52 Films by Women Vol 6. 36. UMMA (Director: Iris K. Shim)
Stage 6, the specialist arm of Sony Pictures, deserves credit for releasing a high number of films by first-time female writer-directors. In the last two years, we’ve seen The Broken Hearts Gallery (writer-director Natalie Krinsky), Yellow Rose (a Filipino-American musical written and directed by Diane Paragas) and A Mouthful of Air (writer-director Amy Koppelman). The company is described as acquiring and marketing low-budget films, having slam-dunked with the Insidious movie franchise almost a decade ago. Their latest release is Umma , a Korean American horror film in which a reclusive, electricity-fearing Korean American accountant turned beekeeper, Amanda (Sandra Oh from the TV series Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve ) faces the spirit of her dead Umma or mother. Meanwhile, Amanda’s daughter, Chris (Fivel Stewart) comes to understand that her mother might literally be gaslighting her – seriously, Amanda has no battery-operated flashlights, only gas lamps. As horror films go...