We live in the best of times in which we are able to learn about the world and its incredible diversity of cultures/beings/places/perspectives in a way never historically possible. We live in the worst of times when we are able to isolate ourselves completely from anything different from our own narrow view/conception of the world/reality. The choice is yours!
Danny Mayer's and Josie Mayer's newest episode of Travels with Jo exploring gentrification in the Northside of Lexington - please share with those that would be interested. This is a great exploration of the subject through representations of the Lexington (KY) northside places being described and visual representations of the sources being discussed and a clear visual representation of Danny's critical thinking. Also great music by Wes Houp, Lyle van Outer and Chris Sullivan.
When I got on my plane yesterday I was carrying a book and as I was taking my seat the flight attendant made a production out of the fact I was intending to read a book (she was being playful). Amusingly, people around my seat started gawking in amazement/shock? This was following my observations that out of the sizable crowd of passengers waiting pre-flight for our continental trip I was the only one reading a physical book (or newspaper/magazine). Cell phone usage dominated people's consciousness. I'm not being judgmental, just reflecting on the changes. Amused, gather around folks and see the freakish book-reader ... in that spirit my year-in-books is gathered in this link: "My Year in Books 2017."
Alt, J.D. "The New Poverty."New Economic Perspectives (December 28, 2017)
ENG 282: 2010 - 2014Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing archive film studies resources)
ENG 282: 2015 - 2019 Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing archive film studies resources)
Gee, Alastair. "“Bussed Out”: How Cities Are Giving Thousands of Homeless People One-Way Bus Tickets to Leave Town."Democracy Now (December 29, 2017) ["A major new investigation by The Guardian examined how cities are struggling to solve the problem of homelessness throughout the year, and found many have come to rely on an old solution: a one-way ticket out of town. Relocation programs that offer homeless people free bus tickets to move elsewhere have been around for at least three decades. But as the homeless population rises for the first time since the Great Recession, relocation programs are becoming more common and are expanding to more cities. We speak with The Guardian’s homelessness editor, Alastair Gee, about many people who were bused out, remained homeless and eventually returned to the city they had left."]
My brother Robert cited these lyrics to me as we were adventuring on the Mushroom Trail (more formally known as Annie's Trail) in Solana Beach last week - we grew up roaming the canyons of San Diego and he said when we walked into the arroyo I would have a strong sensory sensation. He was right - memories flooded back to me of long past youthful days roaming through the interlocked San Diego canyon systems filled with thrilling adventures and flights of fantasy (because the outdoors was my childhood virtual reality where I created new worlds and adventures - in those wild spaces I could be anyone and go anywhere). The lyrics by Twenty One Pilots:
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young.
How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from.
I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it.
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one.
It'd be to my brother, 'cause we have the same nose.
Same clothes, homegrown, a stone's throw from a creek we used to roam.
But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered.
Out of student loans and tree-house homes we all would take the latter.
A Good American (Austria: Friedrich Moser, 2015: 100 mins) Moser, Friedrich. "A Good American."Film School (February 3, 2017)[" Friedrich Moser’s eye-opening A Good American soberly unfolds the deeply disturbing story of how corruption, lies and personal ambitions led to the closure of a cheap and effective monitoring system that demonstrably could have stopped the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "]
O'Connell, Joe. "Crime and Consequences."The Austin Chronicle (February 27, 2015) ["American Crime creator John Ridley talks about shooting in Austin, faith, race, and Felicity Huffman'"]
Phillips, Maya. "Sorry to Bother You and the New Black Surrealism."Slate (July 18, 2018) ["Like Get Out and Atlanta, Boots Riley’s gonzo satire realizes the best way to depict black people’s reality is to depart from it."]
Gordon, Emily and April Wolfe. "Bone Tomahawk."Switchblade Sisters #1 (November 9, 2017) ["On the debut episode of Switchblade Sisters, April talks with the writer and producer of The Big Sick, Emily Gordon. Things get gruesome quickly as the two of them discuss the 2015 horror-western, Bone Tomahawk. April and Emily examine what makes the movie so good; the insane violence, the heartbreaking monologues, the beautiful cinematography. Plus, Emily talks about the making of The Big Sick and how she uses her psychology background in her writing."]
Booger Red (USA: Berndt Mader, 2015: 96 mins) Bennett, Opal Hope, Berndt Made and Onur Tukel. "Booger Red."Filmwax Radio (May 21, 2016)
Cassidy, Brendan and J.D. Duran. "Born to Be Blue, Infiltrator." InSession Film (July 22, 2016) ["Ethan Hawke’s latest indie film and the second great jazz movie to come out in 2016, Born to Be Blue. We also review The Infiltrator, starring the great Bryan Cranston."]
Chappie (South Africa/USA: Neil Blomkamp, 2015: 120 mins)
Like Stories of Old. "The Problem of Other Minds – How Cinema Explores Consciousness." (Posted on Youtube: May 31, 2018) ["How have films engaged the problem of other minds? In this video essay, I discuss cinematic explorations into consciousness in the context of the cognitive revolution that has challenged many of the basic assumptions about what was for a long time believed to be a uniquely human trait." Uses Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?: "Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence."]
DuVernay, Ava, et al. "Ava DuVernay / Jamal Joseph."The Close-Up #93 (July 20, 2016) ["The Opening Night selection will be the new film from SELMA director Ava DuVernay, THE 13TH, which explores the American prison industry and the horrors of mass criminalization. Eugene Hernandez caught up with DuVernay in Los Angeles over the weekend to discuss the project. In part two of this week's episode, we're sharing an inspirational panel from last month's Human Rights Watch Film Festival. Following a screening of CHAPTER & VERSE, a film about a reformed gang leader who struggles to re-enter society after eight years in prison, director Jamal Joseph joined lead actor Daniel Beatty and producers Cheryl Hill and Jonathan Singer to talk about racism, gang violence, gentrification, and what it means to forge your own destiny in an outwardly harsh society."]
Baumbach, Noah, et al. "Brian De Palma."Film Comment Podcast (June 3, 2016) Dheepan (France: Jacques Audiard, 2015: 115 mins) Cassidy, Brendan, J.D. Duran and Vince Leo. "Dheepan; Things to Come."In Session Film (December 10, 2016)
Disorder (France/Belgium: Alice Winocour, 2015: 98 mins)
Taylor, Alison and John Edmond. "This Is Not A Ritual: An Introduction to Lucile Hadžihalilović."Senses of Cinema #102 (August 2022) ["Lucile Hadžihalilović’s films have the structure of allegories. Time after time they are described in terms of surrealism and symbolism, fairy tales, and the shaping of childhood; all rich frameworks for the provision and searching of meaning. Whether with her debut medium-length La bouche de Jean-Pierre (1996), her breakthrough Innocence (2004), its midnight mirror Evolution (2015) or her latest Earwig (2021), Hadžihalilović creates models of nature that appear as simultaneously potential models of society and as cloistered worlds, beholden to their own mysterious logic. These films, when summarised read as fantasy, horror or science fiction, which they are, but when experienced, are slow sensuous works attentive to colour and texture and whose minimalist approach avoids guiding the viewer to specific interpretations and instead allows them to find their own path."]
The Expanse (SyFy Channel: Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, 2015 - )
Meyers, Mark. "How He Fell in Love."Film School (July 8, 2016) ["Travis (Matt McGorry), a young struggling musician, crosses paths with Ellen (Amy Hargreaves), an older married yoga teacher who is trying to adopt a child with her husband. Travis and Ellen begin an affair that slowly deepens into something more intimate and profound. As their encounters continue, Ellen is confronted with her failing marriage while Travis must face the consequences of his actions. Written and directed by Marc Meyers (HARVEST) and stars Matt McGorry (Orange is the New Black), Amy Hargreaves (Homeland, BLUE RUIN),Britne Oldford (American Horror Story) and veteran film and theatre actor Mark Blum (Mozart in the Jungle). Director Marc Meyers joins us for a conversation on managing the responsibilities of writing, producing and directing his own unforgettably intimate film."]
I Am Gangster (Germany/USA: Moritz Rechenberg, 2015: 105 mins) Rechenberg, Moritz. "I Am Gangster."Film School (June 8, 2016)
Inside Out (USA: Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen, 2015: 95 mins)
Devins, Arik and Maja Henderson. "Inside Out."Cinema Gadfly #10 (ND)
Appen, Joe von and Erik McClanahan."Over the Borderline."Adjust Your Tracking #118 (November 13, 2015) [" Joe and Erik talk about James White, the latest indie feature from the borderline films collective. We’ve championed this group in the past, responsible for previous AYT favorites Martha Marcy May Marlene, Simon Killer and Southcliffe. It’s another small film that deserves a larger audience than the one it will get. Look out for it. Lastly, a chat about Joe’s latest pick for our favorite segment, HOLD UP: Pump Up the Volume."]
Roark, David. "Terrence Malick and the Christian Story."Balder & Dash (March 10, 2016) ["Smith’s belief that human beings are primarily lovers rather than thinkers is, of course, nothing new; it is an understanding founded in Scripture, as well as the thought of early Christian theologian and philosopher St. Augustine of Hippo. Augustine, in perhaps his most famous work, City of God, argues that humans are innately lovers or worshippers, which means that it is not whether people worship; it is what people worship. As a direct consequence, there are liturgies—most affectively stories—all around us that prime the pump of the heart, shaping its affections and desires toward a vision of the good life. Appealing to our emotions and imaginations, liturgies use kinesthetics and aesthetics to teach and change the human condition around a particular story or vision. Out of this understanding, Smith ultimately calls for a response. He challenges Christians to reconsider anew the liturgy of the Church, taking back 2,000 years of tradition; moreover, he challenges Christians to create alternative, sacred liturgies in light of the numerous bad liturgies within popular culture. In one sense, Smith’s is a call to the arts—or, in Malick’s case, cinema."]
Christensen, Eric, et al. "Special Report: Korla."The Projection Booth (July 17, 2016) ["Incredibly skilled at the keyboard, Korla Pandit came into the houses of California housewives during the '50s with his hypnotic stare and tunes. The documentary film Korla tells the story of Pandit's life and the secret with which he lived for years. Special guests director John Turner and producer Eric Christensen talk about making the documentary. Rob St. Mary joins Mike to discuss the film, exotica music, and more."]
The Man in the High Castle (Amazon: Frank Spotnitz, 2015 - ) Spotnitz, Frank. "Amazon's The Man in the High Castle."The Treatment (December 2, 2015) ["Frank Spotnitz, writer and producer, is no stranger to science fiction and alternate realities from his work on The X-Files. He visits The Treatment to discuss the unsettling nature of a world where the Axis powers won World War II and how his outlook on life shades his visual adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel."]
The Martian (USA/UK: Ridley Scott, 2015: 144 mins)
Goro, El. "Moon (2009) and The Martian (2015)."Talk without Rhythm (July 2, 2017) ["... two hard science fiction films engaging with the concept of isolation, loneliness, and Benedict Wong in a support role..."]
Mr. Robot (USA channel: Sam Esmail, 2015 - ) Ratcliff, Travis Lee. "The Legacy of Paranoid Thrillers." (Posted on Vimeo: June 2017) ["Paranoid thrillers are constant in cinema's history, but at any given moment they reflect our specific anxieties back to us and reveal how we feel about our institutions. Here, I explore how paranoid thrillers crystalized as a genre in American cinema and examine the possibility of a contemporary renaissance in conspiracy fiction."]
Mustang (Turkey/France/Qatar/Germany: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015: 97 mins)
Goldsmith, Leo, et al. "Hong Sangsoo."Film Comment (June 14, 2016) ["Hong Sangsoo is a filmmaker who isn’t afraid to repeat himself. Fashioning narratives around lonesome or just pathetic male artists’ attempts at finding romantic connection, Hong’s films are characterized by their long takes and minute variations—a slightly off-center frame of two people talking, a digital zoom, a subtle readjustment of focus—that make us question what’s really going on in the scene."]
Riccobono, Jack Pettibone. "The Seventh Fire." Film School (July 23, 2016) ["From executive producers Terrence Malick, Natalie Portman, and Chris Eyre comes this haunting and unflinching debut feature, THE SEVENTH FIRE, directed by Jack Pettibone Riccobono. When gang leader Rob Brown is sentenced to prison for a fifth time, he must confront his role in bringing violent drug culture into his beloved American Indian community in northern Minnesota. As Rob reckons with his past, his seventeen-year-old protégé, Kevin,dreams of the future: becoming the most powerful and feared Native gangster on the reservation."]
The Silences (Australia/New Zealand: Margot Nash, 2015: 73 mins)
Pizarro, Dave, et al. "Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part One)."Philosophize This (November 6, 2017) ["Do difficult situations make good people act badly? Are there really "good" and "bad" people, or are we all about the same, but put in different situations? Situationism is supported by Milgram's experiment, where most subjects could be easily pressured into delivering shocks to an innocent person (really an actor… punked!). A more immersive example was provided by The Stanford Prison Experiment, where students took on the roles of guard and prisoner, and quickly became sadistic and passive respectively. John Doris argues that situationism is a direct attack on virtue ethics, that really there is no such thing as a virtue like "bravery" or "generosity" that cuts across all sorts of situations. While there are of course consistent personality traits, these don't map against the virtues as depicted by Aristotle and our common cultural notions. Rather, they're more context-dependent, specific to certain types of situations."]
---. "Situationism in Psych: Milgram & Stanford Prison Experiments (Part Two)."Philosophize This (November 13, 2017) ["Continuing with Dave Pizarro on articles by Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, and John Doris about situationism, which entails that people's level of morality will vary by situation, as opposed to virtue ethics, which posits that how people will act in a novel situation will be determined by the quality of their character. We get into Doris's article, "Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics" (1998), where he argues against the traditional idea that we have virtues like "honesty." Instead, these traits are more situation-specific, so even someone who doesn't cheat on his or her taxes or spouse might well still steal candy. Doris sites a 1975 study by Levin and Isen where people who found a (planted) dime in a phone booth were much more likely to then help someone who dropped some papers as the subject was leaving the booth. Does this really show that helpfulness isn't a stable virtue in people, or is something else going on here and in Milgram's experiment? Does situationism excuse bad behavior? Would any one of us do just what most the citizens of Germany did during the Nazi regime if we were in that situation? Can we maybe train ourselves to better resist social pressure, not just in specific situations we've rehearsed in advance, but across the board?"]
Hauck, Dennis. "Too Late."The Treatment (August 10, 2016) ["Director Dennis Hauck joins Elvis Mitchell to discuss the importance of Techniscope and the 1962 film Carnival of Souls in his directorial debut Too Late."]
