Jennifer Reeves, long known to PFA audiences for her lush, lively, and inventive avant-garde shorts, has completed her first feature, an experimental portrait of a writer, Robyn, played by poet Lisa Jarnot. Drawing on her own personal story, Reeves depicts a young woman who is increasingly isolated, haunted by past traumas, unable to remember whole chunks of her life. From the confines of her New York apartment, she overhears disturbing interactions, yet spends more and more time inside. On her TV, the U.S. invades Iraq and cuts itself off from much of the world. Filmed over many years, exquisitely shot in high-contrast black-and-white film and digital video, The Time We Killed shifts between psychological and political realities, underscoring disturbing resonances. Reeves described her process as “gathering and responding to the world, almost like I was creating a home movie for a fictional character.”

Winner, FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin International Film Festival; Best New York Narrative Feature, Tribeca Film Festival.