Creative Nonfiction

Ella is a college student, but she's more focused on her pseudo-romance with her dorm mate Chris than on the screenplay she's supposed to be finishing for her Creative Writing class. Reality and fiction are indistinguishable as she tries and fails to differentiate her script from her increasingly awkward social life.

"Terrific!... It's amazingly good... Creative Nonfiction is a wonderfully perceptive study of a group of college friends and roommates, mainly young women but a few young men, and (this is the miraculous part) a few minutes into it, magic happens. It gets to the place of truth and stays there. Lena Dunham has created a group of young college roommates and friends and lovers who look, sound, and act like people we know -- people like us or our friends, people with the same problems and concerns we and they have. That may not sound like much, but it sets Creative Nonfiction apart from 99 out of 100 other films I see. Film is still a mystery to me... It can be almost impossible to say what makes one movie work and another not work, but whatever magic it is, Lena Dunham has it."
--Ray Carney, author of Cassavetes on Cassavetes

"The funny, smart, poignant universe of Lena Dunham developed first through her shorts and the Nerve.com Web series Tight Shots, but a distillation of her concerns is perhaps best seen in her feature debut. Creative Nonfiction lives within realms of the humorous and bittersweet, exploring without bashfulness or shame the difficulty and absurdity of growing up."
--Short End Magazine

"Lena Dunham's feature debut balances on her bold performance as "Ella," a witty and impulsive writing major working on her first screenplay and her first time... Dunham's painfully accurate depiction of the undergraduate gauntlet may make you wince with fluorescent memories. Dunham's inspired ending torques this short film into a freaky, funny manifesto announcing a conspicuous new voice - one that takes no prisoners."
--Rebecca Beegle, Program Guide, SXSW Film Conference and Festival, 2009

"Lena, I love your movie. You have IT. I'm sorry again, I really can't believe how awful I was. It's really ancient at this point and I know it doesn't really matter but you are a truly wonderful person and I wish I had it over again."
--The Guy That The Movie Is About
(read less)

Ella is a college student, but she's more focused on her pseudo-romance with her dorm mate Chris than on the screenplay she's supposed to be finishing for her Creative Writing class. Reality and fiction are indistinguishable as she tries and fails to differentiate her script from her increasingly awkward social life.

"Terrific!... It's amazingly good... Creative Nonfiction is a wonderfully perceptive study of a group of college friends and roommates, mainly young women but a few young men, and... (read more)