Wonder and Kent discuss the experimental narrative film, Tendaberry, a poignant coming of age film centering a young, mixed race woman living in New York. Emerging themes include the forging pressures of new responsibilities and freedoms, the singular expression of humanity in a city as large as New York, the intensity of this period of anyone’s life and how much these experiences shape us, and the precarious uncertainty of this period for all generations, but especially those coming into them now. Astrologically these themes correlate with the 1st and 2nd Houses, Saturn, and the cluster of transits that take place in our early twenties, including a 3rd quarter Saturn square, a 1st quarter Uranus square, and our second Jupiter return.
Distribution: Unnanounced
Director: Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Run Time: 115 minutes
Music Credit: spacedust by airtone
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Rough Transcript
[00:00:13.479] Kent Bye: Hello, my name is Kent Bye. Wonder Bright: And I'm Wonder Bright. Kent Bye: And welcome to the Story All the Way Down podcast, where we're breaking down the archetypal dynamics of the documentary films that we watched this year at Sundance 2024. This is episode number three of eight of our section on identity. So today's episode, we're going to be diving into a piece called Tendaberry, which is a part of the NEXT program, which again is fusing together different elements of nonfiction and fiction and a little bit more experimental in its form. And the director is Haley Elizabeth Anderson. And I'm wondering if you'd be willing to read through the synopsis for Tendaberry.
[00:00:51.107] Wonder Bright: When her boyfriend goes back to Ukraine to be with his ailing father, 23-year-old Dakota anxiously navigates her precarious new reality, surviving on her own in New York City. Writer-director Haley Elizabeth Anderson's moving debut feature is an intimately scaled character study and an open-hearted love letter to Brooklyn. Tendaberry's elliptical narrative unfurls in an intricate patchwork of lyrical handheld cinematography, found footage fragments, spectral home movies, and documentary digressions. Anderson devotes the film's first movement to a tender and clear-eyed portrait of a young love before shifting her attention to Dakota's life after loss and her struggles to stay afloat and forge community with fellow migrants in a rapidly gentrifying landscape. Tendeberry sensitively charts Dakota's inner journey while also looking outward to craft an elegiac portrait of the city she calls home. In a breakout performance, Kota Johan brings Dakota's delicate but defiant voice to the foreground, both through poetic narration and lovely musical performances. And that synopsis comes to us by way of Sundance programmer, whose name we do not have, but their initials are MC.
[00:02:07.404] Kent Bye: Yeah, so this is another piece of the NEXT program. I think the last two have also been NEXT. We've got a batch of the NEXT program that we're diving into. And Tendaberry is tagged as having a nonfiction component. When I was selecting which films to watch this year at Sundance, I went through and picked any film that had the tag of nonfiction. But because this film is primarily a narrative film, it's got these documentary digressions that it said in the description. What does that mean? Well, the film is kind of split between the first person perspective of the main character of Dakota. She's talking about her own poetic first-person experience and it switches into more of a third-person perspective where we're watching all these events unfold with Dakota. But there are these moments in that more first-person narrative where she comes in and narrates. She's referencing this Nelson Sullivan archive, which is this guy who recorded, like, 1800 hours of footage in his last decade of living in New York City that has these actual documentary reflections. And so it's kind of an afterthought in this film. They call it a digression in the synopsis, which I think is apt. And so I was very curious to see how that fiction and nonfiction were blended in. But I'd say primarily this is a film that is 80 to 90% fiction. Those nonfiction elements are an aside to tell the larger story.
[00:03:31.323] Wonder Bright: Although I think also the young man that played the boyfriend from Ukraine actually did leave to go to Ukraine, and that interrupted their filming and changed the trajectory of the narrative.
[00:03:42.826] Kent Bye: Yeah, there were some unfolding events in life colliding with this piece as it's being made. And so it does have this turn after the first third where it's really focusing on that relationship, but then going into more of this coming of age story of the main character of Dakota. I'm actually going to pass it off to you to get your first impressions because this is in the Identity section. And I do think that it's a bit of a coming of age story, but curious how you start to think about this film or some of your first impressions of it.