The Witness (USA: James D. Solomon, 2015: 89 mins) Davis, Saela, et al. "The Fits and The Witness."The Close-Up (June 1, 2016) ["The Witness, a new documentary by James Solomon, follows the brother of Kitty Genovese as he attempts to sort through the muddled media reports regarding his sister’s tragic death. The 1964 murder was famously reported by The New York Times, who alleged that dozens of bystanders sat in their apartments in Queens ignoring the woman’s cries for help. In recent years, the Times coverage was scrutinized for its alleged distortion of the facts in service of a sensationalist agenda. "] Genovese, Bill and Jim Solomon. "The Witness."Filmwax Radio #354(June 4, 2016)
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (USA: Michael Bay, 2016: 144 mins) Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Maas, Peter. "Michael Bay's Benghazi Blockbuster Flop."On the Media (January 22, 2016) Abortion: Stories Women Tell (USA: Tracy Droz Dragos, 2016: 92 mins) Tragos, Tracy Droz. "Abortion: Stories Women Tell."Film School (August 11, 2016) ["In 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade recognized the right of every woman in the United States to have an abortion. Since 2011, over half the states in the nation have significantly restricted access to abortions. In 2016, abortion remains one of the most divisive issues in America, especially in Missouri, where only one abortion clinic remains open, patients and their doctors must navigate a 72-hour waiting period, and each year sees more restrictions. Awarding-winning director and Missouri native Tracy Droz Tragossheds new light on the contentious issue with a focus not on the debate, but rather on the women themselves – those struggling with unplanned pregnancies, the providers who show up at clinics to give medical care, as well as the activists on both sides of the issue hoping to sway decisions and lives. Tragos’ illuminating documentary Abortion: Stories Women Tell offers an intimate window into the lives of these women through their personal stories. Some are heartbreaking and tender some are bleak and frightening; some women, on both sides of the issue, find the choice easy to make due to their own circumstances and beliefs, while others simply inform us of the strength and capacity of women to overcome and persevere through complicated and unexpected circumstances. Director and producer Tracy Droz Tragos joins us for a conversation on one of the most contentious and intractable issues facing women and her beautifully balanced, heart wrenching and moving documentary."] Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (USA: Matthew Ornstein, 2016: 96 mins)
Davis, Darryl. "Racial Injustice: KKKrossing The Divide."How Do We Fix It? (June 5, 2020) ["To gain some insight on what can be done to address discrimination and tensions between races, we speak with R&B and blues musician Daryl Davis, a black man who has spent the past 35 years on a remarkable quest of speaking with, and at times befriending, members of white supremacist groups. He has helped more than 200 KKK members to renounce their racist ideology. "We have to ask ourselves the question: do I want to sit back and see what my country becomes, or do I want to stand up and make my country become what I want to see," Daryl tells us. "I've chosen the latter. And so you have to get into the thick of it." As a race conciliator and lecturer, Davis has received numerous awards and is often sought by CNN, MSNBC, NPR and other media outlets as a consultant on race relations and white supremacy."]
A Dark Song (Ireland/UK: Liam Gavin, 2016: 100 mins)
Bulkin, Nadia. "A Dark Song."The Horror Pod Class (April 18, 2019) ["Today we are talking to one of our favorite horror and weird fiction authors, Nadia Bulkin! We discuss a really great movie that she turned us on to on Netflix called A Dark Song. Specifically, we discuss the concept of the Sublime and how it interacts with horror fiction."]
Gavin, Liam, Mike Lee-Graham, and Mike Muncer. "Occult Part 21: A Dark Song."The Evolution of Horror (March 20, 2020) ["For the final in-depth discussion of the series, Mike is joined by Mike Lee-Graham to discuss A DARK SONG in spoilerific detail. Mike also chats to the film’s writer and director, Liam Gavin, about making one of the best cult horror films of the 2010s. "]
All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception and the Spirit of I.F. Stone (Canada: Fred Peabody, 2016: 91 mins) Peabody, Fred. "All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone."Film School (November 4, 2016) ["ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone is a timely documentary for audiences who are increasingly seeking alternatives to news media owned by large corporations. News events and journalistic trailblazers stretching over many decades are linked together to tell this important story. This film will resonate with audiences in the US and worldwide, as news media ownership increasingly falls into the hands of a few giant corporations."] ---. "Through the Lens: All Governments Lie."Radio West (February 1, 2017) ["we continue our Through the Lens series with Fred Peabody’s documentary film All Governments Lie. It’s inspired by the work of I.F. Stone, an investigative journalist and gadfly in the early 1950s to the `70s. Stone’s modern torchbearers—journalists like Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman and others profiled in the film—produce their adversarial journalism outside mainstream media. Peabody joins us Wednesday to discuss the value of alternative news and the role of independent journalists."] Always Shine (USA: Sophia Takal, 2016: 85 mins) Landekic, Lola. "Always Shine (2016)."Art of the Title (March 23, 2017)
Takal, Sophia and April Wolfe. "Body Double."Switchblade Sisters #6 (December 14, 2017) ["Things get steamy as April talks to actress and director Sophia Takal about the somewhat problematic Brian De Palma erotic thriller, Body Double. The two discuss how the film influenced Sophia's own work and her debut film, Always Shine. Sophia recalls her time as an actress, and the objectification that came with the audition process. They also analyze the violence against women's bodies in the film and the sexuality of Melanie Griffith's character, Holly Body. Despite its issues, April and Sophia also marvel at the craftsmanship of Brian De Palma, and how this film can be used as a template for how NOT to treat female characters."] American Fable (USA: Anne Hamilton, 2016: 96 mins) Hamilton, Anne. "The Others."Switchblade Sisters #5 (December 7, 2017) ["Things get spooky as April talks to director Anne Hamilton about the 2001 gothic horror film, The Others. They discuss Nicole Kidman's casting in the film, the director Alejandro Amenábar's rejection of Catholicism, and how films like these just don't exist anymore. Plus, Anne discusses what she would have done differently had she directed The Others, and what is was like working on her own gothic film, American Fable."] Animal Kingdom (TNT: Jonathan Lisco, 2016 - )
Larke-Walsh, George S. and Stephanie Oliver. "‘This Thing of Ours’: A Woman’s Place in the Gangster Genre."Senses of Cinema #91 (July 2019)
Antibirth (Canada/USA: Danny Perez, 2016: 94 mins) Richards, Jill. "Pussy Wars."Los Angeles Review of Books (March 24, 2017)
Assayas, Olivier, Alison Maclean and Kleber Medoncha Filho. "NYFF Live Filmmaker Chat."Film Comment (November 1, 2016) ["This Film Comment panel brought together three NYFF filmmakers—Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper), Alison Maclean (The Rehearsal), and Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius)—to discuss their practical approaches to the craft of filmmaking, as well as their grander philosophies about the art form. The conversation, moderated by Film Comment Editor Nicolas Rapold, covers a swath of topics, from on-set collaboration to transnational cinema."]
A Quiet Passion (UK/Belgium: Terence Davies, 2016: 125 mins)
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. "]
The Assignment (France/Canada/USA: Walter Hill, 2016: 95 mins)
"Walter Hill."WTF (April 24, 2017) ["Poor health kept Walter Hill out of the Army in the '60s, but that twist of fate led him into filmmaking during the tumultuous end of that decade. Walter tells Marc about being there for the major shift in cinema during the '70s, making his own influential films like The Driver, The Warriors and 48 Hours, and working closely with actors like Steve McQueen, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor. Walter also explains how he helped kick off the Alien franchise."] Atlanta(FX: Donald Glover, 2016 - )
Alsop, Elizabeth. "All Together Now."Film Quarterly (August 20, 2020)
Automatic at Sea (Australia/USA/Denmark: Matthew Lessner, 2016: 87 mins)
Subisatti, Andrea and Alexander West. "Season of the Witch: Witches in Film Part 3, The Witch (2015) and The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)."The Faculty of Horror #60 (March 25, 2018) ["The past few years have seen the figure of the witch become a cultural touchstone for progressives and conservatives alike. From the resurgence of astrology, tarot, and natural healing methods to feminist rallying cry, the witch has never been more inclusive or divisive. Through analysis of two recent films, Andrea and Alex examine the witch’s new meaning in contemporary Western society, and why she remains a symbol of subversive feminism."]
Bad Batch (USA: Ana Lily Amirpour, 2016: 118 mins)
Smith, Sarah Adina and Jonako Donley. "Buster's Mal Heart."Film School Radio (May 26, 2017) ["Buster’s Mal Heart is a bold thriller peppered with dark humor and interlocking mystery, an eccentric mountain man is on the run from the authorities, surviving the winter by breaking into empty vacation homes in a remote community. Regularly calling into radio talk shows — where he has acquired the nickname “Buster” — to rant about the impending Inversion at the turn of the millennium, he is haunted by visions of being lost at sea, and memories of his former life as a family man. Buster (Rami Malek) was once Jonah, a hard-working husband and father whose job as the night-shift concierge at a hotel took its toll on his psyche and, consequently, his marriage to the sensitive Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil) — until a chance encounter with a conspiracy-obsessed drifter (DJ Qualls) changed the course of their lives forever. As the solitary present-day Buster drifts from house to house, eluding the local sheriff at every turn, we gradually piece together the events that fractured his life and left him alone on top of a snowy mountain, or perhaps in a small rowboat in the middle of a vast ocean — or both, in this visceral mind bender that will provoke discussion long after it turns your world upside-down. Director and writer Sarah Adina Smith and Producer Jonako Donley join us to talk about her wildly entertaining tale."]
Tyrnauer, Matt. "Citizen Jane: Battle for the City."Film School Radio (April 28, 2017) ["Citizen Jane: Battle for the City is a story about our global urban future, in which nearly three-fourths of the world’s population will live in cities by the end of this century. It’s also a story about America’s recent urban past, in which bureaucratic, “top down” approaches to building cities have dramatically clashed with grassroots, “bottom up” approaches. The film brings us back mid-century, on the eve of the battles for the heart and soul of American cities, about to be routed by cataclysmically destructive Urban Renewal and highway projects. The film details the revolutionary thinking of Jane Jacobs, and the origins of her magisterial 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities,in which she singlehandedly undercuts her era’s orthodox model of city planning, exemplified by the massive Urban Renewal projects of New York’s “Master Builder,” Robert Moses. Jacobs and Moses figure centrally in our story as archetypes of the “bottom up” and the “top down” vision for cities. They also figure as two larger-than-life personalities: Jacobs—a journalist with provincial origins, no formal training in city planning, and scarce institutional authority—seems at first glance to share little in common with Robert Moses, the upper class, high prince of government and urban theory fully ensconced in New York’s halls of power and privilege. Citizen Jane: Battle for the City gives audiences a front row seat to this battle, and shows how two opposing visions of urban greatness continue to ripple across the world stage. In perilous times for the city and for civil rights, Citizen Jane offers a playbook, courtesy of Jane Jacobs, for organizing communities and speaking the truth to entrenched and seemingly insurmountable powers."]
Zamecka, Anna. "Communion."Film School Radio (January 4, 2019) ["Anna Zamecka’s intimate documentary Communion drops us into a truncated family living amid domestic instability and teenaged volatility, a sister and brother play out their lives on camera. At fourteen, Ola is already functioning as the woman of the house, cooking and cleaning for her lethargic father and helping her energetic autistic brother, Nikodem, prepare for his first Holy Communion. Throughout, she longs for her mother, Magda, whose absence is never explained, yet always deeply felt. As the date of Communion nears, it becomes an opportunity for the family to meet up and Ola is entirely responsible for planning the perfect family celebration. Communion is a portrait of young womanhood and crash course in growing up that teaches us that no failure is final, and that change is possible and needed, especially when love is in question. Anna Zamecka is a Polish film director, screenwriter and producer. She has studied cultural anthropology, journalism and photography in Warsaw and Copenhagen. Her 2016 debut feature film, Communion” received over 40 awards, including the European Film Award for Best European Documentary 2017 and the Critic’s Week Award at Locarno IFF, amongst others. Anna Zamecka joins us for a conversation about gaining the confidence of a struggling family and young woman trying to navigate a family life that threatens to overwhelm her."]
Mason, Belinda. "Constance on the Edge."The Last New Wave (May 25, 2017) ["This is a powerful documentary about mother of six, Constance, learning to adjust to life in Australia after moving here as a refugee from Sudan. In the lead up to the festival, Andrew spoke to director Belinda Mason about what went in to making the film and what documentaries like this mean for Australia’s understanding of refugees."]
Dark Night (USA: Tim Sutton, 2016: 85 mins) Sutton, Tim. "Dark Night."Film School (February 17, 2017) ["A haunting, artfully understated critique of American gun culture, Tim Sutton’s third feature is loosely based around the 2012 massacre in Aurora, Colorado that took place during a multiplex screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Employing a documentary-style technique and a cast of non- professional actors, DARK NIGHT follows the activities of six strangers over the course of one day, the shooter among them. Shot by veteran French DP Helene Louvart (PINA), DARK NIGHTis essential viewing, not only for art-house filmgoers, but for anyone invested in the debate over gun violence in America as well. Helene Louvart has served as cinematographer on more than 65 feature films, 50 short feature films, documentaries, and television projects, including French director Agnès Varda “The Beaches of Agnès (French: Les plages d’Agnès) She won The César Award for Best Documentary Film in 2009. Also, she worked with Alice Rohrwacher, and shot the italian drama “The Wonders” (Italian: Le meraviglie) It was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded with the Grand Prix. “Dark Night” was her first collaboration with Tim Sutton."]
Enelow, Shonni, et al. "Acting for All Ages."Film Comment (March 7, 2017) ["Jean-Pierre Léaud’s familiar face graces the cover of the new March/April issue of Film Comment, waiting out his final days in Albert Serra’s new film The Death of Louis XIV. As Yonca Talu observes in her feature on the film, “The film relies heavily on Jean-Pierre Léaud’s vulnerable acting. Famous for his vibrant, unrestrained body language as the enfant terrible of the French New Wave, the legendary actor exists in a state of complete paralysis here, dependent on others to meet his basic needs.” In some ways, she continues, the film serves as a symbolic conclusion to the Antoine Doinel cycle—Jean-Pierre Léaud’s mere presence adds a layer of film-historical context to the film that might not otherwise be there. This week’s episode of the Film Comment podcast explores the nuances of legacy, persona, and presence when it comes to acting. As with Léaud, we watch actors with enduring careers mature onscreen, developing their crafts and playing off of already formed associations that viewers might have with their earlier work. The panel—Shonni Enelow, English professor at Fordham and author of Method Acting and Its Discontents; Nick Pinkerton, regular Film Comment contributor and member of the New York Film Critics Circle; Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Violet Lucca, Film Comment Digital Producer—muses on the shifting modes of expression and physicality of performers like Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Gerard Depardieu, and Sissy Spacek."]
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Douglas, Timothy and Sandra Shannon. "August Wilson and Fences."Radio West (January 11, 2017) ["August Wilson, one of the great American playwrights … period. That doesn’t need the qualifier that he was a black playwright. But his plays were about the black experience in this country, and one of his masterpieces was Fences. Denzel Washington’s film version is now in theaters, and the stage version has just opened at Pioneer Theatre Company. We’re taking the opportunity to talk about the heart breaking beauty of August Wilson’s work."]
Finding Dory (USA: Angus Maclane and Andrew Stanton, 2016: 97 mins)
Finding Oscar (Canada/Guatemala/USA: Ryan Suffern, 2016: 100 mins) Suffern, Ryan. "Finding Oscar."Film School (April 20, 2017) ["FINDING OSCAR is the feature-length documentary about the search for justice in the case of the Dos Erres massacre in Guatemala in 1982. That search leads to the trail of two little boys, Oscar and Ramiro, who were abducted during the slaughter and raised by some of the very soldiers who had murdered their families. These boys offer the only living evidence that ties the Guatemalan government to the massacre. FINDING OSCAR follows the men and women who have spent nearly two decades looking for answers—from the human-rights worker who first heard the story to the forensic anthropologists trying to identify victims and contact families. The film profiles the young Guatemalan prosecutor who took on her own government, and the U.S. immigration agents who began rounding up war criminals found living in the States. In a country built on impunity, it will take this dedicated team to find justice more than thirty years later, and uncover a truth more significant than anyone could have imagined."]
The Get Down (Netflix: Stephen Adly Guirgis and Baz Luhrmann, 2016 - )
Luhrmann, Baz. "The Get Down."The Treatment (August 31, 2016) [""You need to learn the rules to break them!" Baz Lurhmann recalls breaking a few rules on the way to something larger than himself while growing up in the small Australian town of Herons Creek. His films Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby display this very rule-bending directorial creativity which carries through to his Netflix series The Get Down – a musical drama set in 1970's South Bronx. He joins Elvis to share his thoughts on being drawn to the struggle between youth and the incumbent generation in his storytelling and discusses passing on the opportunity to direct Harry Potter."]
