In honor of International Women’s Day, we decided to feature the work of an innovative female filmmaker. Zia Anger’s film I Remember Nothing is an experimental, coming-of-age short about a teenage girl that explores the five stages of an epileptic attack amidst a growing sexual awareness.

Anger creates a unique storm of chaos between the nature of the neurological disorder and the messiness of being a young adult through disorienting visuals and sounds. Anger’s protagonist, ‘Joan’, teeters on a high-wire of instability as she tries to gain ownership of herself. The dichotomy between expectation and sensation over her body becomes an intimate and eye-opening experience.

Throughout the film, the actress who plays Joan is changed from scene to scene. Stars include Lola Kirke (Gone Girl), India Menuez (Transparent), and Adinah Dancyger (Uncertain Terms). While her mental and physical experience shifts into an alternate consciousness, her body literally morphs into another person on-screen. The effect is disorienting and places audience members into Joan’s headspace as she spirals out of control during her epileptic episode.

The film’s structure is divided into chapters based on the five stages of a seizure: Preictal, Tonic, Clonic, Postictal, and finally Interictal. Anger explains what she wanted to achieve: “[I wanted] to explore the slippery nature of this disorder, which varies from person to person. Each scene was informed by each epileptic stage and are meant to be in dialogue with this research, and not a literal representation of it. This allowed for a certain amount of curiosity during the making not normally found on a film set. The hope was that this curiosity would extend into the viewing experience”.

The unique nature of the film’s subject informed how Anger approached the filmmaking process. Astoundingly, there was no real script, just an outline. Anger’s delivery is successful despite being unorthodox. Particularly during the opening of the softball scene, reality falls apart. Joan is disembodied from her surroundings as the scene of a transgender woman singing the National Anthem becomes a trippy layering of divine music, bright colors, and suggestive gestures from the woman on the sidelines making passes at her. Joan, in a constant battle against authority, her body and mind, sees an opportunity to take control of her sexuality. When Joan finally gets in the car with the woman to realize her own fantasies, time comes to a halt yet again – but with failure. Memory and time are in limbo and brings into question dream, fantasy and reality as the seizure ensues.

I Remember Nothing ends with an embrace of Joan’s loss of control and Zia Anger’s immersive storytelling will leave a lasting impression. The film was screened at New Directors/New Films, International Festival del Film Locarno, and AFI Fest.