit self-aware. Otherwise, this film was useful in that it crystalized the Emerald Fennell project for me. This is a filmmaker who makes feature-length commercials for hashtags that were trending one to two years earlier (the source text of this film is clearly Charli XCX’s Brat, not Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights). My main issue is that if you’re going to be a provocateur, you should provoke! Don’t sand off the edges of everything that made the source text sharp and thorny. Who, apart from Mike Pence, is scandalized by very tonguey make outs and degradation fetishes in 2026?
Ultimately, these are both films that feel like they exist in service of their marketing materials, rather than vice versa. In hindsight, I should’ve just rewatched Pillion and these beautiful freaks doing their awesome ice dance.
Here’s what’s happening this week:
The Film Independent Spirit Awards were last night. Congrats to all the winners and nominees (both of which you can find here). I was particularly excited to see Kayo Martin recognized for his phenomenal “Breakout” performance in The Plague.
Congrats to all the friends of the newsletter behind The Scout and The Travel Companion on having their films picked up for distribution by Greenwich Entertainment and Oscilloscope, respectively.
Hannah Schulman is looking for background extras for a low budget gritty NYC dark comedy short film shoot Feb 19 - 22 around Brooklyn and East Village, with BG needed 20th and 21st. Unpaid but we will have snacks and good vibes. Interested parties can email Hannah at portalfinderfilms@gmail.com or DM @portalfilmz on IG for more info. Sign-up sheet here.
Courtney Therond is hiring BG PA from NYC to travel in bus with BG to CT and back for a shoot in CT 2/17 - 2/22. DM @courtneytherond on IG.
Jackson James is seeking NYC gaffers (particularly ones who own their own G+E package) for a shoot 3/6. DM @jackson_____james on IG.
TJ Misny is seeking a DP who can work locally in Western Mass. Green screen experience a plus. DM @tjmisny on IG.
Alex Megaro is seeking an old-looking motel location that would allow filming at night in and around the front desk area. Can pay modest location fee. DM @prophetkotto on IG.
“Looking for Ms. Keaton” continues at FLC this week, with screenings of notable Diane Keaton films such as Crimes of the Heart, Reds, Something’s Gotta Give, and more.
If you haven’t done so yet, sign the pledge to boycott Enterprise and its subsidiary brands National and Alamo for providing vehicles to ICE.
If you would like to list in a future issue, either A) post in the Nothing Bogus chat thread, or B) email nothingbogus1@gmail.com with the subject “Listing.” (It’s FREE!) Include your email and all relevant details (price, dates, etc.)
SOMETHING BOGUS
Powerful People During Imperfect Days
On Wim Wenders and Berlinale.
The Berlin Film Festival began last Thursday. But so far, the films have been overshadowed by how the festival is responding — or failing to respond — to current events.
At the opening press conference, German blogger Tilo Jung asked the jury why Berlinale — a festival with a history of vocally advocating for human rights causes — had shown support for people in Iran and Ukraine, “but never for Palestine.”
Jury president Wim Wenders got himself into hot water with the following response:
We cannot really enter the field of politics. We have to stay out of politics because if we made movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics … We are the counterweight of politics, the opposite of politics, we have to do the work of people — not the work of politicians.
Wenders’s quote has made the rounds on social media, provoking ample backlash as well as a fierce rebuke from author Arundhati Roy, who proceeded to back out of a planned appearance at the festival.
For the most part, I think Wenders is being misinterpreted. Perhaps this is an overly generous reading, but I don’t think Wenders was literally saying that art should not be political. (After all, he has previously been quoted as saying “Every film is political.”) Rather, I read him to be advocating against art that is didactic, which is a sentiment I agree with. The problem then, if I’m interpreting him correctly, isn’t what he said; it’s what he said in response to the question he was asked.
Here’s the question, as reported by Deadline:
My question is, in light of the German government’s support of the genocide in Gaza and its role as the main funder of the Berlinale do you as a member of the jury… support this selective treatment of human rights?
Wenders wasn’t being asked about art and how artists should approach making it. He was being asked about an institution that, as Jury President, he was choosing to represent.
Let’s put aside2 the political role of art. Wenders, at this stage of his career, is a relatively powerful person, and one who in that moment, as jury president, was occupying a position of power. He wasn’t attending the festival as a filmmaker; he was attending as an honorary representative of the festival. (The journalist even specified “as a member of the jury.”) In that context, not only was the question fair; I believe Wenders had a responsibility to take a stand. Whether or not it is the role of an artist “to enter the field of politics,” it certainly is the role of the powerful. Wenders’ dodge of the question was a form of complicity. And we’re seeing again and again — albeit at varying scales — how damaging the complicity of the powerful can be.
THE FEATURE PRESENTATION
‘Union County’ Producer Stephanie Roush’s Sundance Diary
Stephanie Roush is an independent producer and founder of Foxglove Films. She produced Adam Meeks’s Union County, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Friday, January 23
As the plane begins to descend into Salt Lake City I hear the woman in front of me tell her seatmate that the Great Salt Lake is beginning to dry up. As I look out the window onto the brown, grey landscape of where we are landing, I hear her explain that the arsenic in the sediment at the bottom of the lake will turn to dust and make Salt Lake City uninhabitable. Something about her conspiratorial tone (and her Kemo Sabe hat) gives me pause, so I quickly Google “Salt Lake arsenic.” Her claims seem to be substantiated. Is this why Sundance is moving to Boulder?