Feig, Paul. "Ghostbusters."The Treatment (July 27, 2016) ["Behind such works as Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks, director Paul Feig fittingly states "funny is funny." Influenced by slapstick greats like The Three Stooges and Charlie Chaplin, Feig stayed the comedy course in his Ghostbusters reboot -- maintaining the reverence of the 1984 scare-comedy classic but crafting a new experience in the Ghostbusters universe, this time with a female cast. After growing tired of women’s movies demoralizing women, Paul Feig was committed to properly representing women in media through dynamic roles. Today he joins Elvis Mitchell to share his shock over the misogynistic and racist responses the film has received as well as why his characters are often rooted as much in the past as they are in the present."]
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Ghostbusters (2016) / Ghostbusters (1984), Pt. 1"The Next Picture Show #37 (July 26, 2016) ["The strange controversy over Paul Feig's gender-reversed GHOSTBUSTERS has us looking back at the original 1984 GHOSTBUSTERS to see what about it has inspired such strong feeling. In this half of the conversation, we focus on the then-and-now of Ivan Reitman's original, while trying (unsuccessfully) to dodge the dreaded "N" word: "nostalgia.""]
---. "Ghostbusters (2016) / Ghostbusters (1984), Part 2."The Next Picture Show #38 (July 28, 2016) ["Our GHOSTBUSTERS discussion turns its attention to Paul Feig's new remake, which was made with obvious affection for (and cameos from) the 1984 version, and replicates certain character types and plot points. But it also breaks from it in significant ways we'll discuss, as well as thoughts on the effects, the villains, New York City, blockbuster culture, and more."]
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Like Stories of Old. "The Perilous Journey of a Truly Beautiful Soul – Hacksaw Ridge." (Posted on Youtube: October 15, 2018) ["In the 19th century, Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot to explore the perilous journey of the truly beautiful soul. With Hacksaw Ridge, Mel Gibson set out to portray a similar journey; that of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to win a medal of honor. This video dives deeper into this incredible story, examines its narrative structure, the qualities of its main character and reflects on the place of goodness and innocence in a violent world. Sources: K.M. Weiland – Creating Character Arcs"]
The Hallow (Ireland/UK/USA: Corin Hardy, 2015: 97 mins)
Bradley, S.A. "If You Aren’t Afraid in The Woods, You Haven’t Gone Deep Enough."Hell Bent for Horror #2 (March 18, 2016) [Discussion of the films The Hallow (2015), Eyes of Fire (1983), and Witchfinder General (1968). Also Algernon Blackwood's 1910 short story "The Wendigo."]
Holy Hell (USA: Will Allen, 2016: 100 mins) Allen, Will. "Holy Hell."Film School (May 27, 2016) Allen, Will, et al. "Holy Hell."Filmwax Radio #353 (May 27, 2016)
Waititi, Taika. "Hunt for the Wilderpeople."The Treatment (June 29, 2016) ["In 2005, director Taika Waititi’s adaptation of the novel Wild Pork and Watercressstarted as a much darker piece. Revisiting the work years later, however, allowed Taika to realize that comedy indeed prevails and he took the film The Hunt for the Wilderpeople in a different direction, while paying homage to the adventurous spirit of New Zealand. Behind films like What We Do In The Shadows and Eagle vs Shark, Taika Waititi shares the importance of humor through life’s tough times and dissects an artist’s ultimate quest for immortality."]
Schamus, James. "Indignation."The Treatment (August 3, 2016) ["As the former CEO of Focus Features, James Schamus has been instrumental behind the scenes launching films like Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, often involving his long-time screenwriting partner Ang Lee. He has now tried his hand at directing in his debut Indignation, the adaptation of Philip Roth's book of the same name. Schamus visits The Treatment to discuss his first time working directly with the camera and actors as well as going to great lengths in properly reflecting the essence of the 1950's."]
---. "The Tall T."The Cinephiliacs #82 (July 25, 2016) ["How does one reconcile the ideas of artistry in cinema, the kind of magic of cinephilia that we see each time we look up at the screen, with the business practices that often painted as limiting it? James Schamus has somehow made a career of toeing this (likely constructed) dichotomy, helping produce some of the early independent films of the 1990s before becoming the co-founder of Focus Features, which made films like The Pianist,Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, and Moonrise Kingdom, as well as a collaborator of Ang Lee, writing the screenplays for The Ice Storm, Ride With The Devil, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. James discusses this work between the politics of making art for specialty audiences, as well as his interest in the very nature of art through his work as a theorist and professor at Columbia University. They then turn to his directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, and what it means to modulate performance.Finally, the two discuss Budd Boetticher's 1957 hostage western The Tall T, and what a specialty art house producer can learn from watching Randolph Scott contemplate existence in this low budget western."]
Cassidy, Brendan and J.D. Duran. "Born to Be Blue, Infiltrator." InSession Film (July 22, 2016) ["Ethan Hawke’s latest indie film and the second great jazz movie to come out in 2016, Born to Be Blue. We also review The Infiltrator, starring the great Bryan Cranston."]
The Jungle Book (USA: Jon Favreau, 2016: 105 mins) Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Favreau, Jon. "The Jungle Book."The Close-Up (April 20, 2016) Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids (USA: Jonathan Demme, 2016: 90 mins) Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Stop Making Sense / Justin Timberlake, Part 1."The Next Picture Show #76 (May 16, 2017) ["We’re still mourning the recent death of Jonathan Demme, a director of incredible range capable of working across many different genres — most notably, for our purposes, the concert film. This week, we hold our lighters aloft for Demme by looking at his first and last concert films, 1984’s STOP MAKING SENSE and 2016’s JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE + THE TENNESSEE KIDS. In this half, we consider the first film’s enduring legacy and influence on the concert-film genre, and how the film functions as a symbiosis of the unique talents of both Demme and Talking Heads frontman David Byrne."]
---. "Stop Making Sense / Justin Timberlake, Part 2."The Next Picture Show #77 (May 18, 2017) ["In this half of our appreciation of the late, great director Jonathan Demme, we bring what would be his final film, JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE + THE TENNESSEE KIDS, into the mix, to see what connects it to the director’s first foray into the concert-film genre, STOP MAKING SENSE. The two films focus on very different musical acts, but they’re undeniably connected via “the Demme touch,” and function as appropriate bookends to an impressive filmmaking career (which we can’t help but explore a little more broadly in this discussion as well)."]
The Last Dalai Lama? (USA: Mickey Lemle, 2016: 82 mins) Lemle, Mickey. "The Last Dalai Lama?"Film School Radio (August 11, 2017) ["For over a thousand years, Tibetan Buddhist psychology has taught techniques for overcoming negative, afflictive emotions, such as anger, greed, jealousy, sloth and ignorance. In the film THE LAST DALAI LAMA?, His Holiness explains that Tibetan Buddhism is both a religion and a “science of the mind”; he also shares his crystallized understanding of the nature of mind, and its part in the creation and alleviation of all of our suffering. Believing that this precious wisdom belongs to the world, twenty years ago The Dalai Lama challenged a select group of world-renowned Neuroscientists and Mind/Brain researchers to look into the workings of the mind, and to prove scientifically that “Tibetan Buddhist technologies” for overcoming afflictive emotions are skills that can be learned by anyone. The Dalai Lama commissioned Dr. Paul Ekman and his daughter Dr. Eve Ekman to come up with an “Atlas of Emotions” as a way of understanding the effects of emotions on having a tranquil mind. Being able to recognize the patterns, triggers and responses to emotions is the first step in dealing with them. In a moving sequence with a high school class in British Columbia, His Holiness The Dalai Lama is able to share his passion for the subject. His urgency and dedication come through in THE LAST DALAI LAMA? as he now turns 82, and must deal with the questions of aging and death, and whether he will reincarnate as The Dalai Lama, or if he will be the last of the lineage that has existed for a millennia. Director Mickey Lemle joins us to talk about his three decade friendship with His Holiness and the profound impact he has had on politics, culture and a deeper understanding of our shared human nature."]
The Last Shaman (UK/Italy/Israel/Peru/USA: Raz Degan, 2016: 77 mins)
Degan, Raz. "The Last Shaman."Film School Radio (May 16, 2017) ["The Last Shaman is the story of James Freeman, a young man who decides to take matters in his own hands when faced with incurable depression. He undergoes a life-changing journey in the Amazon jungle that brings him a deeper understanding and acceptance of self. Along the way, he experiences the healing properties of the tribal plant medicine Ayahuasca and the world around it. From the outside looking in, James is living the American dream. But behind closed doors, he has no desire to live and contemplates suicide. Desperate to find a way out of darkness, James travels to the Amazon rain forest with one mission: to save his own life. Without knowing any of the dangers that lie ahead, he starts searching for a Shaman who can help. James’ road to redemption isn’t easy — he faces many obstacles and even a few life-threatening experiences as he learns to acknowledge the space inside himself and understand a larger truth about how we’re all connected. After undergoing various forms of treatments from tribal plants and medicines, James is faced with the consequences of his own actions. He undergoes a life changing experience that brings him a deeper understanding and acceptance of himself, and a more profound understanding of the interconnectedness of us all. Director Raz Degan join us for a conversation on their journey into a world of spirituality, self awareness and an ancient culture."]
The Levelling (UK: Hope Leach Dickson, 2016: 83 mins) Antrobus, Corrina, et al. "The Levelling."The Cinematologists #48 (June 7, 2017) Dickson, Hope Leach and Alice Lowe. "On Motherhood and Film."The Early Hour (May 12, 2017)
Lion(Australia/USA/UK: Garth Davis, 2016: 118 mins) Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Messina, Chris. "Live By Night."The Treatment (January 11, 2017) ["As an acting fan, Chris Messina is especially fond of actor/directors. He reunites with director Ben Affleck in Live by Night, channeling Goodfellas while playing prohibition era gangster Dion Bartolo. Messina reflects on Ben Affleck's ability to quickly transition from actor to director when filming a scene and the way casting sets the foundation of acting quality within a film."]
Murray, Melissa. "Marriage as a Tool of White Supremacy."At Liberty #71 (October 31, 2019) ["The Supreme Court struck down bans on interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia, the landmark ACLU case decided in 1967. But the government‘s regulation of marriage and sex didn’t start with anti-miscegenation laws or end with Loving. Melissa Murray — an expert in family law, constitutional law, and reproductive rights and justice at the New York University School of Law — discusses why the institution looms so large in America's past and present. This episode was recorded live at the Brooklyn Public Library, as part of “‘Til Victory is Won,” an evening commemorating the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to America’s shores."]
National Bird (USA: Jesselyn Raddack, 2016: 92 mins)
Zaborski, Artur. "War Zones are Like Corporations."Keyframe (November 17, 2016) ["Sonia Kennebeck talks about her disturbing new drone-warfare doc, NATIONAL BIRD."]
Lear, Norman. "Just Another Version of You: The Life, Art and Activism of Legendary TV Producer Norman Lear."Democracy Now (October 25, 2016) ["Ninety-four-year-old legendary TV producer and longtime political activist Norman Lear has led a remarkable life. He helped revolutionize sitcom television with a string of hit shows including "All in the Family," "Sanford and Son," "The Jeffersons," "Good Times" and "Maude." In 1999, President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of Arts, saying, "Norman Lear has held up a mirror to American society and changed the way we look at it." Norman Lear is also a longtime activist, earning him a place on Richard Nixon’s enemies list and the scorn of the Christian right. His life, art and social activism is the subject of the new "American Masters" documentary, "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You," which premieres tonight on PBS. We spoke with Norman Lear in studio last week."]
Nuts! (USA: Penny Lane, 2016: 79 mins) Lane, Penny. "Nuts!"Film School (July 8, 2016) ["Inventive and wildly fun, NUTS! recounts the unbelievable true story of John Romulus Brinkley, a Kansas doctor who in 1917 discovered that he could cure impotence by transplanting goat testicles into men. From there, the story only gets more bizarre. Mixing hand-drawn animated reenactments, interviews, archival footage, and a very unreliable narrator,NUTS! traces Brinkley’s rise from poverty and obscurity to the heights of celebrity, wealth, and influence. Along the way, he transplants thousands of goat testicles, amasses an enormous fortune, is (sort of) elected Governor of Kansas, invents junk mail and the infomercial, builds the world’s most powerful radio station, and generally annoys the heck out of the establishment. Filmmaker Penny Lane has skillfully borrowed a page from her subject – charming viewers into believing the unbelievable, building their trust and excitement, until the final chapter bares the painful truth and reveals the doctor for what he truly was. NUTS! reminds us that our love of (and need for) compelling narratives is exactly what makes us so endlessly susceptible to being conned. Director Penny Lane stops by for a conversation on Brinkley, our collective need to believe in something and any contemporary parallels to be drawn from this bizarre story."]
The Occupation of the American Mind (USA: Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp, 2016: 82 mins) Jhally, Sut and Roger Waters. "The Occupation of the American Mind: Documentary Looks at Israel's PR War in the United States."Democracy Now (September 14, 2017) ["We continue our conversation with legendary British musician Roger Waters, founding member of the iconic rock band Pink Floyd. Waters is the narrator of a recent documentary titled "The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel’s Public Relations War in the United States." We air clips from the film and speak to Roger Waters and Sut Jhally, professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts and founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation, which produced the documentary."]
Polonsky, Asaph. "One Week and a Day."Film School Radio (April 28, 2017) ["In the Jewish religion, a week of sitting Shiva (or mourning the deceased) is called for after a funeral. However, for Eyal and Vicky, a week is hardly enough time to properly mourn the loss of their 25-year-old son Ronnie. A married couple edging into the back half of middle age, the two find themselves reacting to the end of Shiva in markedly different ways. A return to routine seems to be in order for Vicky, a teacher, as she finds herself back at school trying to abruptly kick out the substitute assigned in her stead. Meanwhile, shopkeeper Eyal opts for a total abdication of routine, as he steals his dead son’s bag of medical marijuana, and proceeds to get high, play ping-pong and judge air guitar routines with his neighbor’s stoner son Zooler. As the world refuses to accommodate Vicky and Eyal’s sensitivities during their time of bereavement — taxi drivers are still difficult, neighbors are still obnoxious, and grave diggers are just as indifferent as anyone else in the service industry — the two grieving parents find themselves acting out in outlandish ways as they attempt to regain a sense of control over their lives. Asaph Polonsky’s debut feature ONE WEEK AND A DAY juxtaposes the grieving process against the immutable fact that, despite the most painful losses imaginable, the world stops for no one’s mourning. With endearing performances from Shai Avivi and Evgenia Dodina as Eyal and Vicky, and Tomer Kapon as Zooler, ONE WEEK AND A DAY provides a nuanced perspective on loss that’s as funny as it is insightful."]
The Ornithologist (Portugal/France/Brazil: João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016: 117 mins)
Freeman, Mark, Joanna Di Mattia and Eloise Ross. "The Ornithologist."Senses of Cinema Podcast (November 22, 2017)
Ovarian Psychos (USA: Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle, 2016: 72 mins)
Richards, Jill. "Pussy Wars."Los Angeles Review of Books (March 24, 2017)
Sokolowski, Joanna and Kate Trumbull-LaValle. "Ovarian Psychos."Film School (July 8, 2016) ["Riding at night through streets deemed dangerous in Eastside Los Angeles, the Ovarian Psycos use their bicycles to confront the violence in their lives. At the helm of the crew is founder Xela de la X, a single mother and poet M.C. dedicated to recruiting an unapologetic, misfit crew of women of color. The film intimately chronicles Xela as she struggles to strike a balance between her activism and nine year old daughter Yoli; street artist Andi who is estranged from her family and journeys to become a leader within the crew; and bright eyed recruit Evie, who despite poverty, and the concerns of her protective Salvadoran mother, discovers a newfound confidence. Co-directors Joanna Sokolowski & Kate Trumbull-LaValle stop by to talk about the boldness of Ovas’ politics, their brazen approach to feminism, and unapologetic aesthetic: a hybrid mix of Chicana, Riot Grrrl, Zapatista and militant-punk cultural markers and the individual personalities that make Ovarian Psycos such a compelling watch."] Passengers (USA: Morten Tyldum, 2016: 116 mins)
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
The Path (Hulu: Jessica Goldberg, 2016 - ) Goldberg, Jessica. "The Path."The Treatment (May 25, 2016)
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Pete's Dragon / The Black Stallion Pt. 1."The Next Picture Show #41 (August 23, 2016) ["The director of the new Disney live-action remake PETE’S DRAGON, David Lowery, recently cited as inspiration Carroll Ballard’s 1979 film THE BLACK STALLION, noting the older film’s careful merging of art and the mainstream. Following Lowery’s example, we look back this week at THE BLACK STALLION’s wondrous beauty and split structure, and try to ascertain what makes the film unique among films aimed at children."]
