Alum India Donaldson’s “Scrappy Little Film” Is Making a Big Impact

On December 4, Vassar students attended a screening of the critically acclaimed debut film Good One, directed by India Donaldson ’07. The film follows a young woman, Sam, her father, and his friend on a weekend-long camping trip.

Filmed in the Catskills, Good One confronts the complexities of familial relationships and the patriarchal structures that can infect them. It is an unwavering yet careful critique of gender roles, generational divides, and victim-blaming. The film was shown at competitions like Sundance and Cannes, and has since garnered accolades for Donaldson’s masterful invocation of tension and her remarkable cinematography.

New York Times film critic Alissa Wilkinson named Donaldson’s endeavor among the 10 best films of 2024, noting that the filmmaker’s “ear for dialogue and eye for detail open a whole world out on that mountain trail.” And Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote that Good One is “genuinely one of the best show-don’t-tell performances in modern American cinema.”

Following the screening, a Q&A session was led by fellow alum and Sundance programmer Ash Hoyle ’18. Students asked Donaldson questions about how she got into the industry and her process for making her work. Donaldson told the audience, “I really designed this movie to be makeable. I wanted to be able to piece it together in a truly microbudget, independent way.” Her drive, she said, was to simply get the film “out into the world” and see what happened.

Donaldson also reflected on how her time at Vassar had shaped the development of Good One. “I think my experience here is…‘baked in’ in a really special way. I studied English, and the focus here [was] on critical thought. I think the four years I spent at Vassar were the most I’ve spent engaged in that sort of thing my whole life.” Donaldson went on to say that Vassar had helped her develop a “dual-brain for watching a film critically while also just enjoying being along for the ride.” She highlighted the importance of infusing that perspective in her work.

Donaldson said she was pleased to receive such a wide range of responses to the film—some audiences found the hiking trip to be funny, while others almost took the film as a psychological thriller. She was surprised to find that her work had touched the hearts of many fathers of girls the same age as Sam. Donaldson was also happy to discover that Good One had resonated with the audience at Cannes—“maybe something we went through some years ago when the #MeToo Movement exploded. There’s that energy in France now, and it’s the same sort of energy I brought to this project.”

Donaldson also praised distributors that prioritize indie projects like Good One, and said that getting movies other than blockbusters into the theater can change the landscape of the industry. “My personal opinion is that quieter, smaller movies that maybe demand your attention more benefit more from the theater experience,” she noted.

The event ended on a high note, with both speakers thanking students for their interest in Donaldson’s “scrappy little film.”