A deeply moving meditation on grief and loss, Rachel Hendrix is the first new film in a decade from indie-film icon Victor Nuñez, who once again sets the tale in his own vividly evoked North Florida, a cinematic landscape he has made his own over 7 features in a 44-year career. Nuñez has a knack for getting career-best performances (see: Ed Harris, Ashley Judd and Peter Fonda), and now you can add Lori Singer, who anchors the film with her astonishing performance as the title character, a university English professor dealing with the loss of her husband, struggling to maintain personal, professional and family relationships, and further isolated by the nightmare of Covid. Complex, poignant, compassionate and beautifully observed, it’s a late-career masterpiece from one of American film’s best-kept secrets. ~SM
*** Followed by an in-person talk with Victor Nuñez and Lori Singer . Nuñez is the recipient of VTIFF’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to American Cinema, sponsored by CSE Holding Co., with additional support by the UVM Film & Television Studies Program***