---. "Pete's Dragon / The Black Stallion, Pt. 2."The Next Picture Show #42 (August 25, 2016) ["Continuing the legacy of Carroll Ballard's THE BLACK STALLION, David Lowery's new Disney live-action remake of PETE'S DRAGON treats kids' films, kid audiences, and the emotional lives of children with respect and intelligence. In this half of the discussion, we talk over the two films' use of stories within stories, cinematography, child actors, and our relationship with animals and the natural world"]
The Rehearsal (New Zealand: Alison Maclean, 2016: 102 mins)
Assayas, Olivier, Alison Maclean and Kleber Medoncha Filho. "NYFF Live Filmmaker Chat."Film Comment (November 1, 2016) ["This Film Comment panel brought together three NYFF filmmakers—Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper), Alison Maclean (The Rehearsal), and Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius)—to discuss their practical approaches to the craft of filmmaking, as well as their grander philosophies about the art form. The conversation, moderated by Film Comment Editor Nicolas Rapold, covers a swath of topics, from on-set collaboration to transnational cinema."]
Hancock, James and Martin Kessler. "20 Years of Resident Evil."Wrong Reel #226 (January 2017) ["Martin Kessler from Flixwise returns to review Paul W.S. Anderson’s new movie Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and to discuss the twenty year history of the Resident Evil franchise in both games and in movies."]
Levin, Marc. "Voices from NYC's Most Notorious Jail: Former Prisoners Speak Out About Abuse at Rikers Island."Democracy Now (November 2, 2016) ["A new PBS documentary, "Rikers," brings you face to face with men and women who have survived incarceration at New York City’s largest and most notorious jail. Their stories are told directly to the camera without any additional narration. A dozen former inmates vividly describe the cruel arc of the Rikers experience—from the trauma of entering the island to the extortion and control exercised by other inmates, to the harrowing interactions with corrections officers. They also detail the beatings and stabbings, the torture of solitary confinement and the psychological difficulties of re-entering the outside world. For more, we’re joined by award-winning independent filmmaker Marc Levin, director of the new documentary, "Rikers."]
Sami Blood(Norway/Denmark/Sweden: Amanda Kernell, 2016: 110 mins)
Kernell, Amanda. "Sami Blood."Film School Radio (June 27, 2017) ["SAMI BLOOD is the electrifying debut feature of writer/director Amanda Kernell. Based on her own grandmother’s life and set in 1930s Sweden during the pre-Nazi eugenics movement, SAMI BLOOD follows Elle, a young indigenous Lapland girl made to feel like an inferior species when she’s subjected to indoctrination and race biology in a Swedish boarding school. Elle escapes, and in doing so is estranged from her sister, her family and her culture. SAMI BLOOD is a unique and intimate perspective on the history of the Sami people, and tells a story of oppression that resonates across borders and generations. The film features a breakthrough performance from its young lead actress Lene Cecilia Sparrok, who has never acted before and is Sami herself. She stars in the film alongside her sister Mia Sparrok. Director and writer Amanda Kernell joins us to talk about her heart wrenching story of a young woman struggling to find a place in an increasingly hostile world."]
Sausage Party (USA: Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, 2016: 89 mins)
Bursztynski, Maurice, Tim Merrill and Bernard Stickwell. "Interview with Matt Schrader, director of Score: A Film Music Documentary."See Hear #45 (October 21, 2017) ["It seems crazy that until 2017, there hasn’t been a major documentary (that we’re aware of) dedicated to the art of film composition and the people who devote their lives to emotionally manipulating you more than what you actually see on-screen via their music. Matt Schrader is the director of a great new documentary called “Score: A Film Music Documentary” that looks into the process of film score composition, how it’s evolved, interviews with a number of its current practitioners, and the psychology behind how viewers perceive the on-screen action when music is playing (sex, chocolate and music all produce the same rush in your brain, apparently)."]
The Shallows (USA: Jaume Collet-Serra, 2016: 86 mins)
Bordwell, David. "Fantasy, flashbacks, and what-ifs: 2016 pays off the past."Observations on Film Art (January 2, 2017) Slack Bay (France/Germany/Belgium: Bruno Dumont, 2016: 122 mins) Adams, Tim. "Juliette Binoche: 'Life is to Love."the Guardian (June 11, 2017) ["Directors have tried to control her, critics have swooned over her, four men have tried to marry her. Yet Juliette Binoche has refused to be boxed in. Tim Adams sits down to steak with France’s leading lady."] Solitary(USA: Kristi Jacobsen, 2016)
Art of the Title. "Know Your 2017 Below-the-Line Oscar Nominees."The Film Stage (January 30, 2017) ["The major below-the-line categories are Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing/Mixing, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling . On the best productions (including those that the Academy labels Best Picture), the work of these crucial visual elements often blend together so seamlessly that it's hard to pick their creators' work.Thankfully, Art of The Film has created a series of supercuts called Oscars in One Minute that isolate the work of these artists so we can fully recognize their importance and beauty within each respective production."]
Smith, Adam. "Trespass Against Us."Film School (January 13, 2017) ["TRESPASS GAINST US is set across three generations of the Cutler family who live as outlaws in their own anarchic corner of Britain’s richest countryside. Chad Cutler (Michael Fassbender) is heir apparent to his bruising criminal father, Colby (Brendan Gleeson) and has been groomed to spend his life hunting, thieving and tormenting the police. But with his own son, Tyson (Georgie Smith) coming of age, Chad soon finds himself locked in a battle with his father for the future of his young family. When Colby learns of Chad’s dreams for another life he sets out to tie his son and grandson into the archaic order that has bound the Cutler family for generations. He engineers a spectacular piece of criminal business involving a heist, a high-speed car chase and a manhunt, which leaves Chad bruised and bloodied and with his very freedom at stake. With the law cracking down and his father tightening his grip, Chad is forced into increasingly desperate measures. Featuring incredible performances – and an astonishing score by The Chemical Brothers – TRESPASS AGAINST US is at once an exhilarating crime thriller and a profoundly moving story about love and family. TRESPASS AGAINST US director ADAM SMITH (Director) is an award-winning film, television drama, documentary and music-video director. Smith is best known for his long-term collaboration with the Chemical Brothers, and the critically acclaimed concert film Chemical Brothers: Don’t Think he directed. Director Adam Smith joins us to talk about his feature film debut and the riveting performances turned in by his three lead performers."]
Pollard, Sam, et al. "The Handsome Family / Sam Pollard."WTF (December 1, 2016) ["Gothic folk duo The Handsome Family meet up with Marc while he's in Albuquerque to talk about American roots music, carnival sideshows, meeting your heroes, and dealing with bipolarity. But first, documentary filmmaker Sam Pollard joins Marc in the garage to talk about his new film Two Trains Runnin', a look at the summer of 1964, as history converged in unexpected ways."]
Una (UK/Canada/USA: Benedict Andrews, 2016: 94 mins)
Andrews, Benedict. "Una."Film School (October 13, 2017) ["UNA, based on David Harrower’s play ‘Blackbird’ follows a young woman’s journey to reclaim her past. Fifteen years earlier, UNA ran away with an older man, Ray, a crime for which he was arrested and imprisoned. When she comes across a photo of him in a trade magazine, UNA tracks him down and turns up at his workplace. Her abrupt arrival threatens to destroy Ray’s new life and derail her stability. Unspoken secrets and buried memories surface as Una and Ray sift through the wreckage of the past. Their confrontation raises unanswered questions and unresolved longings. It will shake them both to the core. UNA gazes into the heart of a devastating form of love and asks if redemption is possible. Bolstered by the remarkable performances of Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelson, UNA rips at the fragile facade of two irreparably damaged people forced to reconcile entangled their past. Director Benedict Andrews talks about the making of his complex, intimate and relentlessly raw tale of abuse, and unresolved emotion."]
Babak Anvari’s striking directorial debut takes place in 1980s Tehran, during the Iran-Iraq war. Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is banned from continuing her medical studies and finds herself stranded in the city with her young daughter. As the war outside intensifies, mother and daughter are plagued by strange happenings, including nightmares and the haunting presence of a ghostly chador. Even apart from its rich social subtext, Under the Shadow is a sleekly written and beautifully acted film, whose atmosphere lingers long after the credits roll. – Kelli Weston
Unlocking the Cage (USA: Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, 2016: 91 mins)
Hegedus, Chris and D.A. Pennebaker. "Unlocking the Cage."Film School (July 12, 2016) ["The latest documentary from the renowned filmmaking team of Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker (The War Room), Unlocking the Cage follows trailblazing animal rights lawyer Steven Wise in his challenge to break down the legal wall that separates animals from humans. ... Given that the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people, why not chimps? Attorney Steven Wise and his legal team, the Nonhuman Rights Project, are making history by filing the first lawsuits that seek to transform an animal from a “thing” with no rights to a “person” with legal protections. Supported by affidavits from primatologists around the world, Wise maintains that, based on scientific evidence, cognitively complex animals such as chimpanzees, whales, dolphins and elephants have the capacity for limited personhood rights that would protect them from abuse. The filmmakers capture Wise’s progress: from the halls of academia to animal sanctuaries and zoos, and finally into the courtrooms where he makes a compelling case on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State. Unlocking the Cage captures a monumental shift in our culture, as the public and judicial system show increasing receptiveness to Wise’s impassioned arguments. It is a provocative and intimate look at a lawsuit that could forever transform our legal system, and one man’s lifelong quest to protect “nonhuman” animals."]
The Wailing (South Korea: Na Hong-jin, 2016: 156 mins)
"The Wailing."Horror Vanguard #218 (August 9, 2022) [The Wailing description: "NEVER BE TEMPTED. A stranger arrives in a little village and soon after a mysterious sickness starts spreading. A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter."]
Zootopia (USA: Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Rich Moore, 2016: 108 mins)
Howard, Brian and Rich Moore. "Zootopia."The Treatment (December 28, 2016) ["Directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore have taken a socially relevant approach with the newest Walt Disney Studios animated feature Zootopia. In the film, rabbit Judy Hopps tries to break out of her animal stereotype when she realizes it's not so easy to escape nature. Today, Howard and Moore discuss researching societal biases and racial stigmas to create the metropolitan city of Zootopia, as well as reflecting on the technological limitations in animation in recent years versus the impressive capabilities of today."]
Like Stories of Old. "Prometheus & Covenant: Building a Mythos of Savage Creation." (Posted on Youtube: October 27, 2017) ["On the road towards Alien: Awakening; this in-depth analysis explores how Prometheus and Covenant built a mythos of savage creation around one of the most iconic movie monsters."]
A River Below (Colombia/USA: Mark Grieco, 2017: 88 mins)
Grieco, Mark. "A River Below."Film School Radio (November 3, 2017) ["A documentary as dramatic, ambiguous, and multilayered as any fiction film, A RIVER BELOW examines the efforts of two conservationists in the Amazon to bring about change by using the national media, only to discover the consequences of their actions come with a high price. A RIVER BELOW provides an eye-opening look at what happens when passion and opinion trump reason and morality. The crux of the story questions the truth in images, its manipulation to get the public’s attention and, ultimately, who pays the price for someone else’s passion for radical change."]
Atomic Blonde (Germany/Sweden/USA: David Leitch, 2017: 115 mins) Hart, David and Miranda Sajdak. "Atomic Blonde."Pop Culture Case Study #256 (July 31, 2017) Awake: A Dream From Standing Rock (USA: Myron Dewey, Josh Fox, and James Spione, 2017: 89 mins)
Roehl, Emily. "Deep histories and fluid futures in Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock."Jump Cut #59 (Fall 2019) ["“I am not dreaming. I am awake. I have been woken by the spirit inside that demanded I open my eyes and see the world around me, see that my children’s future was imperiled. See that my life couldn’t wait in slumber anymore. See that I was honored to be among those who are awake, to be alive at this point in time, to see the rising of the Oceti Sakowin, to see the gathering of the nations and beyond that, the gathering of all races and all faiths. Will you wake up and dream with us? Will you join our dream? Will you join us?” - Floris White Bull"]
"Berlin Syndrome."AB Film Review (May 17, 2017) ["Cate Shortland ... returns to the cinema with this great thriller, Berlin Syndrome, which stars Teresa Palmer in a career best performance as a tourist in Berlin who finds herself in a difficult situation."]
Kempenaar, Adam and Josh Larsen. "BlacKkKlansman / Top 5 Spike Lee Shots."Filmspotting #693 (August 17, 2018) ["Master filmmaker, trickster, provocateur, Spike Lee has been making bold and timely films for over three decades now. And with his latest, BLACKkKLANSMAN, he's also made one of his best. On this week's show, Adam and Josh give Lee the career retrospective treatment with the Filmspotting Top 5: Spike Lee Shots, along with a review of the outstanding and thought-provoking KLANSMAN."]
Coakley, Jamie Sims. "Cadillac Tramps: Life on the Edge."Film School Radio (October 5, 2017) ["The 1990’s were the “Golden Age” of the Orange County California music scene. Bands like The Offspring, No Doubt, Sugar Ray and Social Distortion where blowing up the mainstream and selling millions of records around the world. Meanwhile, the undisputed kings of the O.C. scene, The Cadillac Tramps, were falling apart. Infighting, addiction, frustration and dysfunction would tear the band apart at the peak of their success, but their bond would prove too strong to remain broken for long. THE CADILLAC TRAMPS: LIFE ON THE EDGE is a humble, honest and entertaining look at five young men who found each other in sobriety, created a lasting musical legacy that influenced indie rock’s biggest bands, and overcame the past to support lead singer Michael “Gabby” Gaborno as he fights for his life from the ravages of Hep-C. First time filmmaker, Jamie Sims Coakley,expertly mixes a colorful combination of archival footage, insightful artist interviews and intimate vérité footage together into an arresting, heartwarming and cautionary tale of brotherhood, reflection and the power of music to heal and unite us."]