By the time I do a Trader Joe’s run, pick up the filmmaker and his fiancee, grab breakfast burritos and coffee, and head up the mountain to Park City, it will be 48 hours exactly before the premiere of our film. The combination of stress, nerves, excitement, and impatience means that this is both a long and short amount of time. I have spent the month prior planning every hour of every day that we will be on the ground for Sundance, not for myself, but for our filmmaker and the actors. I feel excited to finally meet our publicists in-person (the wonderful Laura Sok and Kate McEdwards of TrackShot), and feel even more excited to let them run the show in the packed-to-the-gills press schedule we have ahead of our premiere.
Friday night, after a fun group dinner, I volunteer to get one of our actors, the inimitable Annette Deao, into an Uber back to her hotel. Everyone else I’m with goes to “try to get into the CAA party.” Annette, who plays a version of herself in the film, traveled to Park City from West Liberty, OH, where she and her husband grow tomatillos and raise chickens on a beautiful piece of land. I walk with Annette up to the parking lot designated for Uber pickups. The app tells me eight minutes, but of course I know better than to believe that. Thirty-five minutes later, the car pulls up and I apologize again for the wait, for having to stand out in the cold for so long, for exposing her so early in her time in Park City to the vulgarities of Sundance. She looks at me and smirks as she dips into the backseat of the sedan. “Oh, that was some of the best people watching I’ve had in a long time.” I call my friends who went to the CAA party. They’re still in line, but “getting closer to the front.” I decide to head home. My toes are completely numb and I make a mental note to wear better socks tomorrow.
Saturday January 24
It’s 8:15am and we are in the car driving to the Canyons resort to The Hollywood Reporter Studio where the filmmaker and our lead actor will do their first press of the day. As we walk into the room, I clock the Bogner pop-up, with their racks of fancy outerwear. As a producer, I know these coats are reserved for the “talent,” but I am of course going to press my luck anyways. It is always a dance with these fancy brand types at Sundance, but I’m not sure I’ve had enough coffee for my best performance.
An hour later, I walk out of the THR Studio with a Bogner balaclava, but no coat: a small consolation prize. I wonder if I’ll have better luck in Boulder.
Our next stop is a panel at the Adobe House on Main Street, a real opportunity to discuss the nitty gritty of making the film. My expectations for these things are always low, but moderator Angelique Jackson did her homework and sparked a deep, fluid conversation. My eyes begin to well up as Annette eloquently speaks about her work with the adult recovery court. Looking around the room, I realize I’m not alone. When the panel ends, a line immediately forms to speak with Annette.
After our fourth or fifth (it’s easy to lose track) press stop of the day, it is finally time for lunch. We head to Bangkok Thai, the only humane restaurant in Park City. I order tom kha ghai and sit down for the first time in what feels like, and perhaps genuinely is, hours.
As I consider ordering something else, a friend texts that she has a reservation at Butcher’s at 4:00 PM for an early dinner of steak and martinis. I text my husband, who is at the only sports bar in Park City watching the end of the Knicks game, to meet us there. At Butchers, I have neither a martini nor a steak, but a glass of water and a loose approximation of a cheeseburger. I am furiously texting trying to figure out how to get our actors off of Main Street and into cars without having to wait the typical 30 - 45 minutes. I should’ve known better to think I could’ve been good company.
Sunday January 25
I attend the Sundance Producer’s Celebration the morning of my premiere. I am unsurprisingly stressed, which hinders my ability to make the sort of small talk required of these kinds of events. Still, I have the opportunity to congratulate my friend Apoorva Charan for winning the Sundance Producer’s Award. It feels gratifying to watch someone so deserving of recognition receive it with such grace and poise. Her words of acceptance wash over me as my mind drifts back to the premiere.
Finally, we are heading to the premiere of Union County at Eccles. It’s the most calm I’ve felt all weekend. I’ve sat through many Eccles premieres before, but never one of my own (Stress Positions, which I also produced, premiered at the Library in 2024). The room oddly feels smaller than it’s ever felt, maybe because I can’t see the balcony hovering above me, or maybe because I know more people in this room than I ever have before.
When the lights finally come up in Eccles I look next to me to see my husband wiping tears from his eyes. Adam, the director, returns to the stage and calls up each of the actors. He brings Annette up last. As she makes her way onto the stage, the audience springs onto their feet. Watching her receive a standing ovation, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of pride. The feeling of connectedness in the room to the film — to its themes, to the hope of recovery, to the work that Annette does on a daily basis — is palpable. It reminds me of why I want to do this job in the first place. I feel a sense of pride that I want to remember.
Suddenly, it’s over and I’m calling an Uber for a few of our actors and manically checking my email for press breaks from our PR team. This job can be unrelenting. But that feeling in Eccles as Annette got her standing ovation was one I hadn’t quite felt before. It’s reason enough to make more movies.
To read more about the making of Union County, Stephanie recommends checking out the following pieces in The Hollywood Reporter and IndieWire.
See also:
And RIP to Robert Duvall, truly one of the best to ever do it.
First being Christmas, of course.
Though if you want my opinion, it is this: All art — and especially great art — is political, and doesn’t shy away from it. But fiction that is made with the intent to convince people of something is seldom interesting.
I wrote something very similar about Wenders the other day. The Guardian ran a list of films that claim to prove Roy right but it actually proves Wenders right because the films chosen focus on people over politics.