Writing & Directing

Sympathy for the Devil (In Post. Coming 2024)

WANDA (2019)

Wanda's back in town. Director, writer, editor, producer: Helena Holland Breger. Starring: Kitty Mortland and Jacob Bergman. Shot on location in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and SUNY Purchase campus. Official Selection BLOW-UP Arthouse Film Festival 2019. Official Selection New York Lift Off Film Festival 2020.

Director’s Statement:

“Wanda” was born out of two questions: 1) What happens to a woman who has committed a percieved social transgression? 2) What is it like to be the mother of a male child in a patriarchal world? Thus, the character Wanda was brought to life. We explore two days in her life as she attempts to reconnect with her teenage son after she left him and his father some time ago. Presented as neither likeable or dislikeable, the audience is left to judge Wanda’s character on their own, potentially a challenge in a world where the moral categories for women are limited to “good” or “bad”. “Wanda” is an effort to bring strong female representation to the silver screen and a piece committed to undoing sex stereotypes and deconstructing the convention of male dominance in the family. Being committed to strong female representation not only on screen but also behind the scenes, over half of my crew members were women of various backgrounds.

LOBBY (2018)

One night, a woman inexplicably can't get through her lobby. What will she do? Written/Directed/Shot/Edited by Helena Holland Breger. Assistant Director and Additional Cinematography Miquel Enrigue. Starring Callie Jean Lewis. Also with Brian Breger. Special thanks to Nyssa Chow, Charlotte Glynn, Brian Breger, Anne Daniel, Marina Breger, Pablo Meyer, and Howard Rappaport. Shot on location in Brooklyn and Manhattan NYC. Official Selection BLOW-UP Arthouse Film Festival 2018. Honorable Mention from Experimental Forum in 2o19.

Director’s Statement:

In “Lobby”, a young woman finds it impossible to make it past her lobby to go upstairs to her apartment. Initially suspended in her vestibule, she forces herself further inside after being goaded by her doorman’s condescending assistance. But an unexpected encounter will make the lobby too harrowing for her to cross. The woman retreats from her building to find safety, while still preserving her own dignity and sense of self.

Though it evokes the surrealism of Luis Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” and the early works of David Lynch, “Lobby” forms part of a new cinematic movement, one the filmmaker has coined Cinema of Displeasure. This movement challenges audiences to see that although filmmakers construct reality, it is presented as truth. In “Lobby”, the filmmaker sets up certain narrative expectations but holds back from the audience and lends cinematic meaning to elements that are imbued with nothing. It is also patent that “Lobby” has roots in the absurd, where it may be difficult to understand whether or not the world the protagonist inhabits has any identifiable meaning. 

Finally, barriers built for women are often insidious, because they are cleverly disguised to seem like home. In “Lobby”, the woman can no longer withstand the false, artificially illuminated world that was built for her, so she rejects it and ventures out into the dark unknown. Though her choice may baffle us, she feels content only once she has abandoned her safety for freedom.

THE GRANT (2017)

Breger’s “Freshman Film” from SUNY Purchase, exploring desire, jealousy, anxiety, and, of course, writer’s block. As a parameter of the assignment, there is not a word of dialogue, but still a rich world of sound. Starring singer-songwriter and actress Greta Keating.

200 FEET (2016)

Made in 2016 but not released until now, "200 Feet" by Helena Holland Breger is a short art film looking at feet in an unlikely way. Shot using the Bolex camera with 200 feet of 16mm Kodak film and developed at Cinelab Inc. Made as a part of the SUNY Purchase film conservatory.

SPARE CHANGE (2015)

Short film directed by Helena Holland Breger in 2015. Screened at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival Our City my Story.

THE BUZZ OF RUBY JOY (2015)

Short portrait documentary about Ruby-Joy Baron directed and edited by HHB. Selected for Tribeca Film Festival Our City my Story 2015.

SWEEP (2014)

A dispirited high school janitor is newly inspired. Short film directed by Helena Holland Breger at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts high school.