City of Ghosts (USA: Matthew Heineman, 2017: 92 mins) Al-Hamza, Abdel Aziz, Mohammed Al-Musali and Matthew Heineman. "Raqqa Liberated."On the Media (October 18, 2017) ["News came this week that the US backed Syrian Democratic Forces had finally liberated the city of Raqqa from the grip of ISIS. For the past three years the people trapped inside the oppressive ISIS regime suffered daily. Yet, reports of torture and assassination in the terrorized city did not come from traditional outlets. Rather, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a band of citizen journalists led by Abdel Aziz al-Hamza, risked their lives to report the egregious conditions in a place that was notoriously difficult to enter or escape. Matthew Heineman followed this group in his new documentary, City of Ghosts. Bob speaks with Heineman and al-Hamza about their experiences in Raqqa and how these journalists found inspiration to continue their work. Also, Iraq’s nine-month operation to push ISIS out of Mosul yielded bittersweet news this summer: the liberation of a starved and terrorized city. Over the previous three years, ISIS sought to completely isolate the people of Mosul by shutting off access to the internet and outside media. Radio Al-Ghad, a community radio station, defied the media blackout and risked death to give a voice to the civilian population. Brooke speaks to Al-Ghad’s founder Mohammed Al-Musali about how his heroic team managed to shine a light into Mosul, win over ISIS supporters, and save countless lives."] Claire's Camera (France/South Korea: Hong Sang-Soo, 2017: 69 mins)
Cries From Syria (USA/Czech Republic: Evgeny Afineevsky, 2017: 111 mins) Afineevsky, Evgeny. "Cries From Syria."Film School (March 4, 2017) ["CRIES FROM SYRIA will take the audience on a unique, five-year journey, from Syria to Turkey, through Jordan, Lebanon and into Europe.They will see the situation from the inside out, through the eyes of those trapped in-between – many of them children – and experience their suffering, bravery, struggle, survival and hope. In March 2011, the Syrian people, inspired by events in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, rose up against the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Public protests sparked by the arrest and torture of children who had been detained after writing anti-regime graffiti led to violent crackdowns. As what would become a long civil war intensified, the Islamic State and other groups began seizing Syrian territory and imposing brutally oppressive conditions of their own. Stranded between the opposing forces in the conflict, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed, seven million have been internally displaced and more than five million have desperately tried to survive by fleeing the country. Two-thirds of those who have fled to date are women and children. CRIES FROM SYRIA is a searing, comprehensive account of the Syrian war from the inside out. The film draws on hundreds of hours of war footage from Syrian activists and citizen journalists, as well as testimony from child protestors, revolution leaders, human rights defenders, ordinary citizens and high-ranking army generals who have defected from the government. Their collective stories are a cry for attention and help from a world that little understands their reality or agrees on what to do about it. Oscar®-nominated Director Evgeny Afineevsky (Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom) joins us to talk about his unflinching look inside our own heart of darkness."]
Barnard, Clio and Andrew Kötting. "Dark River."The Cinematologists #58 (February 22, 2018) ["The arrival of a new film by Clio Barnard promises an in-depth and uncompromising study of character and place; Dark River, her new film set in the harsh and beautiful Yorkshire farming landscape, is no exception. The northern locale links to her previous films The Arbor and The Self Giant, as does the bleak and brutal tragedy of the human stories. However, this rural tale, based on the Rose Tremain novel Trespass, is somewhat of a departure from the urban working-class focus of those previous films.
In this Q&A, presented in association with Cinecity, Clio talks about the film with long-time friend Andrew Kötting, touching on the development of the script from the book, the casting, her minimalist aesthetic, the P.J. Harvey soundtrack and the challenges of the rural locations."]
The Day After (South Korea: Hong Sang-Soo, 2017: 92 mins)
Wilson, Lana. The DepartureFilm School (October 15, 2017) ["THE DEPARTURE, Lana Wilson’s (After Tiller) poetic and deeply moving look at a former punk-turned-Buddhist priest in Japan who has made a career out of helping suicidal people find reasons to live. One of the discoveries of the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and featured at some of the world’s top documentary festivals, THE DEPARTURE follows a 44-year-old Tokyo native, Ittetsu Nemoto loves riding his motorcycle and dancing all night in clubs. But he’s also a Rinzai Zen priest, who lives with his wife, mother and baby son at a temple in the remote countryside of Gifu prefecture, Japan. There, over the last ten years, he has become famous for his work in combating suicide. But this work has come increasingly at the cost of his own family and health, as he refuses to draw lines between the people he counsels and himself. With astonishing access and artistry, Wilson’s camera captures Nemoto at a crossroads, when his growing self-destructive tendencies lead him to confront the same question his patients ask him: what makes life worth living? Director Lana Wilson (After Tiller) joins us for a conversation about death, love, priorities and family."]
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 1."Talkhouse (April 17, 2018) ["In the first part of their enthralling two-part conversation for the Talkhouse Podcast, the pair discuss winning big at the Oscars, surviving award season, how to stay a scrapper despite success, del Toro’s apprenticeship under makeup legend Dick Smith, the remarkable story of Friedkin and the Pazuzu statue in The Exorcist, the plagiarism controversy surrounding The Shape of Water, and much more."]
"Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) Talks with William Friedkin (The Devil and Father Amorth), Part 2."Talkhouse (April 19, 2018) ["Here, the longtime friends discuss the genesis of and remarkable stories surrounding Friedkin’s compelling new documentary about the Vatican’s exorcist,The Devil and Father Amorth. In the process, they tackle some of the most substantial topics imaginable, including: Christ, Hitler, religion, evil, reason vs. emotion, empathy vs. fear, free will, the impending apocalypse — and how filmmakers can make a difference in a world on the brink."]
Dina (USA: Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles, 2017: 103 mins)
Santini, Antonio and Dan Sickles. "Dina."Film School Radio (October 13, 2017) ["DINA, an outspoken and eccentric 49-year-old in suburban Philadelphia, invites her fiancé Scott, a Walmart door greeter, to move in with her. Having grown up neurologically diverse in a world blind to the value of their experience, the two are head-over-heels for one another, but shacking up poses a new challenge.Getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him in to only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter.She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved DINA, after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, DINA, remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. DINA captures the cadences and candid conversations of a relationship that reexamines the notion of love on-screen. DINA is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.
Hellstrom, Monica and Simon Lereng Wilmont. "The Distant Barking of Dogs."Film School Radio (January 11, 2019) ["THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS is set in Eastern Ukraine on the frontline of the war. The film follows the life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year, witnessing the gradual erosion of his innocence beneath the pressures of war. Oleg lives with his beloved grandmother, Alexandra, in the small village of Hnutove. Having no other place to go, Oleg and Alexandra stay and watch as others leave the village. Life becomes increasingly difficult with each passing day, and the war offers no end in sight. In this now half-deserted village where Oleg and Alexandra are the only true constants in each other’s lives, the film shows just how fragile, but crucial, close relationships are for survival. Through Oleg’s perspective, the film examines what it means to grow up in a warzone. It portrays how a child’s universal struggle to discover what the world is about grows interlaced with all the dangers and challenges the war presents. THE DISTANT BARKING OF DOGS unveils the consequences of war bearing down on the children in Eastern Ukraine, and by natural extension, the scars and self- taught life lessons this generation will carry with them into the future. Director Simon Lereng Wilmont and Producer Monica Hellström stop by to talk about this harrowing, intimate and loving look at Oleg and Alexandra’s claustrophobic life on the frontlines of an undeclared war."]
Bratt, Peter. "Dolores."Film School Radio (September 8, 2017) ["Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century—and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change. DOLORES is directed by Peter Bratt (LA MISSION) and Executive Produced by humanitarian and Grammy Award-winning musician Carlos Santana."]
---. "Dolores."Radio West (March 6, 2018) ["Dolores Huerta co-founded the first farmers workers union alongside Cesar Chavez. But she's not as well known as Chavez, and the director Peter Bratt believes she left out of the history because she was a strong defiant woman. Bratt set out to change that. Few people know the name Dolores Huerta, but she’s among the most important activists in American history. Huerta was an equal partner with Cesar Chavez in co-founding the first farm workers unions. Together they fought for racial and labor justice, a struggle she continues to this day, at age 87. Director Peter Bratt joins us to discuss his documentary film about Huerta’s lifelong battle for civil rights. It’s also about the personal sacrifices and unconventional choices of a complicated woman."]
The Endless (USA: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, 2017: 111 mins)
Jinx and Chris Maynard. "The Endless."Following Films (April 24, 2017) ["The Endless is the latest film from directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. It's the story of two brothers who return to deal with the cult from which they fled a decade ago, only to find that there might be some truth to the group’s otherworldly beliefs."]
Greenberg, Jamie. "Future '38."Following Films (June 3, 2017) ["FUTURE '38 was an Audience Award winner at Slamdance this year and will be having its New York premiere on June 8th at the Art of Brooklyn Film Fest. It's a hilarious, screwball comedy and sci-fi throwback to the golden era of cinema about a time-travel adventure which presents the exotic future-world of 2018 A.D., as imagined by the film-makers of 1938. The film stars Betty Gilpin, Nick Westrate, Robert John Burke, Ethan Phillips and Sean Young with a special appearance by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Today my guest on the show is the director/writer of FUTURE '38 Jaime Greenberg. We discuss how the Technicolor "bag of gumballs" that was the color pallet for THE WIZARD OF OZ influenced the look of FUTURE '38, the importance of blurred scratches, our mutual love for HIS GIRL FRIDAY, JOHN WATERS, and the immortal Howard Hawks classic BRINGING UP BABY."]
Ghost in the Shell (USA/India/China/Japan/Hong Kong/UK/New Zealand/Canada/Australia: Rupert Sanders, 2017: 107 mins) Koski, Genevieve, et al. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt 1."The Next Picture Show #72 (April 18, 2017) ["The poorly received new live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL draws inspiration from a lot of different sources — including one that was itself inspired by the original GHOST IN THE SHELL anime: The Wachowskis’ 1999 future-thriller THE MATRIX, which turns on a similar form of science-fiction dysmorphia. In this half of the discussion, we focus in on tiny miracle that is THE MATRIX, a studio-backed, creator-driven sci-fi film that drew from a deep well of cinematic, literary, and philosophical reference points — and would go on to influence countless other films in turn, including, naturally, the new GHOST IN THE SHELL"]
---. "The Matrix / Ghost in the Shell (2017), Pt. 2."The Next Picture Show #73 (April 20, 2017) ["In this half of our discussion of the “weird conceptual sandwich” that is THE MATRIX and GHOST IN THE SHELL, we puzzle over why the latter hyper-stylish, cerebral film fails where the former succeeds. The two films ultimately have different aims, but their approaches are surprisingly similar — though it’s how they differ that’s most telling."]
Negri, Victoria. "Gold Star."Following Films (November 5, 2017) ["After dropping out of music school, Vicki drifts aimlessly between her family’s house in Connecticut and an itinerant existence in New York. When her father suffers a debilitating stroke, she has to become his primary caretaker. Vicki resists connecting with him, and making peace with herself, but finds a way forward thanks to a new friend and a life-changing event."]
Good Luck (France/Germany: Ben Russell, 2017: 143 mins)
Herron, Christopher. "Labour in Real Time: Ben Russell Interview (Good Luck)."The Seventh Art (November 10, 2017) ["Ben Russell is an experimental filmmaker whose latest film, Good Luck (2017), explores the spaces and labour of a copper mine in Bor, Serbia and a smaller gold mine in Suriname. The Super 16mm shot film had its North American premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where we talked to Ben about the making of the film."]
Gook (USA: Justin Chon, 2017: 94 mins) Chon, Justin. "Gook."Film School Radio (August 18, 2017) ["In Justin Chon’s feature film GOOK is a dramedy about Eli and Daniel, two Korean American brothers, who own a struggling shoe store and their unique and unlikely friendship with Kamilla, an 11-year old African American girl. The film opens with Eli scoring a stash of fresh sneakers as his golden ticket to get out of debt and fix his biggest problem: keeping his dad’s shoe store open. Against her brother Keith’s warnings, Kamilla ditches school again to help out at the shoe store, her mother’s former workplace.Everything is going as planned until Kamilla accidentally reveals a gifted pair of expensive sneakers to Keith. Keith realizes Kamilla has been going to the shoe store. Out of anger towards Eli and Daniel he uses this opportunity as revenge and plans to steal all the shoes. Eli must make the ultimate decision for the future of the store and the people he loves. With the chaos of the LA Riots moving towards them, the trio are forced to defend their store against Keith while contemplating the future of their own personal dreams and the true meaning of family. Director, Writer and Executive Producer Justin Chon joins us for a conversation on his powerful, soul searching film about race, friendship, and family."]
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."]
I Am Not a Witch(UK/France/Germany/Zambia: Rungano Nyoni, 2017: 93 mins)
Deighan, Sam, Spencer Seams, and Mike White. "I Am Not a Witch (2017)."The Projection Booth #537 (August 25, 2021) ["We conclude African Cinema month with a look at Rungano Nyoni's I Am Not A Witch (2017) in which a little girl (Maggie Mulubwa) lives with a group of witches in Zambia while being exploited by a government official."]
Henrietta Lacks."Radio Lab (April 18, 2017) ["With all the recent talk about HBO's upcoming film, we decided it would be good time to re-run our story of one woman's medically miraculous cancer cells, and how Henrietta Lacks changed modern science and, eventually, her family's understanding of itself."]
The Insult (Lebanon/Belgium/Cyprus/France/USA: Ziad Doueiri, 2017: 112 mins)
Hasler, Jeff. "Jane."Following Films (October 20, 2017) ["JANE is the story of how Jane Goodall became Jane Goodall – using footage shot by future husband Hugo van Lawick of her first experiences in Gombe, Tanzinia in the 1960’s. Previously thought to be lost forever, the footage was only recently discovered in a storage unit, and has been now masterfully intercut with interviews of present-day Jane Goodall to provide an in-depth portrait of her life. Directed by Bret Morgen (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE, MONTAGUE OF HECK) the documentary also features an enchanting original score by Philip Glass."]
Dunne, Griffin. "Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold."Film School Radio (October 27, 2017) ["Across more than 50 years of essays, novels, screenplays, and criticism, Joan Didion has been our premier chronicler of the ebb and flow of America’s cultural and political tides with observations on her personal – and our own – upheavals, downturns, life changes, and states of mind. In the intimate, extraordinary documentary JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD, actor and director Griffin Dunne unearths a treasure trove of archival footage and talks at length to his “Aunt Joan” about the eras she covered and the eventful life she’s lived, including partying with Janis Joplin in a house full of L.A. rockers; hanging in a recording studio with Jim Morrison; and cooking dinner for one of Charles Manson’s women for a magazine story. Didion guides us through the sleek literati scene of New York in the 1950s and early ’60s, when she wrote for Vogue; her return to her home state of California for two turbulent decades; the writing of her seminal books, including Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play It as It Lays, A Book of Common Prayer, and The White Album; her film scripts, including The Panic in Needle Park; her view of 1980s and ’90s political personalities; and the meeting of minds that was her long marriage to writer John Gregory Dunne. She reflects on writing about her reckoning with grief after Dunne’s death, in The Year of Magical Thinking (winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction), and the death of their daughter Quintana Roo, in Blue Nights. With commentary from friends and collaborators including Vanessa Redgrave, Harrison Ford, Anna Wintour, David Hare, Calvin Trillin, Hilton Als, and Susanna Moore, the most crucial voice belongs to Didion, one of the most influential American writers alive today. Director Griffin Dunne (American Werewolf in London, After Hours) joins us for a conversation on “Aunt Joan” and her fiercely personal body of remarkable body of fiction and non-fiction."]
Kong: Skull Island (USA/China/Australia/Canada: Jordan Vogt-Roberts, 2017: 118 mins)
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Kong: Skull Island / King Kong (1933), Pt. 1."The Next Picture Show #68 (March 21, 2017) ["Does every generation get the Kong it deserves? That’s the question on our minds with the release of Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ new take on the great ape, KONG: SKULL ISLAND, which inspired us to go all the way back to the source: 1933’s medium-defining KING KONG. In this half of the discussion, we attempt to separate the movie from the cinema myth, grapple with some less savory aspects of the film’s legacy, and give Keith a few more opportunities to rail against the term “dated.”"]
---. "Kong: Skull Island / King Kong (1933), Pt. 2."The Next Picture Show #69 (March 23, 2017) ["We return to Skull Island to puzzle over the stylish curiosity that is Jordan Vogt-Roberts’s new take on the classic film monster, KONG: SKULL ISLAND. Why is this movie aping APOCALYPSE NOW? Have we reached our limit of giant CGI creatures pummeling each other? And, most pertinent of all, how does this bigger, bolder vision of Kong reflect and react to the legacy of its legendary cinematic ancestor, 1933's KING KONG?"]
