Stress Positions

Opened Friday, April 19, 2024

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

Sunday, April 14 at 6:45 p.m.: Sneak Preview + Q&A with director Theda Hammel and star John Early moderated by Naomi Fry

Monday, April 15 at 6:45 p.m.: Q&A with Theda Hammel, John Early, Faheem Ali, and Amy Zimmer moderated by Cole Escola

Monday, April 15 at 9:30 p.m.: Extended intro with Theda Hammel and John Early

Friday, April 19 and Saturday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.: Q&A with Theda Hammel and John Early moderated by Julio Torres (Fri) and Will Menaker (Sat); with extended introductions by Theda Hammel and John Early at 9:50 p.m. both nights

Sunday, April 21 at 2:55 p.m.: Q&A with Theda Hammel moderated by Torrey Peters

Please note that there are additional showtimes of STRESS POSITIONS that screen with open captions (on-screen display of dialogue and sounds). For those showtimes, click here.

The bewilderment of the early days of COVID is given a manic queer twist in Theda Hammel’s propulsive, brilliantly discombobulating comedy set in Brooklyn in the summer of 2020. Feeling the sting from a recent separation from his husband, Terry (John Early) is doing his due, über-masked diligence to watch over his nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash), a Moroccan male model who is staying with Terry while nursing a broken leg. Meanwhile, Terry is fearful that his punchy best friend, Karla (Hammel, in a vibrant, take-no-prisoners turn), working through her own relationship chaos, will be a bad influence on Bahlul, who proves to be a lot wiser and less naive than his uncle might think. Hammel’s cinematic approach is thrillingly unpredictable both visually and sonically, alternating between cacophonous volleys of dialogue and meditative journeys into her characters’ subjective states, while the heightened delirium of Hammel and Faheem Ali’s script evokes the hapless rules of engagement in the ever-shifting borders of queer politics.

Winner: Amazon Studios Fiction Producers Award, Sundance

  • Country USA
  • Running Time 95 minutes
  • Format DCP
  • Distributor Neon
  • Director Theda Hammel
  • Cast John Early, Qaher Harhash, Elizabeth Dement, Theda Hammel, Amy Zimmer, Faheem Ali
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil, Closed Captioning

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