[00:04:13.414] Wonder Bright: So I had a slightly ambivalent personal reaction to the film. For me, it goes on too long. And I'm starting there because I actually also kind of think that's the point. One of the things that I think this film does really, really well is it zooms in on one small story in the big city. And then you just come to see that that's part of the big city. You know, I think New York, of all the big cities in the world in many ways has this kind of romance associated with it, that it is the American ideal of the melting pot where you have so many different ethnicities, and so many different classes, all swarming together, and obviously that's changing, as the film, itself, is at pains to point out, as a result of gentrification, and, like, really only wealthy people can live at the center anymore. But it still contains the kernels of that romance, and I think something really wonderful about this film is that it situates a rather classic coming-of-age sequence of events where a young woman is sort of confused, and bowled over by events and circumstances in her life, but ultimately kind of carves herself out of those events, and sometimes in opposition to those circumstances. And we sort of watch her doing that. But it's watching her do that set against this backdrop of this really bejeweled, beloved landscape, this iconic New York landscape. And it situates this small individual story amongst this larger life, like, human life story, the experiment of humans on the planet. And so it's funny, you know, we recently rewatched Koyaanisqatsi, which is a classic documentary from the 80s, which very well could have been in the NEXT category. which really just kind of situates the watcher in the midst of this wild miracle of the human population across this planet. And this film kind of has that aspect to it, as if it was about one small individual life. So I don't know, like, although I found it too long and I sometimes questioned, like, I sometimes felt that it could have been edited more and I still would have got the point, I actually kind of also think that is the point. So as much as I sort of struggled against that, like, just surrendering to it is part of the process, because life is not always a neat, short soundbite. Life is sometimes the experience of tedium, and boredom, and just living through these tiny moments that make up the kaleidoscope of an entire experience.
[00:07:17.202] Kent Bye: Yeah, one of the things that I think about in this film is the different contextual domains that Dakota, the main character, is going through. She is in this 6th House expression of a job where it's really this servitude position. It's not like a career. She's just barely kind of making it. And then it turns into this romance and relationship that she has for like the first third of the film. And then her boyfriend has to go off to war. And so she doesn't hear from him. But that first third, it becomes, like, this love story, and their time together. And then after that, then she realizes that she's pregnant and dealing with a lot of fallout for what happens with that storyline. So there's a number of ways in which she's struggling to make it and trying to find these different gigs and the pressures of living on her own is pretty high. And so she has to struggle to figure out how to survive. I wanted to read this quote from Robert McKee that I've referenced a number of times. So he says in his book from 1997 called Stories, Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, he says, “true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure. The greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature." So I think part of what this quote for me means, is that as you watch stories, you see these contextual dynamics and pressure situations that people have to go through, and the choices that they make is revealing some essential part of their character. And I think sometimes the documentary form of nonfiction form, that equation of those contextual pressures are often very much tethered to actual events that have happened, or have been recorded, are trying to get to the root of the larger contextual dimensions. Whereas sometimes when I watch a film like this, it's more about this individual character of Dakota, of the choices that she's making, but it's also the contextual dimensions that is being reflected upon all the larger socioeconomic situation of being in the city. And I feel like in some ways the city is being contrasted to a time in the past from this Nelson Sullivan archive where you get a little bit about Nelson Sullivan, but really some of the most compelling aspects of what Nelson is showing is what New York City looked like from 40 years ago in the 80s. And you get this real visceral sense of how that documentary footage is reflecting the larger aesthetics, the dynamics of what it meant to live in New York City at that time. And that for me is a big reason why I'm so drawn to documentaries because it does give me a sense of not only a personal story, but also it's reflecting of the world around us and making me really understand the world around us. And in this film, it's kind of fictionalizing a lot of those elements. So those elements are still there, and we can start to break down what those elements are, but I feel like just the difference between fiction and nonfiction, for me, they're both telling stories, but for me, when I start to think about astrology as a narrative theory, sometimes fiction is more about the character traits of those individuals, and those characters, whereas the documentary can have that, but more than anything else, it's really, for me, revealing those larger contextual dynamics that are being shown in the film. And I feel like by juxtaposing that Nelson Sullivan archive with this larger story that she's telling, is helping to bridge some of those gaps between the story of the city, which is also kind of like this invisible character that is being told through the story.