Koski, Genevieve, Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias. "Batman (1989) / The Lego Batman Movie (Pt. 1)."The Next Picture Show #64 (February 21, 2017) ["This week’s show tells a tale of two Batmen — plus a whole bunch of other Batmen in between. The success of the new family-friendly LEGO BATMAN MOVIE inspired us to go back to a very different earlier iteration of The Caped Crusader: Tim Burton’s 1989 series-starter BATMAN, which took the comic-book hero into darker realms than he’d previously occupied onscreen. In this half, we talk about how Burton and Michael Keaton’s vision for the character functions in the larger context of Batman adaptations over the years, as well as Burton’s subsequent career. "]
---. "Batman (1989) / The Lego Batman Movie (Pt. 2)."The Next Picture Show #65 (February 23, 2017) ["Tim Burton’s BATMAN kick-started the cinematic and pop-culture proliferation of the now-ubiquitous Batman, who today can not only sustain multiple movies at once, but also provides ample fodder for the reference-happy new THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE. In this half of our discussion of all things Batmen, we talk about all the ways LEGO BATMAN draws on — and benefits from — the character’s long history, and consider how the larger Bat Universe has evolved on film since Burton’s day."]
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Alien (1979) / Life (2017), Part 1."The Next Picture Show #70 (April 4, 2017) ["The new LIFE has come in for some pointed comparisons to Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, which seems like as good an excuse as any to revisit the unimpeachable 1979 space thriller. In this half of the conversation, we marvel at how a film so narratively economical can be so deliberately paced, and still manage to induce scares after multiple viewings."]
---. "Alien (1979) / Life (2017), Part 2."The Next Picture Show #71 (April 6, 2017) ["It’s perhaps unfair to compare the uninspiring new LIFE with the genre-defining ALIEN, but we do it anyway in this half of our discussion of how the Ridley Scott classic (and GRAVITY) informed Daniel Espinosa’s halfhearted homage. After wrestling with our apathy toward the newer movie, we compare the two films’ extraterrestrial baddies, their effects, and their use of space, both outer and inner. "]
Nobody Speak: Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Trials of the Free Press(USA: Brian Knappenberger, 2017) Knappenberger, Brian. "Sundance 2017: Nobody Speak."Radio West (January 24, 2017) ["Director Brian Knappenberger’s documentary film Nobody Speak explores the court battle between online tabloid Gawker and pro wrestler Hulk Hogan as case study, among others, of how big money can use litigation to check the freedom of the press. It also asks what a thin-skinned billionaire in the executive branch could do to media outlets that anger him."] Nobody's Watching (Argentina/USA/Spain/Brazil/Colombia: Julia Solomonoff, 2017: 102 mins) Solomonoff, Julia. "Five Questions for Nobody's Watching Director."Filmmaker (May 24, 2017)
November (Estonia/Poland/Netherlands: Rainer Sarnet, 2017: 115 mins)
Rengifo, Alci. "Love in the Shadowland of Myth: Rainer Sarnet’s November."Riot Material (March 2, 2018) ["Cinema has the capacity to become a conduit for dreams and nightmares, combining both into something the ancients could have scarcely imagined- the physical manifestation of myth. If critics such as Roland Barthes and Octavio Paz are correct, then the ritual of cinema or television has replaced the pagan rituals of old. Yet the primitive force of myth remains embedded in human expression, no matter if the medium has changed. Estonian filmmaker Rainer Sarnet’s new film, November (2017), is pure myth, a fairy tale lifted from the page and given life by moving images, the reverie of cinematography and the atmosphere of music. It is imagined and produced with a vivid sense of time and place, yet creating an environment outside of time. And like all myths, its grand and magical flourishes are decorations for a story that is simple in its evocation of human feelings, desires and experiences."]
Hotchkiss, Ralf, et al. "The Nuns, The Priests, and The Bombs."Ralph Nader Radio Hour (December 24, 2017) ["We track down disabilities champion, Ralf Hotchkiss, who is in Nicaragua helping poor communities design and build more durable, low cost wheelchairs. Then filmmaker Helen Young promotes her gripping documentary about the elderly activists who snuck onto two of the most fortified military installations in the country to peacefully protest the nuclear weapons industry. Plus, David, Steve and Ralph talk more about Al Franken and sexual harassment as well as the GOP tax bill."]
Of Fathers and Sons (Germany/Lebanon/USA/Qatar/Syria/Netherlands: Talal Derki, 2017: 99 mins)
Kane, Eli and Pamela Spees. "Pipeline Resistance Groups and the film On A Knife Edge; Perpetual War and the Anti-War Movement."Law and Disorder (March 18, 2018) ["Pipeline Resistance Groups and the film On A Knife Edge: It’s now more than one year since law enforcement evicted the last Dakota Access Pipeline resistance camps. The pipeline was near completion and was supposed to cross sacred Indian land in South Dakota in order to bring Canadian tar sand oil from north to south through the United States. Then the project was stalled by a tremendous solidarity movement lead by indigenous peoples along with their allies only to be green lighted by the newly elected Trump administration which has proven to be a handmaiden of the fossil fuel industry. Guest – Eli Kane, a Brooklyn-based producer who has worked in film and music for 15 years. He has made two other documentaries for PBS about land rights and food sovereignty, including Land Rush, which won a Peabody Award in 2013. Guest – Attorney Pamela Spees is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights and represents environmental justice groups opposing the efforts of Tigerswan, a private military company which worked with corporate and governmental entities at Standing Rock in an attempt to suppress the movement against the pipeline, to operate in Louisiana."]
One of Us (USA: Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, 2017: 95 mins)
Ewing, Heidi and Rachel Grady. "One of Us."Film School Radio (October 15, 2017) ["In their new documentary ONE OF US, acclaimed observational filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (JESUS CAMP, DETROPIA) take a deep and moving look at the lives of three individuals who have chosen to leave the hugely insular world of Hasidic Judaism.The film follows Etty, a mother of seven, as she decides to leave a violent marriage and divorce her husband; Ari, a teenager on the verge of manhood who is struggling with addiction and the effects of childhood abuse; and Luzer, an actor who, despite having found success in the secular world, still wrestles with his decision eight years earlier to leave the Hasidic community. Produced over three years, ONE OF US offers unique and intimate access to the lives of all three as they deal not only with questions of their beliefs but also with the consequences of leaving the only community they have ever known. With their trademark sensitivity and keen interest in the nature of faith, Ewing and Grady chronicle these journeys towards personal freedom that comes at a very high cost. Co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady join us for a conversation on their emotionally wrenching look into a world of dogmatism, ostracism and community."]
Lazic, Elena. "Interview: Chloé Zhao on The Rider, her feminist film about masculinity."The Seventh Row (April 27, 2018) ["I want to tell our boys that it’s okay to be vulnerable, that they don’t have to be like the tough winners on our screens. I want to tell our sons that they can have broken dreams, but a real hero is someone who keeps on dreaming anyway. They should know that a real hero can be vulnerable, cry, and still be loved. I think that’s also very important for feminism: bringing men and women together instead of making them enemies."]
Rodents of Unusual Size (USA: Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, 2017: 71 mins)
Gibson, Bradley. "Snowflake."Film Threat (January 24, 2019) Song to Song (USA: Terrence Malick, 2017: 129 mins)
Enelow, Shonni, Violet Lucca and Nick Pinkerton. "Terrence Malick."Film Comment Podcast (April 11, 2017) ["“You don’t want something to look too staged in movies or they look overly presented. You don’t know what comes out . . . You don’t know what you have at the end of the day.” That was Terrence Malick during a rare public appearance at SXSW last month, on the occasion of the premiere of the Austin, Texas–set Song to Song. Although the film nominally follows characters through the city’s music scene and features the likes of Patti Smith (for a few minutes) and John Lydon (for 10 seconds), it doesn’t seek to document a milieu so much as evoke the breadth of human experience in all its tactility and transience. Needless to say, there’s a lot to discuss, so this episode of The Film Comment Podcast thoughtfully considers Song to Song and Malick’s artistic output. FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca mulls it over with contributors Shonni Enelow, English professor at Fordham and author of Method Acting and Its Discontents, and Nick Pinkerton, member of the New York Film Critics Circle, in a conversation covering Malick’s experimentation with free-associative forms, the 19th-century influence on his worldview, his depictions of gender, and how the critical discourse surrounding his work often reflects subtly different philosophies of art and criticism."]
Son of Sofia (Bulgaria/France/Greece: Elina Pskou, 2017: 105 mins)
Pskou, 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."]
Haskell, Molly, Michael Koresky and Violet Lucca. "Steven Spielberg."Film Comment Podcast (October 3, 2017) ["Looking ahead to the New York Film Festival premiere of Susan Lacy’s documentary Spielberg, this week’s Film Comment podcast considers the household-name auteur: the architect of the modern blockbuster, and a surviving (and thriving) master of the Classical Hollywood vernacular. Molly Haskell is on hand to impart wisdom from her most recent book Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, which came out in the spring, as well as firsthand recollections of writing about Spielberg in the age of second-wave feminism. She joins Film Society of Lincoln Center Editorial Director Michael Koresky, who edited the Reverse Shot book Steven Spielberg: Nostalgia and the Light, published with Museum of the Moving Image this summer, and FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca for a discussion spanning Spielberg’s big marquee titles and his less appreciated works."]
Spoor (Poland/Germany/Czech Republic/Sweden/Slovakia/France: Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik, 2017: 128 mins)
Taubin, Amy. "Mother Earth."Film Comment (March/April 2018) ["An unclassifiable, unflinching eco-mystery, Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor shows off the pioneering Pole’s stylistic verve—and nerves of steel"]
Kron, Joan. "Take My Nose Please ... A Joan Iron Film."Film School (April 21, 2017) ["TAKE MY NOSE PLEASE is a seriously funny and wickedly subversive look at the role comedy has played in exposing the pressures on women to be attractive and society’s desire/shame relationship with plastic surgery."]
López, Issa. "Pan's Labyrinth."Switchblade Sisters #4 (November 30, 2017) ["This week is a fantastical episode of Switchblade Sisters where April sits down with director Issa Lopez to discuss the influential Guillermo Del Toro film, Pan's Labyrinth. Issa opens up about her lonesome adolescence, the death of her mother, and how these events influenced her work. She tells April about the emotional process of working with children on her most recent film, the fantasy-horror Tigers Are Not Afraid. And she also discusses the culture of witchcraft and magic in Mexico and how that pervades many Mexican artist's work."]
Farahani, Kasra. "Tilt."Following Films (April 28, 2017) ["All seems normal with Joseph and Joanne. Joanne is pregnant with their first child. Life in their little urban house is cozy and familiar. But something is off about Joseph. He doesn’t seem excited about the baby. Work on his documentary is becoming increasingly untethered. As Joseph struggles to maintain the routines of his domestic life, his mask begins to slip. Late at night, while Joanne thinks he is working, Joseph prowls the streets of Los Angeles, deliberately courting danger. Joanne is growing worried about Joseph’s odd behavior. But not as worried as she should be."]
Tom of Finland (Finland/Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Iceland/USA: Dome Karukosi, 2017: 115 mins)
Grabowsky, Jessica, et al. "Tom of Finland (2017)."The Projection Booth #348 (November 11, 2017) ["Finnish artist Touko Laaksonen redefined gay erotica with his intricate, fetishistic drawings of muscle-bound uniformed men. Dome Karukoski's 2017 bio-pic Tom of Finland explores the life of Laaksonen (Pekka Strang) and his legacy. Maitland McDonagh (120 Days Books) joins Mike to discuss Tom of Finland, Daddy and the Muscle Academy, and more."]
Strang, Pekka. "Tom of Finland."Film School (October 15, 2017) ["This stirring biopic follows the life of the artist Touko Laaksonen (Pekka Strang), known to the world as Tom of Finland, whose proudly erotic drawings shaped the fantasies of a generation of gay men, influencing art and fashion before crossing over into the wider cultural consciousness. But who was the man behind the leather? After serving in the army in WWII, Touko returned to repressive Finnish society of the 1950s, haunted by traumatic experiences. Moving in with his affectionate but unenlightened sister Kaija (Jessica Grabowsky), he fell in love with her lodger, handsome dancer Veli (Lauri Tiklanen), who Kaija also fancied. Unable to express his feelings openly, Touko poured them into his drawings, creating his vision of the hypermasculine leatherman. Soon his art was famous under his secret pseudonym, but getting it published was a struggle that took Touko to California, where he and his art were finally embraced amid the sexual revolution of the 1970s.Tom’s story is one of love, courage and perseverance, mirroring the gay liberation movement for which his leather-clad studs served as a defiant emblem. Finland’s Official Selection for Best Foreign Language Film consideration at the 90th Academy Awards. Actor Pekka Strang joins us for a conversation on his nuanced and winning portrayal of an iconic artist and unexpected champion of equal rights for the LGBTQ community."]
Tonsler Park (USA: Kevin Jerome Everson, 2017: 80 mins)
Trophy (USA: Christina Clusiao and Saul Schwarz, 2017) Clusiao, Christina and Saul Schwarz. "Sundance 2017: Trophy."Radio West (January 20, 2017) ["Filmmakers Shaul Shwarz and Christina Clusiau followed hunters, breeders, and conservationists to ask what we do to save the great species of the world from extinction. The high cost of trophy hunting trips to Africa often fund conservation efforts and communities, but critics say there’s a danger in treating animals like commodities. Schwarz and Clusiau join Doug to talk about that relationship between hunting and conservation."]
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."]
Voyeur (USA: Myles Kane and Josh Koury, 2017: 95 mins)
Kane, Myles, Josh Koury and Gay Talese. "Voyeur."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast #164 (January 11, 2018) ["Directors Myles Kane and Josh Koury join writer Gay Talese to discuss the documentary Voyeur, which is now on Netflix. The film is about Talese’s controversial journey to publish a book on the subject of Gerald Foos, who purchased a motel in Colorado in the 1960s and furnished the rooms with louvered vents that allowed him to spy on his guests."]
Like Stories of Old. "The Problem of Other Minds – How Cinema Explores Consciousness." (Posted on Youtube: May 31, 2018) ["How have films engaged the problem of other minds? In this video essay, I discuss cinematic explorations into consciousness in the context of the cognitive revolution that has challenged many of the basic assumptions about what was for a long time believed to be a uniquely human trait." Uses Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?: "Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence."]
Western (Germany/Bulgaria/Austria: Valeska Grisebach, 2017: 121 mins)
Lachman, Ed and Vittorio Storaro. "Master Class."The Close-Up (November 29, 2017) ["On this week’s podcast, two legendary cinematographers discuss their craft and careers. Ed Lachman (Carol, The Virgin Suicides, Erin Brockovich) discusses his collaboration with Todd Haynes on Wonderstruck, and Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Last Tango in Paris) talks about his work on the new Woody Allen Film, Wonder Wheel. The conversation was part of last month’s 55th New York Film Festival, where both films had gala premieres. The master class was moderated by NYFF Director Kent Jones."]
Winslet, Kate. "Talks Wonder Wheel."The Close-Up #156 (November 15, 2017) ["...an in-depth conversation with Academy Award-winning actor Kate Winslet, who stars in the new Woody Allen film Wonder Wheel. The film premiered as the Closing Night selection at the 55th New York Film Festival, and it begins its official theatrical run on December 1st. During NYFF, Winslet joined Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold for an hour-long conversation about her illustrious career, from her experience working with Woody Allen to her role in the forthcoming Avatar 2."]
