Riley Hooper
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Sundance Documentary Fund!

08.01.2024

I am honored and over the moon overjoyed to share that Vestibule, the feature documentary I have been working on for the past 8.5 years, is a Sundance Documentary Fund grantee.  

Vestibule is a documentary about my journey with a vulvovaginal condition called vestibulodynia. It took me eight years, six doctors, three physical therapists, and two surgeries to be able to have pain-free intercourse. For nearly a decade of my life, I desperately sought answers and a cure, hiding what I was going through from everyone except a few people. 

I decided to tell my story as a way to explore the questions and themes that arose from this experience — of living in a body that betrayed me, navigating a healthcare system that dismissed me, and a culture that undermined my agency over my body and sexuality. The film uses stylized dance sequences to tell my story and explore the stories of my grandmother and great-grandmother, their own relationships with their bodies, and a maternal lineage of shame and resilience. What begins as a singular mission to have pain-free sex becomes a multi-generational story about sexual health, pleasure, and agency. 

Our entire team is so grateful to Sundance for their support of this very personal film. With this funding, we are able to start filming the stylized dance sequences which we’ve been dreaming of for years. Stay tuned for exciting updates!

We won!

11.02.2023

I'm pleased to report that producer Bryn Silverman and I just returned from Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic where we pitched our feature VESTIBULE at the U.S. New Visions Forum and we won the pitch! And we wore matching Manifest Vestibule jumpsuits!

Tags: vestibule

Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: US Docs

10.12.2023

Excited to announce that my feature VESTIBULE was selected for the 2023 US Docs New Visions Forum at Ji.hlava Film Festival! Producer Bryn Silverman and I will be heading to the Czech Republic to pitch the film at the end of October!

billboard!

10.09.2023

Spotted this billboard for the Alzheimer's Association campaign I directed and had to get out of the car to snap a few photos! 

Tribeca Creator's Market

06.10.2023

Super excited to announce that my producer Caitlin Mae Burke and I will be participating in the 2023 Tribeca Creator's Market with my feature film debut Vestibule!

edit retreat

01.09.2023

just returned from a month spent out at the oregon coast, where I finished the first rough cut of my feature, and made friends with a beautiful heron. 

Tags: vestibule

bmc

11.02.2021

so grateful 

to have spent the last month

surrounded by all this beauty

at a residency at the wonderful blue mountain center :) 

Tags: vestibule

puppies and ice cream

07.16.2021

puppies + ice cream + friends = a good day on set!