A Conversation with Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli

I interviewed Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli right before their film Violation plays in the festival favorites category at SXSW 2021. In this interview, we talk about their partnership, the themes of the film, what it's like to transition from shorts to feature-length filmmaking, and where their work is headed next. 

Filmmaking duo Madeleine Sims Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli met in 2015 and have been collaborating ever since. They write, direct, and produce films as a team. They created three shorts together: Slap Happy, Woman in Stall, and Chubby, all which deal with trauma, abusive relationships, gender power dynamics, and family. Violation is their first feature-length picture, and they consider it to be their culminating work on the themes they have been exploring thus far. Violation premiered at TIFF 2020, showed again at Sundance 2021, and will conclude the festival round with SXSW 2021. It will be widely available on Shudder at the end of March 2021. 

Description of Violation from IMDB: A troubled woman on the edge of divorce returns home to her younger sister after years apart. But when her sister and brother-in-law betray her trust, she embarks on a vicious crusade of revenge. 

For more information about Dusty and Madeleine's work, visit their website.  

You can view the short Woman in Stall here. 

To see my capsule reviews of memorable movies from Sundance (including Violation), go here and here. 

1 of my Stories · A Conversation With Madeleine Sims-Fewer And Dusty Mancinelli

About interviewer: Lindsey Dunn is a member of the North Carolina Film Critics Association and writes movies reviews at the website 1ofmystories.com. You can also follow her on Twitter: @1ofmystories.