![Sarah leans against her father's shoulder, her hair falling in her face. He faces away from the camera and we see only his back.](https://blogs.iu.edu/establishingshot/files/2022/11/Thou-Wast-4-1.png)
From the first frames of the film, Josephine Decker’s 2014 feature Thou Wast Mild and Lovely merges violence and play. Sarah (Sophie Traub) chases her father Jeremiah (Robert Longstreet) across the lawn, jabbing him with a decapitated hen. They giggle and run at each other, getting blood on their clothes. When they’re done playing, the handheld… Read more »