Founded in 2015 by actress Geena Davis and ARC Entertainment executive Trevor Drinkwater, the Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) is an annual festival held in Bentonville, Arkansas that shines a particular spotlight on traditionally underrepresented voices in film. Championing women, LGBTQ+, and racialized artists and artists with disabilities, BFF has made a marked commitment to enact change in an industry that has historically catered towards, and provided disproportionate opportunities for, artists of a singular demographic (that is, straight, white, able-bodied, and male). In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Davis reflected on BFF granting "an opportunity to examine [diverse representation] on camera and behind the camera."

BFF's in-person festivities ran from June 22-26, while its virtual programming is set to continue until July 3. Kicking off the festival was the experimental anthology movie The Seven Faces of Jane. Produced by Roman Coppola, The Seven Faces of Jane is, as its opening title cards state, "a blind collaboration" between a group of filmmakers. Also a road trip movie, it is inspired by the art method known as "exquisite corpse," which involves the assembly of seemingly disparate parts in order to create one larger piece.

Indeed, Coppola invited eight different filmmakers — Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong (both from the cast of Community), Boma Iluma, Ryan Heffington, Xan Cassavetes, Julian J. Acosta, Alex Takacs, and Gia Coppola — to each direct a chapter in the film with little to no knowledge of what the others were doing. Other than following a basic premise and certain ground rules — there's a character named Jane (played by Jacobs), and she's driving in her car — each filmmaker was given total freedom and control over the stories they wanted to tell. "I wanted to set the boundary that there were no boundaries," says the producer in his official statement for the film.

Related: 8 Must-Watch Movies From Women Directors

Gia Coppola's Thoughts on Being at BFF

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In our interview after The Seven Faces of Jane's BFF opening screening, Gia Coppola remarked how "special" it was to see the film with an audience, seeing in particular their responses to different aspects of the film. More than just being with an audience, of course, Coppola says, "The added bonus is that, because this was a COVID production and [because of] the way it was constructed, [with the filmmakers] all having to be separated, to finally come together — there's some of us here [in Bentonville] today — we get to hang out and talk about each other's pieces and the experience of making it."

According to Variety, The Seven Faces of Jane was shot over the span of 15 days, with each filmmaker given two days to shoot their respective chapters. "It's all so surprising," Coppola says of seeing at the BFF screening just how different each chapter was from the others. "I think that's what's so fun about this. [...] We all have such unique, distinct voices."