[00:10:50.331] Wonder Bright: I would have to think a little bit more about what you're saying in terms of how you think of the difference between documentary and narrative. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that, but it also feels a little bit like a conversation for another day. I really like the attention that you're paying to that found footage of Nelson Sullivan in terms of how it gives us this experience of New York in a different time, and how that allows us to identify the character of Dakota as a member of her generation, in this time, in New York City. And it's so time and site specific in that way, that there are ways in which I don't feel qualified to speak to Dakota's experience because, although on some level it is a classic coming of age story, I think it's also true that Dakota's generation, she's 23 when we meet her in the film, I'm not sure how old the actress is, but she's a younger millennial, just shy of zoomerhood, basically. But this is a generation that is facing things that are radically different than what any generation has faced before, because we are experiencing a kind of globalization that was never previously possible. Technology has situated the species in a radically different place than we've ever known ourselves to be. And we have tools, and ideas, and concepts about what it even means to be human that are really mixed up with the threat of the extinction of the species in a way that is actual. So we don't know what lies ahead for her generation. So this film is allowing us to observe a coming of age story in the heart of one of the most urban developments on the planet at this time. And that, I think, makes it a really valuable artifact of its time and its self-awareness. And being that is part of its charm, as I believe that is part of the charm of Dakota's generation.
[00:13:17.678] Kent Bye: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And when I think about the signatures of this piece, I think there's a lot of saturnine barriers and blocks - that she's facing a lot of constriction. She's working against the financial pressures of surviving. And so there's a lot about the 2nd House of resources and money, and the 6th House of her jobs, that she's going to, some about her relationships, and you have her relationships to her coworkers, and her friends that she's hanging out with. So some 11th House themes. And then by the end, you get her actually going back home to the Dominican Republic. And so she's got this kind of more 4th House getting back to her roots and family and connecting to other dimensions of that part of our identity of what is being expressed when she's outside of New York City context and back in the Dominican Republic. So I feel like there's this kind of blend between the first-person narrative that you're hearing more of her direct phenomenological experiences and her reflections on things. And there's a lot of poetry in this film that she's taking this poetic take, and reflecting on grace and time and the pastime and her own experiences of watching this Nelson Sullivan archive. And then we move into this more objective perspective and third-person perspective watching all of her actions as she's really struggling to survive in many respects, doing whatever she can to kind of make it. So yeah, I'd love to hear some of your thoughts of the significations that you are seeing in the film.
[00:14:48.194] Wonder Bright: And for me, the overriding signatures are the signatures that happened to us between the ages of 21 and 24, generally. So that would be the third quarter Saturn square, and the first quarter opening Uranus square. And that happens around 21 for most of us. And then at 24, we have our second Jupiter return. So it's only been in the last century that astrologers are beginning to map out these ideas of this sort of, like, coming of age life transits that happen to everybody when they turn those ages. And it's important to note that this is a modern concept because traditional astrologers weren't thinking about Uranus, and also a lot of people weren't living past 30. You know, a lot of the preoccupation with, like, predicting death in ancient times had to do with whether or not this baby was even going to like live long enough to become an apprentice at 13 years of age. You know, is this girl child going to bear children? They were concerned with completely different things. So the idea of a, quote, “coming of age story” is a really far-fetched realm for astrology back in the day. So we're using a relatively modern astrological language to describe a relatively modern phenomenon. And having said that, I think it's pretty well established at this point that that is kind of, like, how in this last century, or maybe even just in the last 50 years or so, it describes the space where young people are leaving home. You know, this is a Western preoccupation, but in the West, this is how we would think about it, is that young people are leaving home around the ages of between 16 and 18, and then they're out in the world, and in their early 20s, they're kind of forging their own identity independent of their family of origin for the first time. And so you get this third quarter Saturn square where Saturn has to do with your limitations and