The Work (USA: Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous, 2017: 89 mins)
Just watched one of the most powerful films I have seen in awhile. I'm shaken, I'm at a loss of words, this should be viewed - here is an eloquent statement from Silent Dawn on Letterboxd about the documentary: "Rattles the soul. The deep, dark shit. Emphasizes that, at the end of the day, all we humans can do is embrace our common issues and rise above them. It doesn't have to be the same every goddamn time. We can teach kindness to our children. We can tell them that it's important to hug, kiss, and cry in pursuit of catharsis and empathy. We can provide a break in the cycle of violence and toxicity found in social masculine narratives. It starts with conversation, looking in the eyes of another, and letting tears stream forth, all because you feel something. It should be encouraged, and accepted, as normal, positive behavior. Our hearts should beat in unison. The Work is a landmark, simply due to its resolve and progression of respected human emotion. It visualizes bodies as they are: living, breathing, feeling. Let's show this in schools and talk about it afterward."
McLeary, Jairus. "The Work." Film School Radio (October 27, 2019) ["The riveting documentary THE WORK, set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, follows three men from outside as they participate in a four- day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. THE WORK offers a powerful and rare look past the cinder block walls, steel doors and the dehumanizing tropes in our culture to reveal a movement of change and redemption that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation. Director Jairus McLeary joins us to talk about the men, inmates and outsiders, the program and the challenges of making a film about men seeking to reclaim their lives."]
The Workshop (France: Laurent Cantet, 2017: 113 mins)
Morris, Errol, interviewed by Tom Lutz. "Errol Morris Explores the Death of Truth in America, Past and Present."LARB Radio Hour (December 15, 2017) ["It’s the question on everyone’s mind: How the hell did we get here, Donald Trump’s America? How did our belief in democratic ideals get warped into what Errol Morris terms the “bat shit craziness” of the Trump era? LARB’s Tom Lutz talks with Morris about his brilliant new film Wormword, which debuts this week on Netflix, and how it’s tale of an army scientist’s suspicious death in 1953 relates to the current crisis of a government we feel we fundamentally can’t trust. As Morris explains, a society that builds powerful, secretive, violent institutions cannot also be an honest democracy with citizens who demand to know the truth — and what better way to deliver this message than an uncanny, six-part, binge-worthy, murder mystery. Also, John Freeman returns to recommend Solmaz Sharif’s sublime book of verse, Look."]
Amazing Grace (USA: Alan Elliot and Sydney Pollack, 2018: 89 mins) Barber, William, II, et al. "Amazing Aretha."Open Source (May 2, 2019) ["Aretha Franklin made you believe you were hearing both heaven and earth. Her voice was not of this world: it was “a gift of God,” people have said. She was the reason women want to sing, said Mary J. Blige, who covered Aretha hits. James Baldwin said the way Aretha sings is “the way I want to write.” Our guest Ed Pavlić calls her voice a Hubble telescope, taking us back to the origin of time and truth."]
A Quiet Place (USA: John Krasinski, 2018: 90 mins) Kern, Laura. "Scare Tactics: Senseless Violence."Film Comment (May/June 2018) ["The loss of hearing or sight (or more) can trigger the ever-potent drama of survival against the odds"]
Purac, Selma A. "Selling 'Silence' in Contemporary Horror: Krasinski’s Quiet Consumers."Monstrum #4 (October 2021) ["John Krasinski’s 2018 horror film A Quiet Place broke through the noise of a box office dominated by blockbusters and pre-existing properties.1 Acclaimed by critics, the relatively modest production, which cost only 17 million dollars to make, went on to gross over 340 million dollars worldwide (AQP Numbers). In part, this success is rooted in the film’s focus on the horror soundscape, which is central to its very premise."]
Greene, Robert and Larry Fessenden. "Bisbee '17; Depraved."FilmWax Radio (July 11, 2019) [""Bisbee '17" is a nonfiction feature film set in Bisbee, Arizona, an eccentric old mining town just miles away from both Tombstone and the Mexican border. Radically combining collaborative documentary, western and musical elements, the film follows several members of the close knit community as they attempt to reckon with their town’s darkest hour. Then old friend of the podcast, Larry Fessenden, returns to discuss his latest film from Glass Eye Pix, "Depraved" which stars two actor friends of the podcast: David Call & Joshua Leonard. "Depraved" centers on Henry, a field surgeon suffering from PTSD after combat in the Middle East, who creates a man out of body parts in a makeshift lab in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The creature he creates must navigate a strange new world and the rivalry between Henry and his conniving collaborator Polidori."]
Serpe, Nick. "Bisbee's Ghosts."Dissent (Winter 2019) ["A forced exodus haunts a border town’s past. Can a new documentary force a reckoning?"]
Black Mother (Jamaica/USA: Khalik Allah, 2018: 77 mins)
Labaki, Nadine. "Capernaum."Film School Radio (January 13, 2019) ["Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Nadine Labaki’s CAPERNAUM (“Chaos”) tells the story of Zain (Zain al Rafeea), a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the “crime” of giving him life. CAPERNAUM follows Zain, a gutsy streetwise child as he flees his negligent parents, survives through his wits on the streets, takes care of Ethiopian refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) and her baby son, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), being jailed for a crime, and finally, seeks justice in a courtroom. CAPERNAUM was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own. Following her script, Labaki placed her performers in scenes and asked them to react spontaneously with their own words and gestures. When the non-actors’s instincts diverged from the written script, Labaki adapted the screenplay to follow them. While steeped in the quiet routines of ordinary people, CAPERNAUM is a film with an expansive palette: without warning it can ignite with emotional intensity, surprise with unexpected tenderness, and inspire with flashes of poetic imagery. Although it is set in the depths of a society’s systematic inhumanity, CAPERNAUM is ultimately a hopeful film that stirs the heart as deeply as it cries out for action. Director and writer Nadine Labaki joins us for a conversation on her impassioned new film and how CAPERNAUM changed her and many of the cast and crew from this multi-award winning film."]
Harron, Mary. "Charlie Says."Film Comment Podcast (May 29, 2019) ["For our latest Film Comment Free Talk, the director of I Shot Andy Warhol and American Psycho sat down for a conversation about her latest, Charlie Says. The film looks past the mythology of the Manson Family murders to focus on the experiences of three women under the charismatic cult leader’s spell, both at the time of the crimes and later, in prison. Harron and FC Editor-in-Chief discuss the genesis of the film, the director’s background as a punk-era music journalist, and her depictions of violence—both physical and psychological—on screen."]
Jordan, Michael B. "Creed II."The Treatment (November 23, 2018) ["Playing prideful characters coming into their own is something you see regularly in actor Michael B. Jordan's career with films like "Black Panther" and "Creed". Reprising his role alongside Sylvester Stallone, Jordan continues the emotionally charged journey of Adonis Creed in the sequel "Creed II". Today on The Treatment, Jordan joins Elvis in a discussion in choosing the film roles he does and his collaborations with longtime friend and filmmaker Ryan Coogler."]
Maing, Stephen and Edwin Raymond. "'Crime + Punishment' Exposes Racial Quotas in the NYPD & Retaliation Against Officers Who Speak Out."Democracy Now (January 8, 2019) ["A group of New York Police Department officers are challenging what they call a racially charged policy of quotas for arrests and summonses. Known as the ”NYPD 12,” they risked their reputations and livelihoods to confront their superiors, fight illegal quotas and demand a more just police force. We look at a film following their story called “Crime + Punishment.” It has just been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. We speak with Stephen Maing, the film’s director and producer, and Lieutenant Edwin Raymond, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the NYPD 12."]
Damsel (USA: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner, 2018: 113 mins)
Bittencourt, Ella. "Latin American Movies at IFFR."Notebook (February 10, 2019) ["New films ranging from maximalist to minimalist, Brazil to Argentina, are among the highlights of the International Film Festival Rotterdam."]
Bailey, Buckey, Rob Bilot and Joe Kiger. "DuPont vs. the World: Chemical Giant Covered Up Health Risks of Teflon Contamination Across Globe."Democracy Now (January 23, 2018) ["“The Devil We Know,” that looks at how former DuPont employees, residents and lawyers took on the chemical giant to expose the danger of the chemical C8, found in Teflon and countless household products—from stain- and water-resistant apparel to microwave popcorn bags to dental floss. The chemical has now been linked to six diseases, including testicular and kidney cancers. We speak with Bucky Bailey, whose mother worked in the Teflon division of a DuPont plant in West Virginia while she was pregnant with him, and who was born with only one nostril and a deformed eye and has undergone more than 30 surgeries to fix the birth defects; Joe Kiger, lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against DuPont, and a school teacher in Parkersburg, West Virginia, who suffered from liver disease; and Rob Bilott, the attorney that brought DuPont to court."]
"Service Guarantees Citizenship [with Kino Lefter]."Hammer & Camera #26 (February 1, 2020) ["Fascism... What is it? And more importantly, is it in movies? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in our twenty-sixth episode, which features Abdul, Laura, and Evan from the Kino Lefter podcast. We talk Life is Beautiful, JoJo Rabbit, Dragged Across Concrete, and Starship Troopers as representations and depictions of fascist movements, and inquire about their function and the responsibilities of the artist."]
Edge of the Knife(Canada: Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown, 2018: 101 mins)
Reitman, Jason. "The Front Runner." The Treatment (November 30, 2018) ["Director, Jason Reitman, has a knack for examining stories that show life's messiness with films life "Juno" and "Thank You For Smoking." He further breaks down life in the public eye as a politician in "The Front Runner," following the rise of 1988 Democratic Presidential Nominee front runner Gary Hart who unexpectedly fell from the race and limelight amid affair allegations. On The Treatment, Reitman shares his interest in bringing real life scenarios to the big screen and the reactions of the real life players in his film."]
Grey, Orrin and Tyler Unsell. "Gags the Clown and Cosmic Horror." Signal Horizons (April 16, 2020) ["A small city in Wisconsin is terrorized by a mysterious clown who roams the streets late at night with nothing more than a handful of black balloons. The local news stations scramble to break the story on who he is and what he wants while a group of high schoolers see the clown’s arrival as an excuse to create a little trouble themselves. The police try to maintain order in a city that has gone clown crazy and a conservative podcast host vows to put a stop to the clown known as Gags while broadcasting his “clown hunt” on social media for the world to see."]
The Golem (Israel: Doran Paz and Yoav Paz, 2018: 95 mins)
LePire, Bobby. "The Golem." Film Threat (February 13, 2019)
Gotti (Canada/USA: Kevin Connolly, 2018: 104 mins)
Friedland, Adam, et al. "Respect."Chapo Trap House #222 (June 24, 2018) [A discussion of the mind-blowing awfulness of the film Gotti and why it is a film of/for Trump'merica.]
Hampton, Rachelle, Inkoo Kang and Marissa Martinelli. "Who Is The Hate U Give For?"Spoiler Specials (October 19, 2018) ["In this week’s episode, assistant editor Marissa Martinelli, editorial assistant Rachelle Hampton, and culture writer Inkoo Kang discuss The Hate U Give, starring Amandla Stenberg. How does this adaptation of the YA novel by Angie Thomas represent black trauma? Does the ending take away from its overall message? And who, ultimately, is the movie trying to reach?"]
Homecoming (Amazon Prime: Micah Bloomberg, Eli Horowitz and Sam Esmail, 2018 - )
Kuersten, Erich. "It's Called Scissoring: In Fabric."Acidemic (September 14, 2022) ["That's why it comes as no surprise that Strickland's In Fabric (2018), wiggles that stream of consciousness into three different streams, hoping one at least will hit the mark. We get: (a) a dark 70s-set period piece surrealist dystopian satire of England's Tony Richardson-style 'kitchen sink' (i.e. working class yabbo) character dramas; (b) a high-fashion updated or Tales of Manhattan-cum-decadent-capitalist horror satire equating fashion retail with kinky sex and black magic, and c) a work of détourned experimentalist fashion decollage, exploring the way the concept of "objectification" refuses to hold still and have its picture taken. In short, rather than leaning on Franco, Kümel, and Rollin, you can feel influences from Antonioni (modernist alienation), Bunuel (surreal deadpan satire), Argento (wild vivid colors and sudden violence you can feel in your nervous system like a cold shock), Fulci (gore as high art), Gilliam (dystopia!) and Kubrick (glacial gliding) all coalescing around a kind of Stan Brakhage / Tony Richardson collaboration for a Situationist detourned Sears catalogue from the mid-70s. Sure, technically it's about a red dress that kills its owners, sold by a Satanic department store, in an outskirt of 70s London. But that's like saying Psycho is about the difficulties of juggling a failing business with caregiving for an invalid parent."]
JT LeRoy (UK/Canada/USA: Marjorie Sturm, 2018: 108 mins)
Branch, Taylor and Trey Ellis. "MLK’s Fight Against Racism, Militarism & Capitalism: Historian Taylor Branch on King’s Final Years."Democracy Now (April 4, 2018) ["It was 50 years ago today when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. He was just 39 years old. We turn now to a conversation Democracy Now! recently had with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch and writer Trey Ellis, who both worked on the new HBO documentary “King in the Wilderness,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film recalls the last three years of King’s life, beginning after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite passage of the monumental legislation, King set his eyes on new battles by launching a Poor People’s Campaign and campaigning to stop the Vietnam War. King’s decision to publicly oppose the war isolated him from many of his closest supporters."]
Branch, Taylor, Trey Ellis and Peter Kunhardt. "MLK’s Radical Final Years: Civil Rights Leader Was Isolated After Taking On Capitalism & Vietnam War."Democracy Now (January 25, 2018) ["Fifty years ago this April, Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just 39 years old. Today we look back at the last three years of King’s life, beginning after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite passage of the monumental legislation, King set his eyes on new battles by launching a Poor People’s Campaign and campaigning to stop the Vietnam War. King’s decision to publicly oppose the war isolated him from many of his closest supporters. We feature clips from a new HBO documentary about King’s last years, titled “King in the Wilderness,” and speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch, who wrote the “America in the King Years” trilogy and is featured in the film, as well as the film’s director Peter Kunhardt and writer Trey Ellis."]
Collins, K. Austin, Michael Koresky and Farihah Zaman. "Queer Criticism."Film CommentPodcast (May 29, 2018) ["In his essay “Responsibilities of a Gay Film Critic”—first published in the January/February 1978 issue of Film Comment—Robin Wood wrote: “Critics are not, of course, supposed to talk personally. It is regarded as an embarrassment, as bad taste, and besides it is an affront to the famous ideal of ‘objectivity.’ . . . Yet I believe there will always be a close connection between critical theory, critical practice, and personal life; and it seems important that the critic should be aware of the personal bias that must inevitably affect his choice of theoretical position, and prepared to foreground it in his work.” Michael Koresky, Director of Editorial and Creative Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, invoked this landmark essay during a talk at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he was joined by K. Austin Collins, critic at Vanity Fair, and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman. Addressing representation in recent films like Love, Simon and Call Me by Your Name, the process of identification, and the absence of sexuality in the Marvel universe, their conversation is an earnest and thoughtful consideration of movie-viewing while queer."]
Meeting Gorbachev (UK/Germany/USA: Werner Herzog and Andre Singer, 2018: 90 mins)
Herzog, Werner. "On Gorbachev."On the Media (May 8, 2019) ["Renowned director and documentarian Werner Herzog's latest filmmaking endeavor examines the legacy of the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. For the film, Herzog sat down with the 88 year-old former General Secretary for a candid conversation about his complicated legacy. In the latest installment of Bob's Docs, Herzog joins Bob to discuss his filmmaking process and the history of the man he profiled."]
Reznor, Trent and Atticus Ross. "Variety's 2018 Music for Screens Summit."The Treatment (November 9, 2018) ["Before Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won an Oscar for their score of "The Social Network", they were and continue to be part of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Elvis recently sat down with them at Variety Magazine's Music for Screens Summit to discuss their careers, industry expectations of music accompaniment in film and their most recent work scoring Jonah Hill's directorial debut film "MID90s"."]
