Meet the Founder
Dr. Vanessa V. Rodriguez Vargas
PsyaD, LMHC, MCCS (she/her)
Founder and C.E.O.
“I wanted to create a space where a clinician, a novelist, and a physicist could all talk about the same film and disagree, while valuing philosophical opposition.”
Dr. Rodriguez founded Filmanalytic out of a simple frustration: the most interesting conversations about films were happening in fragments — in clinical rooms, seminar corridors, even walks to the MBTA — but never in the same place at the same time.
Her vision was to create an intellectually magnanimous space: one where expertise is offered rather than performed, where disagreement is hospitality, and where a person with no academic training can ask the question that will delightfully reframe the whole evening. As a result, "Filmanalytic" was born. It aims to emphasize the value of each film is not about being considered "good" or "bad" for the audience, it is more so reliant on the analysis of the induction, or elicited reaction.
She started an Instagram account, @Filmanalytic, in 2023 while writing her dissertation on the intersection of psychoanalysis, film, and existentialism. Dr. Rodriguez used it as a means of exploring the dynamic of the objective transference and countertransference; the interpersonal narrative that is being told in the film. In the hopes of acknowledging the impact that subjective transference and countertransference has on the same film; how one's own personal history, and positionality can, and will, influence the subjective interpretation of any given film.
As founder, she selects each film, invites the panelists, and shapes the arc of the night — the screening, the discussion, the table. Her aim is not to teach cinema but to use it: as the most reliable way to get a group of strangers to talk honestly about the ubiquity and idiosyncrasies of humanity.
The inaugural evening arrives on Saturday, October 3. Those on the mailing list heard about the first film, the first panel and the first room before anyone else.
C.O.O.
Damla Tuzcu, LMHC
Psychotherapist & psychoanalyst-in-training
Damla Tuzcu is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst-in-training whose work and intellectual interests center on the ways psychoanalytic thinking can extend beyond the consulting room and into our encounters with culture, relationships, and everyday life.
Damla met Filmanalytic founder Dr. Vanessa V. Rodriguez Vargas during their psychoanalytic training at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, where they discovered a shared interest in applied psychoanalysis and in creating spaces where psychoanalytic thought can enter into conversation with other disciplines.
Her involvement with Filmanalytic grew from a shared excitement about the possibilities of cinema as such a space. A film can be approached as more than something to interpret: it can become a shared object through which different ways of seeing, thinking, feeling, and knowing can meet. Psychoanalysis may illuminate one dimension; history, philosophy, music, politics, visual art, or lived experience may reveal another.
For Damla, the pleasure lies in allowing these perspectives to accumulate rather than requiring one to prevail. The silver screen becomes a kind of canvas upon which different lenses can be layered — each altering what becomes visible, what can be spoken about, and perhaps even how we relate to what we have seen.
At Filmanalytic, she is interested in cultivating precisely this kind of encounter: one in which a film does not conclude when the credits roll, but continues to unfold through the conversation that follows.
LMHC in private practice · PsyaD candidate, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
C.F.O.
Douglas Mackliff, MA
Business owner & psychoanalyst-in-training
Douglas Mackliff is a business owner and psychoanalyst-in-training with more than a decade of experience managing a successful online business and seven years of psychoanalytic training. His background in business helps support the organizational and financial development of Filmanalytic, while his clinical experience informs its commitment to meaningful dialogue and community engagement.
Douglas's therapeutic work has included supporting older adults in independent living settings, working with children and adolescents facing emotional and behavioral challenges, and providing psychoanalytic treatment to adults. Across these experiences, he has developed a deep appreciation for the value of listening, curiosity, and understanding different perspectives.
Douglas met the Filmanalytic Founder through the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis (BGSP). Their shared passion for psychoanalysis and film sparked ongoing conversations that eventually became the foundation for this nonprofit. Those discussions demonstrated how powerful it can be to encounter another person's interpretation of a film and remain open to where that exchange may lead.
For Douglas, film is more than entertainment. While psychoanalysis can illuminate unconscious themes, motivations, and emotional experiences within a film, he believes artistic, technical, and cultural perspectives are equally valuable. Filmanalytic aims to create a space where these diverse viewpoints can come together, enriching both the viewing experience and the conversations that follow.
Douglas hopes to help foster a welcoming community in which every voice can be heard. Through thoughtful discussion, participants are encouraged to explore their own ideas, engage with the perspectives of others, and discover new ways of understanding themselves, film, and the world around them, which can help inspire another to do the same.
PsyaD candidate, Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis