Filmmaker Isabel Sandoval works delicately, crafting lingering portraits of the love shared between her protagonists: a trans woman caring for a young boy in a small town, or an interracial couple eliding miscegenation laws during the Great Depression. Drawing from Almodóvar, Wong Kar-wai, Fassbinder and Bergman, Sandoval broke through in 2019 with Lingua Franca, a sensual, moving feature she wrote, directed and starred in. And she won a €10,000 prize at this year’s Berlinale to produce her next film, Tropical Gothic. Having recently moved from New York to North Carolina, Sandoval is adjusting to a slower pace of life when we speak. 

NATHAN MA: Many of your films center on the labor of caregiving. Why is that? 

ISABEL SANDOVAL: I think it’s both cultural, as a Filipina filmmaker,...