Here are two independent films that created a buzz earlier this year at major Festivals. They snagged distribution deals, making their appeal to niche audiences easily understood.

Kneecap (Amazon on Demand) Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland; on the surface, this film is about two young boys forming a rap group and trying to make a name for themselves by performing rap in traditional Irish, refusing to speak in English. This is important, as while Ireland is an independent republic with a cultural identity, Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain under British rule. The little twist is how a schoolteacher asks to translate when one of them is picked up by the Garda, who encourages them to establish their act. The teacher noticed the rhymes that the young man could find in the notebook. The teacher used to DJ and still has his equipment in an abandoned garage. 

Adding texture is how the father of the boys (played by Michael Fassbender) is an established leader of the British Out movement and had to go into hiding, feigning his death, to avoid arrest and detention. How the group becomes politicized as part of the positive action for maintaining indigenous languages forms part of the narrative. But what truly buoys this film is the sizzling energy, the irresistible music, and the reflection of a culture that has largely been ignored or not studied in cinema. It seems a world apart, but I had added sympathy for where this film is coming from as I recently attended a lecture about the Mangyan language in Mindoro and how it’s rapidly disappearing yet is one of the oldest recorded written languages. 

Didi (Amazon on Demand) - Growing up in California in 2008 as part of a second-generation immigrant family has never been captured as vividly as in this film that charmed the Sundance audiences in 2024. For someone who’s been watching movies for as long as I have, it was a treat to see Joan Chen on screen again, playing the mother of Didi. I had not been following her, and I remember her best for her role in The Last Emperor (1987). Here in Didi, she’s a Mom of two children, and her husband works in Taiwan. The elder daughter is off to college, while Didi, the only son, is in his last year of High School. He’s into hanging out with friends, skateboarding, and girls his age. 

It’s the birth of social media, with Facebook still on the horizon. With Didi, it’s all YouTube and rudimentary messaging apps. And it’s amusing to see how that era existed less than twenty years ago and how social media has evolved since those ‘salad days.’ Didi is all loud, bragging, and having an attitude covering a strong sense of insecurity and lack of identity. His tentative steps with the girl he’s crushing on are amusing, as when he heads to the Internet for lessons on kissing. His antagonistic relationship with his elder sister is real, as he sneaks into her room to borrow her T-shirts, which are way cooler than his. This film is moving; it’s honest and will be cathartic for many in their early 30s.