Skip to Content
Talkhouse home
Talkhouse home
Film

Short Film Premiere: Sin Ultra

Filmmaker Amanda Kramer debuts her latest short film, a mesmerizing mix of dance and cinema pondering the disposability of female bodies.

10:00 AM EDT on September 2, 2020

God, do we love to dispose of women’s bodies. Nearly naked, tortured and torn apart, sliced open, spilling out. “Disposable” is the right word, isn’t it, in their ripped tank tops and tiny shorts, their desperate lacy lingerie, one sad stiletto missing, maybe a pinky finger gone? From someone, the word “penetrated” is spoken with the solemnity it … deserves? Thank you, Cinema, for reminding us visually that women are murdered en masse and left untouched for their glamorous photo shoots. Pictures later to be scrubbed, through. Relived and relived. Evidence!

I like to imagine there’s a factory that logs these corpses, toe tagging and categorizing. Data entry for our film's forgotten female dead, in overwhelming numbers. One after the other, day in, day out. On the wall, there’s a time clock. At noon, a lunch break. Robotic gestures, people as machinery, repetition without much time for critical thinking – can’t have critical thinking or the assembly line won’t function properly. Fair enough.

Maybe a half-dead girl slips in the pile? After being stabbed, choked, penetrated, she inexplicably lives. There’s no going home – her death fetishized, her killer caught, her avenger (with his/her own dead child or raped wife or raped dead wife child) at a sort of peace, her avenger’s naysayers proven wrong, her other suspicious friends and neighbors proven innocent(ish), her pimp handed a nasty street justice – there’s only getting to work. At the factory. Logging the lady deceased.

Anyway, that’s a personal thought experiment. These are cardboard sets and cardboard shoulder pads. These are actors I know and clothing from my closet. These are polaroids for Denzel and Angelina’s bone collection. And these are sounds by the incredible Purelle.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

Related Stories

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay Goldstein

The July Talk duo, who can be seen starring in the new romantic comedy Middle Life, go deep about life, love, loss, creativity and more.

Out of Print is Back in Print!

Julia Marchese on her movie theater documentary returning 10 years on, and why it’s more resonant than ever.

July 27, 2026

How Erotic Cinema Set Me Free

Corrin Evans, whose feature directorial debut, Corpus, premieres at Fantasia this weekend, on swapping religion for cinematic sensuality.

July 24, 2026

The Numb Stage of Nymphomania

Writer-director Georgia Bernstein on hypersexualization, classic erotic thrillers, In the Mood for Love and her debut feature, Night Nurse.

July 22, 2026

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Abel Ferrara

The legendary writer-director opens up about everything from Buddhism and bad acid trips to social media addiction and sobriety.

The Stories We Invent Before We Have Language

Rhythm is a Dancer’s writer-director-star Lauren Caster on donor conception, language and a lifelong search for belonging.

July 17, 2026