Saturday, March 24, 2018

Dialogic Cinephilia - March 24, 2018






Brea, Jennifer. "Unrest." Film School (October 7, 2017) ["Jennifer Brea is a Harvard PhD student soon to be engaged to the love of her life when she’s struck down by a mysterious fever that leaves her bedridden. She becomes progressively more ill, eventually losing the ability even to sit in a wheelchair, but doctors tell her it’s “all in her head.” Unable to convey the seriousness and depth of her symptoms to her doctor, Jennifer begins a video diary on her iPhone that eventually becomes the feature documentary film Unrest. Once Jennifer is diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), commonly called chronic fatigue syndrome, she and her new husband, Omar, are left to grapple with how to live in the face of a lifelong illness. Refusing to accept the limitations of bedbound life, Jennifer goes on an inspiring virtual voyage around the world where she finds a hidden community of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME. These patients use the internet, Skype and Facebook to connect to each other — and to offer support and understanding. Many ME patients have experienced uncertainty, confusion and even disbelief from the medical community and society as a whole. After all, it’s easy to ignore a disease when patients are too sick to leave their homes. In Unrest, Jennifer shares her pain and the most intimate moments of her life in order to offer hope and visibility to those who suffer alone in dark, silent rooms. Though Jennifer and Omar may have to accept that they will never live the life they originally dreamed about, together they find resilience, strength, and meaning in their community and each other. Director, subject and activist Jennifer Brea joins us to talk about her journey, illness and her determination to make things better for people living with ME."]

Davis, Nick. "The Workshop." Film Comment (March/April 2018)

Finnerty, Paraic, Linda Freeman and Fiona Green. "Emily Dickinson." Ideas (May 11, 2017) ["Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Emily Dickinson, arguably the most startling and original poet in America in the C19th. According to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her correspondent and mentor, writing 15 years after her death, "Few events in American literary history have been more curious than the sudden rise of Emily Dickinson into a posthumous fame only more accentuated by the utterly recluse character of her life and by her aversion to even a literary publicity." That was in 1891 and, as more of Dickinson's poems were published, and more of her remaining letters, the more the interest in her and appreciation of her grew. With her distinctive voice, her abundance, and her exploration of her private world, she is now seen by many as one of the great lyric poets. "]

Castillo, Monica, et al. "Reckoning with Misogyny." Film Comment Podcast (January 2, 2018) ["Stories about Harvey Weinstein’s misconduct and cover-ups have opened the floodgates of revelations about other figures in the entertainment industry and beyond. Victims have finally been able to come forward and be heard, while the #metoo movement has fueled conversation and action, amidst an Internet outrage machine that can cheapen dialogue. In this episode of The Film Comment Podcast, Digital Producer Violet Lucca was joined by Molly Haskell, author of the landmark 1974 text From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies and regular critic to Film Comment; Monica Castillo, the film writer for The New York Times’s Watching; and Aliza Ma, head programmer at the Metrograph Theater, for an in-depth conversation about the implications of this historic moment."]





Hudson, David. "Venice + Toronto 2017: Aronofsky’s Mother!" The Current (September 5, 2017)





Hudson, David. "Venice + Toronto 2017: Haigh’s Lean on Pete." The Current (September 1, 2017)

Lebreton, L., et al. "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic." Nature (March 22, 2018)

Lucca, Violet and Sheila O'Malley. "The Phantom Thread." Film Comment Podcast (January 9, 2018) ["“In Paul Thomas Anderson’s work, love can be—quite literally—a miracle,” writes Sheila O’Malley in her January/February 2018 Film Comment cover story, “Love, After a Fashion.” “People are scarred by life, their emotional resilience decimated by disappointments and neglect. But sometimes love is offered and, as Blanche DuBois says, famously, in A Streetcar Named Desire: ‘Sometimes—there’s God—so quickly!’ That’s the redemptive romantic journey of Phantom Thread, where Reynolds says to Alma at one point that she may very well keep his ‘sour heart from choking.’” Of course, Phantom Thread is no familiar story of redemption through romance. O’Malley joins FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca on this week’s Film Comment Podcast to discuss its beguiling, and even radical, twist on a love story."]


son of sofia | trailer from heretic on Vimeo.


Psykou, Elina. "Son of Sofia." Following Films (April 20, 2017) ["After her celebrated debut, “The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas”, Elina Psykou returns with “SON OF SOFIA”, a dark, yet tender coming-of-age fairytale that strikes a masterful balance between realism and dreams, much like its young lead. The story revolves around 11-year-old Misha, who flies from Russia to Athens in the summer of 2004, to join his mother, Sofia, after having spent a long time apart. What he doesn’t know is that there is a father waiting for him there. While Greece is living the Olympic dream, Misha will get violently catapulted into the adult world, riding on the dark side of his favorite fairy tales."]





Wang, Nanfu. "I Am Another You." Film School (October 6, 2017) ["When Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow) first came to America,Florida seemed like an exotic frontier full of theme parks, prehistoric swamp creatures, and sunburned denizens. As she travels wide-eyed from one city to another, she eventually encounters a charismatic young drifter named Dylan. Fascinated by his rejection of society’s rules and unsure of his past, Nanfu follows Dylan with her camera on a journey that spans years, takes her across America, and explores the meaning of freedom. But as Nanfu delves deeper into Dylan’s world, she discovers something that calls her entire worldview into question. Director, Producer, Cinematographer & Editor Nanfu Wang is an award-winning filmmaker based in New York City. Her feature debut Hooligan Sparrow was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for best documentary feature. Since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2016, Hooligan Sparrow has screened at more than 100 festivals in over 25 countries including Hot Docs, Sheffield, Full Frame, and Human Rights Watch Film Fest. It opened theatrically across North America and was later released on POV, Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes. It has won over twenty awards internationally including a Cinema Eye Honor for the Best Debut Film, the George Polk Award for the journalistic achievement,and the Truer than Fiction Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Wang was honored by the International Documentary Association with the 2016 Emerging Filmmaker Award. Director Nanfu Wang joins us to talk about Dylan, freedom, travel and her own experience on the streets."]

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