Tendaberry. 2024. USA. Written and directed by Haley Elizabeth Anderson. With Koda Johan, Sarae Adams, Janice Dias, Mike Donovan. DCP courtesy Tribeca Films. 115 min.
A striking portrait of a young woman’s life told in four parts, Tendaberry is the dazzling, unconventional debut feature of Haley Elizabeth Anderson. Set in post-pandemic South Brooklyn, the film focuses on Dakota (Koda Johan), a 22-year-old Dominican American woman trying to find her way during her first year in New York City. She finds stability with a young man from Coney Island named Yuri, but when he goes home to Ukraine for a family illness, the war begins and he is called in a different direction. Dakota is left to navigate some hard realities on her own, from pregnancy to finances to personal safety. Tendaberry is so intimate it can feel like a documentary—in fact, it includes archival footage from artist Nelson Sullivan, who documented New York’s 1980s queer nightlife, as part of a beautiful love letter to Brooklyn, in all its dark and wonderful ways.