authority, and how you might define yourself and your own authority now that you're no longer under someone else's authority. And Uranus has to do with forging your own identity, your own individual markers, your own, like, when I think of the phrase OOAK, one of a kind, on Etsy, I always think about Uranus. I always think about how, like, people on TikTok and, you know, social media these days, we're really trying to, like, carve out our own individual expression. So it's a really modern preoccupation, a very Americanized version of, like, the cult of the individual. But because it's common, it is useful for thinking about when it comes time to watching a film like this, and when it comes time to talking to young people growing up in the West with this sort of cultural understanding. And so Dakota's story in this film really follows along those lines. She's trying to forge her own sense of authority in the world, the Saturn Square. She's really trying to forge her own unique identity and her independent spark, her first quarter opening square of Uranus. And she's in between that and she's also about to go through her second Jupiter return, which, you know, the astrologer, Sam Reynolds, is at pains to point out to people is often not a great period of time. You know that Jupiter returns, although we have this idea that Jupiter is this planet of optimism and windfalls and joy, it also it depends how it's situated in your chart, because oftentimes It's bringing a lot of focus to an area that's deeply painful. And it's the second time that it's happening when we hit 24. So it's often the case for people that that's a moment where there's a little bit of a turn in their lives, where on the one hand, they've kind of consolidated something of their identity, and on the other hand, they may not be super happy about the fact that that part of their identity has been solidified. But it's this space where it's that beginning bit where we go from being young and now we're entering into true adulthood and it's impossible to ignore any longer. You're no longer going to be completely young with your whole future ahead of you. You're actually in your future now. And that's the process that we watched Dakota go through in this film. And we watch her struggling with it. We watch how uncomfortable it is. And some of us may remember how uncomfortable it was for us when we went through it at the time. And the thing that's crucial about the way that this film is situated, is that it's situating Dakota as a young mixed race woman who's in a dense city population, trying to understand herself in the context of this, like, extreme, like, teeming mass of humanity all around her in this day and age. So her questions are not the same questions I asked when I came of age. And her questions, in many ways, are much wiser and coming from a place of understanding her context in a way that I couldn't possibly have understood it when I was 21, coming of age in a small white town in 1991.
[00:20:31.309] Kent Bye: Yeah, as you're elaborating on all those transits that are happening at that time period from 21 to 24, it reminds me of how Saturn astrologically is really marking a life into three main chapters. When you're born up until 29 and a half, when your first Saturn return, in some ways you're still becoming an adult and you're not really setting your sights as to where you're going to go until you're 29, 30 years old at that Saturn return. And that's a point that Laurel Nalbandian has described to me as realizing that you've either climbed the right mountain and you're ready to go on to your career, or you've been climbing the wrong mountain and now all of a sudden you have to decide that you need to go on another path. Then the midlife is from like 30 up until like 59 years old or so, and that's the second Saturn return, and that's from the midlife entering into elderhood. So the fact that it's at 21 years old or so, that third quarter square, kind of the metaphor of the new moon, of the new moon, first quarter square. Full moon third quarter square, and then the new moon again that's the full cycle, so this is the third quarter square, which means that it's kind of a check-in point to see as you're going towards that Saturn return, like, are you on the right path towards having all the structures of your life in place? And I feel like this is a film where a lot of that is kind of falling apart in Dakota's life, like those aspects of those structures are actually disintegrating. Like I had mentioned before, that kind of saturnine themes of boundaries, restriction, and limitations that she has to face throughout the course of this film, all those fated aspects of her life that are beyond her control, where the fates are kind of like the structures and systems of the outside world that there's nothing that her free will can necessarily do to overcome some of those fates. She has to surrender to those fates in a way. So I feel like there's a lot of this film where she's forced to surrender and accept the realities of her situation. So there's a lot of that grief that I think is going throughout the course of this film as well. But if you were to think about Tendaberry in terms of prescribing it as a remedial measure, who would you prescribe Tendaberry to?
