For now, Slow Love continues its weekly podcast run—but Portolan has clearly signaled that her lens is widening. From ear to eye, from swipe to stillness, she’s documenting not just how we date, but how we dare to linger.
Portolan recently stepped from behind the microphone to the red carpet (albeit a modest, thoughtful one) for a one-night-only film event in Sydney. The gathering, titled wasn’t a blockbuster premiere but a curated evening of short films and panel discussion, designed to visualize the very themes she explores weekly on the podcast.
The emotional core of the night came during the Q&A, when an audience member asked whether slow love is a privilege reserved for those not exhausted by economic precarity. Portolan’s response was characteristically nuanced. “That’s the question,” she admitted. “Slow love isn’t about having endless time. It’s about a qualitative shift—choosing depth over data points. It’s harder when you’re tired. But it’s also when you need it most.” slow love podcast co-host lisa portolan film event
The event, held at the intimate Ritz Cinema in Randwick, sold out within 48 hours—a testament to Portolan’s growing influence beyond academia. “We talk about slow love as a practice: being present, vulnerable, and intentional,” Portolan told the audience before the screening. “But words only go so far. Cinema forces you to sit with discomfort, with silence, with the pause. And the pause is where slow love lives.”
In an era of swiping, ghosting, and micro-chronological relationship mapping, the concept of “slow love” feels almost radical. For Dr. Lisa Portolan, academic, author, and co-host of the hit podcast Slow Love , the antidote to digital dating burnout isn’t just a talking point—it’s now a moving image. For now, Slow Love continues its weekly podcast
The evening featured three short films from Australian female directors, each exploring a different facet of modern intimacy: the anxiety of the unanswered text, the choreography of a first kiss after a dating-app match, and the quiet dissolution of a marriage not with a bang, but with a series of ignored notifications.
Here’s a feature-style piece covering , co-host of the Slow Love podcast, and her recent film event. Title: Slow Love, Fast Frames: Lisa Portolan Brings Intimacy Studies to the Silver Screen The gathering, titled wasn’t a blockbuster premiere but
Portolan, dressed in a sage-green suit (deliberately unflashy, she later noted, to keep focus on the stories), didn’t just host—she contextualized. Between films, she drew direct lines from the screen to the Slow Love podcast’s most downloaded episodes: “The Art of the Late Reply,” “Digital Afterglow,” and “Why We Miss the Landline.”