By turns funny, absurd, passionate, and sad, Marlene Rhein’s Let Me Tell You a Story is one of the more touching evocations of a missed romantic connection that we’ve seen. Composed of intercutting monologues spoken by five very different women (all of them played by Rhein herself, believe it or not) in five very different settings, it says more about love, lust, and loneliness in nine short minutes than most feature-length romantic comedies put together. A Long Island native, Rhein shot the film in London in 2000 during downtime from a busy career as a music-video director (she did Tupac’s last video “All About You” and Amy Winehouse’s “Fuck Me Pumps,” among others). It won a number of awards and helped get her on Filmmaker Magazine’s Top 25 to Watch list. She recently finished her first feature film The Big Shot-Caller, which was shot in and around New York and will be premiering in the coming months. Needless to say, we’re excited to see it. —Bilge Ebiri