[00:22:38.240] Wonder Bright: Well, I would prescribe it for the people who identify with the signatures that I just outlined, either because they're in the heat of it themselves currently and they're between the ages of 20 and 25, or because that was a period in your life that was really crucial and you want to have a sense of realigning yourself with your experiences from that period of time. And also if you have people in your life that you love that are young, you know, this is a good window into what it might be like to be coming of age in this era. So I would prescribe it for people who are going through those transits in your early 20s, or people who love people who are going through those transits. And I would especially prescribe it for those people who are going through those transits and experiencing losses in the way that you just detailed. Because that's actually often the case, that those are periods where we are confronted with what we thought we were going to do. Part of coming of age has to do with, you've got this idea when you're young and you're operating against authority. Like once that authority is out of the way, well, it's going to be clear sailing and I'm going to show them, and I'm going to prove myself. But when the rubber actually hits the road and you are 21 in this day and age, that's when your journey really begins. And now you're still fighting against like this vision that you have, this, like, structure of authority, this Saturnine idea. And you're still trying to forge your identity, but now it's on you, and you can't really blame other people for what happens. And so when the fates hit you, there aren't intermediaries in the guise of parents or older people to get between you and those things. It's kind of on you. And for a lot of us, that's really difficult because part of that process of self-definition then becomes exactly that quote that you read earlier, that your true character is forged in experiences that are difficult. And so that's sort of often the space that we occupy in that period of our lives where we finally have the chance to become the person that we dreamed that we could be, and yet we still get thwarted and now we can no longer blame it on this or that circumstance. The world becomes larger, and we become smaller in relation to it. And Tendaberry actually offers a really powerful way through that by situating Dakota amongst the many instead of just the one.
[00:25:30.492] Kent Bye: Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like this film is in the NEXT category. So the way that it's telling the story does have these experimental ways of how everything is coming together. And when I think about what I want to bear witness to in this film, I really resonated with the sections where I hear Dakota's voice from a first person perspective, and I'm able to hear her reflections of digging into this Nelson Sullivan archive and some of her thoughts about it. And I loved seeing that footage. And so there's kind of, like, these montage sequences, especially at the beginning and the end of the film where they dive into it. And it's kind of spread throughout the course of the film as well. The synopsis described it as these documentary discursions. And I think that's an accurate way of describing it. They're kind of sprinkled throughout. I was just fascinated to learn that this was actual footage from Nelson Sullivan. He actually did exist. He actually recorded around 1800 hours of footage in his last decade. And so he's documenting the rise and fall of all these different figures in the gay community in New York City. And so, yeah, just to see some of those glimpses, but also to see that juxtaposition between New York City - because, like I said, New York City is a bit of an invisible character there - are a level of how the fates are impacting Dakota in this film. And so just the way to draw that out and by using those documentary discursions, I think was a really interesting form to kind of show how you can blend these two forms of storytelling together in a way that I just found really quite fascinating.
[00:27:02.734] Wonder Bright: Yeah, I want to bear witness to the young actress who plays Dakota, Kota Johan, and her beautiful singing voice and her music, which the director Haley Elizabeth Anderson really wove throughout the piece. And it brought Dakota, the character, to life in this really wonderful way. Music actually ended up being a central way through the film because it's central to Dakota's understanding of the world around her and it's a way for her to interact with the world around her. She's a busker on subways and so she’ll, like, enter a car and she'll be singing and then she'll collect money and those sequences were some of my favorites in the film and Kota Johan has a really beautiful voice and the way that Anderson shot her was just from this really loving observational standpoint where you really have this experience that her voice is coming through. Like, I hope I see Kota Johan in something else in the future. And if I do, she will always be Dakota to me on some integral way because of the way that her musicality carries this film.
[00:28:19.871] Kent Bye: Awesome. Well, that's all that we have for today. And I just want to thank you for listening to the Story All the Way Down podcast. And if you enjoy the podcast, then please do, spread the word, and tell your friends, and consider signing up on the newsletter at storyallthewaydown.com. Thanks for listening. Wonder Bright: Thank you.
