52 Films by Women Vol 7. 35. A THOUSAND AND ONE (Director: A V Rockwell)
Nobody knows anything. This applies to judges at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival who awarded writer-director A V (Aline Victoria) Rockwell’s feature debut, A Thousand and One , the Grand Jury Prize only to see the film flounder at the US box office upon its release on 31 March (gross: $3.386 million to 27 April 2023). Rockwell’s film has, like its single mother protagonist, Inez (Teyona Taylor) a defiant dignity built on unsteady foundations. The structure is bold, divided like Moonlight into three distinct time periods (1995, 2001, 2005) – four if you count the opening scene on Riker’s Island (1994). At its heart is a ticking time bomb: what will happen to Inez when the crime she has committed eventually comes to light? The New York City-set drama, which takes its title from a door number, but also offers itself a riposte to 2001: A Space Odyssey – the characters in A Thousand and One fight for space – is ambitious in scope, tying Inez’s story to changes ushered by su...