Josephine

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Josephine is a gripping drama that doesn’t shy away from using aspects of genre filmmaking to tackle a story of deep emotional heft.

Writer-director Beth de Araújo’s sophomore feature is a deeply personal story, rooted in the filmmaker's own childhood experience of interrupting a sexual assault in Golden Gate Park with her father. It stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as the parents of eight-year-old Josephine (played by extraordinary newcomer Mason Reeves), whose childhood is marred when she witnesses a violent sexual assault. As she struggles to process what she’s seen, her once-safe world begins to descend into a scary place for a child who does not yet possess the tools to adequately express herself. Desperate and conflicted about how to help their little girl, her parents argue over the moral quandary of having their daughter testify in front of a jury to convict a sexual predator, which demands an extremely high cost, both emotionally and psychologically, especially for Josephine.