Eliza Hittman’s powerful debut feature It Felt Like Love tells the story of Lila (Gina Piersanti), a fourteen-year-old spending a hot summer in a blue-collar Brooklyn neighborhood far removed from the bustling city. Awkward, lonely, and often playing the third wheel, Lila is determined to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. She fixates on Sammy, a tough older guy, when she hears that “he’ll sleep with anyone.” Deluded in her romantic pursuit, Lila tries desperately to insert herself into Sammy’s gritty world, but in doing so she puts herself into a dangerously vulnerable situation.

Named one of Indiewire’s “Best Indies of 2014 So Far, It Felt Like Love is unusual in that it depicts a coming-of-age story from the point-of-view of a girl, one who is neither wealthy nor poor. In it, Hittman illustrates what she calls “outtakes from childhood: the lonely moments, the surges of false confidence, and small humiliating details that are often buried in our memories….My work similarly emphasizes the transitional moments for young women, characters that are highly underrepresented in film.”

“Made for a song and partly shot in Hittman’s parents’ basement, with a cast picked up mostly from local dance studios, high schools, and the beach, this atmospheric, almost painfully observant film debut captures an adolescent’s languorously unstructured summer….Hittman contemplates the tyranny of peers — and the double standards of boys who want to play the field, but want their sex partners to be virgins.” — NPR Recommended review

New York Times Critics’ Pick

“Conjures a world I was sorry to leave. I didn’t want the movie to end” — The New Yorker

“First-time feature filmmaker Hittman, working with the talented DP Sean Porter has a natural way with visuals that communicates the curiosity running rabid through the blood of summer-idle teenagers.” — Thompson on Hollywood

“What makes It Felt Like Love worth seeing is Hittman’s ability to place you inside Lila’s head, and to allow you to observe the story working itself out without judging or condemning any of the characters…” — Playback: STL

“Enough With Those Nymphets: Eliza Hittman’s Heroine Is Nothing Like Lolita” — NYT Interview with Eliza Hittman

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It Felt Like Love
NR – 82 min – Tickets $8 – Get tickets online
Fri, May 16: 7:15, 9:15 p.m.
Sat, May 17: 7:15, 9:15
Sun, May 18: 4:45, 7:15
Mon, May 19: 7:15
Tues, May 20: 7:15
Wed, May 21: 7:15
Thurs, May 22: 7:15, 9:15