"Based on the celebrated novel by Emily M. Danforth, Akhavan’s second feature follows the titular character (Chloë Grace Moretz) in 1993 as she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center after getting caught with another girl on prom night. In the face of intolerance and denial, Cameron meets a group of fellow sinners, including amputee stoner Jane (Sasha Lane) and her friend Adam (Forrest Goodluck), a Lakota Two-Spirit. Together, this group forms an unlikely family with a will to fight. Akhavan and Connor evoke the emotional layers of Danforth’s novel with an effortless yet considered attention to the spirit of the ’90s and the audacious, moving performances of the ensemble cast." -- The Female Gaze (2018)
"Believing in a ‘female gaze’ means believing in a ‘male gaze,’ and I sincerely hope we’re moving more towards a world not bound by gender binaries. I believe in Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze deeply, but I find it difficult to address now because as we fight towards gender equality it also means redefining old terms. But I also understand that as a female-identifying cinematographer it is important to establish what qualities I attribute to my work, and I’d more call it an emotional gaze. I try to approach every subject with a level of respect and love; I’d say the ‘male’ gaze wishes to devour, conquer, and control. The future is a loss of ego—an abandonment of the concept of the director as the sole auteur, a participation in a new set structure and deteriorating, old power dynamics. I want to visually traverse new territories with a sensitivity and a commitment to putting work out in the world that doesn’t feed into a purely capitalistic machine." -- Ashley Connor (Cinematographer of The Miseducation of Cameron Post) quoted in the The Female Gaze (2018)
Bombach, Alexandria. "On Her Shoulders: Stunning Film Follows Nobel Peace Winner Nadia Murad’s Fight to End Sexual Violence."Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["We look at the remarkable story of Nadia Murad, the Yazidi human rights activist from Iraq who was recently awarded the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Murad was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 and repeatedly raped as she was held in captivity. After managing to escape, Murad fled Iraq and has dedicated her life to drawing international attention to the plight of the Yazidi people. The documentary “On Her Shoulders” follows Murad as she shares her story with the world. The documentary has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and recently received the Columbia Journalism duPont Award. We speak with the film’s award-winning director Alexandria Bombach."]
Cohen, Julie and Betsy West. "RBG: As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Recovers from Surgery, a Remarkable Film Charts Her Trajectory."Democracy Now (December 27, 2018) ["Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital following surgery that removed two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors called the surgery a success and said there’s no sign that Ginsburg’s cancer has spread. The health of the liberal 85-year-old justice—the oldest sitting justice on the Supreme Court bench—has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. In November, she was hospitalized after a fall that resulted in three fractured ribs. She previously fractured two ribs in 2012 and has twice survived cancer—pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Despite her illnesses, in her 25 years on the court Ginsburg has never missed a day of oral argument. We turn now to a remarkable award-winning documentary released earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It’s called ”RBG.”"]
Balsom, Erika. "The Critic Lady."Film Quarterly (June 10, 2019) ["Such positions upset a certain kind of critic, and not only because a growing concern for inclusivity might take column inches away from him. More fundamentally, the contemporary vitality of minoritarian criticism reframes his values as rather less than the only ones, the right ones, no longer to be taken for granted as valid. Every film is political, especially those that purport not to be. The same is true of film criticism. The castigation of 'identity politics' is an identity politics. The claim to appreciate a film exclusively on pure merit has always been spurious, for it disavows how thoroughly the very notions of achievement and relevance are shaped by power, generally to the detriment of those who have historically been excluded from the practices and institutions that build canons and criteria."]
Radsch, Courtney and Sarah Leah Whitson. "Netflix Censors Hasan Minhaj in Saudi Arabia, Sparking Backlash over Khashoggi Killing, War in Yemen."Democracy Now (January 3, 2019) ["Netflix is under fire for pulling an episode of U.S. comedian Hasan Minhaj’s show “Patriot Act” from Saudi Arabia, after officials from the kingdom complained to the streaming company that it violated Saudi cybercrime laws. The episode was posted in late October, a few weeks after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Hasan Minhaj sharply criticized the Saudi royal family and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The censored episode has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube, where it remains available to viewers in Saudi Arabia. On Wednesday, Minhaj tweeted, “Clearly, the best way to stop people from watching something is to ban it, make it trend online, and then leave it up on YouTube. Let’s not forget that the world’s largest humanitarian crisis is happening in Yemen right now. Please donate: help.rescue.org/donate/yemen.” We speak with Courtney Radsch, advocacy director at the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division."]
The Perfection(USA/Canada: Richard Shepard, 2018: 90 mins)
Cleaver, Sarah Kathryn and Mary Wild. "Women in Horror Episode 1: Perfection (The Perfection & Starry Eyes)."Projections (October 30, 2019) ["Welcome to our new series; Women in Horror! We’re starting off on the theme of perfection, discussing trauma, exploitation and the pain of transformation in Starry Eyes (2014) by Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer and Netflix’s The Perfection (2019) - Richard Shepard."]
Private Life (USA: Tamara Jenkins, 2018: 123 mins)
The characters. I was interested in writing about marriage, middle-aged marriage, and about hitting up against this ceiling of what your expectations were and where you are now - that zone. And then, in vitro, dealing with fertility and stuff, was something that I had dealt with myself. When I was doing my own IVF, a very good friend said, "Oh, you should really write about this." I was like, "I am not ever writing about this. Forget it." And then, of course, here I am because it became the perfect metaphor.
Some people are probably more conscious about the way they start writing, but I am not. I'm sort of unconscious, or self-conscious. I have a general sort of thing, and then I start going after it and then what exactly I'm interested in starts revealing itself. It's like mining or looking at tea leaves - writing material, finding these characters and then trusting the rational part of your brain that something's going on in there. Eventually, a structure starts revealing itself. One of the things that I realized that the movie had in a structural way was an exploration of women at biological moments in their life and how it impacts them as people. There's a women in menopause, Molly Shannon, who's dealing with an empty nest thing. There is an insanely fertile [women who does] not have any interest in having a child, and there's a person who is hitting the end of that [period]. I remember writing a pretentious note to myself: "The biological tyranny of the female condition." I was like, "Oh, that's what the movie's kind of about." - Tamara Jenkins in Salovaara, Sara. "Moment of Conception."Filmmaker #104 (Fall 2018): 33.
Radium Girls (USA: Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler, 2018: 102 mins)
RBG (USA: Julie Cohen and Betsy West, 2018: 98 mins)
Cohen, Julie and Betsy West. "RBG: As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Recovers from Surgery, a Remarkable Film Charts Her Trajectory."Democracy Now (December 27, 2018) ["Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been discharged from the hospital following surgery that removed two malignant growths in her left lung. Doctors called the surgery a success and said there’s no sign that Ginsburg’s cancer has spread. The health of the liberal 85-year-old justice—the oldest sitting justice on the Supreme Court bench—has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. In November, she was hospitalized after a fall that resulted in three fractured ribs. She previously fractured two ribs in 2012 and has twice survived cancer—pancreatic cancer in 2009 and colon cancer in 1999. Despite her illnesses, in her 25 years on the court Ginsburg has never missed a day of oral argument. We turn now to a remarkable award-winning documentary released earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film has been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. It’s called ”RBG.”"]
Saf (Turkey/Germany/Romania: Ali Vantasever, 2018: 102 mins)
Seeing Allred (USA: Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain, 2018: 96 mins)
Allred, Gloria. "Women’s Rights Attorney Gloria Allred on Suing Donald Trump over Sexual Assault: 'Truth Matters.'"Democracy Now (January 26, 2018) ["We are broadcasting from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, which has been surging with energy from the #MeToo and #TimesUp movement. It was at Sundance two decades ago that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly assaulted actress Rose McGowan. McGowan told The New York Times in October that Weinstein offered her $1 million in a hush money payment if she signed a nondisclosure agreement to not come forward with her charges that he raped her in a hotel room during the 1997 festival. We speak with longtime women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who represents one of the women who have accused President Trump of sexual assault, and feature an excerpt from a new documentary on her life and path-breaking legal career, called “Seeing Allred.”"]
Sunset (Hungary/France: László Nemes, 2018: 144 mins)
Nemes, László. "Sunset."Film Comment Podcast (March 13, 2019) ["Academy Award-winning director László Nemes sat down with FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold on Saturday, February 9 to discuss Nemes’s Sunset, which opened Film Comment Selects earlier that week. The film evokes a vision of a world order on the verge of violent collapse, telling the story of an orphaned young woman, Irisz, searching for her mysterious brother in the nightmarish labyrinth of pre-World War I Budapest."]
Zwick, Edward. "Trial by Fire."The Treatment (May 24, 2019) ["Director Edward Zwick thrives in the historical drama genre which such epic films as "Blood Diamond" and "Glory". Today on The Treatment, Zwick discusses his most recent politically charged project "Trial By Fire" about an incarcerated man gaining an unlikely journalist ally played by Laura Dern while also examining the industry of the death penalty in America, particularly in Texas."]
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Twisty Mysteries, Pt. 1 - Chinatown."The Next Picture Show #174 (April 30, 2019) ["In David Robert Mitchell’s new UNDER THE SILVER LAKE, every clue leads deeper down a rabbit hole toward an endpoint that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the beginning point. In a film as referential as Mitchell’s, that structure seems purposefully lifted from Roman Polanski’s 1974 classic CHINATOWN, another sunlit noir about a private investigator who starts with a simple philandering case and winds up peeking into a secret battle for control of the city. In this half of our pairing of the two films, we dig into CHINATOWN’s legacy and how to reconcile it with the Polanski Problem, examine how its story and performances diverge from the noir tradition, and consider whether its twisty mystery ultimately lands in a satisfying place."]
---. "Twisty Mysteries, Pt. 2 - Under the Silver Lake."The Next Picture Show #175 (May 7, 2019) ["David Robert Mitchell’s wandering, shaggy, endlessly referential UNDER THE SILVER LAKE isn’t nearly as tightly plotted as Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN, one of its many cinematic reference points, but it’s just as stark and cynical about both human nature and its Los Angeles setting. In this half of our pairing of twisty, paranoid LA mysteries, we dig into whether UNDER THE SILVER LAKE is a movie that can be solved, or a movie that mocks attempts to solve it, before bringing in CHINATOWN to see how these two films approach conspiracies and paranoia, L.A. as a setting and symbol, and women and their would-be saviors."]
Ferguson, Charles. "From Trump to Nixon: 'Watergate Film Explains 'How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President.'"Democracy Now (October 4, 2019) ["President Donald Trump called openly Thursday for the leaders of Ukraine and China to investigate Trump’s campaign rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son Hunter for corruption. Trump’s explicit remarks during a press conference came as leaders of the Democratic-led House pushed ahead rapidly with their impeachment investigation. President Trump is just the fourth U.S. president to face a formal impeachment inquiry, joining Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. We spend the hour looking at back at the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon’s resignation in 1974 and is the focus of a documentary titled “Watergate — Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President.” Drawing on 3,400 hours of audiotapes, archival footage and declassified documents, the film chronicles the dramatic events surrounding the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in 1972, which precipitated Nixon’s eventual resignation two years later under threat of impeachment. We play clips from the film and speak with its director, Charles Ferguson, who won an Academy Award for his documentary “Inside Job.”"]
Minervini, Roberto, et al. "Roberto Minervini & Subjects on What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?"Film at Lincoln Center Podcast #240 (August 14, 2019) ["Roberto Minervini’s passionately urgent, lyrical new documentary is a portrait of African-Americans in New Orleans struggling to maintain their unique cultural identity and to find social justice. The film was an official selection at the 56th New York Film Festival, where the director, producer Paolo Benzi, producer Denise Ping Lee, and the film’s subjects, Judy Hill, Krystal Muhammad, and Nat Turner, joined FLC Director of Programming Dennis Lim for a Q&A."]
In the impressive directorial debut from actor Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), a carefully wrought adaptation of Richard Ford’s 1990 novel, a family comes apart one loosely stitched seam at a time. We are in the lonely expanses of the American west in the mid-’60s. An affable man (Jake Gyllenhaal), down on his luck, runs off to fight the wildfires raging in the mountains. His wife (Carey Mulligan) strikes out blindly in search of security and finds herself running amok. It is left to their young adolescent son Joe (Ed Oxenbould) to hold the center. Co-written by Zoe Kazan, Wildlife is made with a sensitivity and at a level of craft that are increasingly rare in movies. An IFC Films release. -- Film Society Lincoln Center (2018)
Dano, Paul and Richard Ford. "Wildlife."The Film Comment Podcast (October 29, 2018)
Rowley, Rick. "16 Shots: Chicago Police Killing of Laquan McDonald Exposed a System Built on Lies."Democracy Now (June 17, 2019) ["The documentary “16 Shots” examines the 2014 murder of African-American teenager Laquan McDonald in Chicago and the attempt by the city’s police department to cover up the events. McDonald, who was 17, was shot 16 times by former police officer Jason Van Dyke. Van Dyke was found guilty in 2018 of second-degree murder and sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for McDonald’s murder. He was also found guilty on 16 counts of aggravated battery—one count for each of the 16 bullets he fired at McDonald."]
1917 (USA/UK/India/Spain/Canada: Sam Mendes, 2019: 119 mins)
Bradley, S.A. "Again, Volatile Substance: Caligari Goes to the Oscars."Hellbent for Horror #93 (April 26, 2020) [Bradley makes a case for three Best Picture nominees as horror films: Joker (Todd Phillips), 1917 (Sam Mendes), and Parasite (Bong Joon-Ho).]
Advocate (Switzerland/Israel/Canada: Philippe Bellaiche and Rachel Leigh Jones, 2019: 114 mins)
Dakwar, Jamil, et al. "Advocate."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast (June 19, 2019) ["The Jewish Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel and her Palestinian colleagues have been working for decades representing their clients in an increasingly conservative Israel. We meet Tsemel and the team as they prepare for their youngest defendant yet – Ahmad, a 13-year-old boy implicated in a knife attack on the streets of Jerusalem. Together, they must counter legal and public opposition and prepare Ahmad who, like other Palestinians charged with serious crimes, will face a difficult trial in a country in which the government, court system and the media are stacked against him. To many, Tsemel is a traitor who defends the indefensible. For others, she’s more than an attorney – she’s a true ally."]
Koski, Genvieve, et al. "Man Up, Pt. 1 - Fight Club."The Next Picture Show #186 (July 31, 2019) ["We’re looking at two films featuring underground fight clubs, secret identities, and male protagonists trying to reclaim their self-worth through violence, beginning with David Fincher’s Fight Club, which traffics in many of the same themes as Riley Stearns’ new The Art of Self Defense, albeit with decidedly more stylistic flourish. In this half of our toxic masculinity double feature, we dig into what made Fight Club so divisive in 1999, and what makes it seem so prescient today."]
---. "Man Up, Pt. 2 - The Art of Self-Defense."The Next Picture Show #187 (August 6, 2019) ["Riley Stearns’ new dark comedy The Art of Self Defense centers on an underground scene of fighters who engage in their own version of the transgressive tactics Tyler Durden plays with in 1999’s Fight Club, but both films are ultimately about the catharsis of violence. After digging into how The Art of Self-Defense spins the “fight club” premise to its own ends, we pit these two films against each other to see which reigns supreme!…Or, to determine what each movie has to say about their shared interests in misogyny, toxic masculinity, and the dehumanization of life in corporate America."]
Heeney, Alex, Lidsay Pugh and Orla Smith. "Explorations of Rape Culture in Promising Young Woman and The Assistant."The Seventh Row #73 (January 6, 2021) ["This week on the podcast we discuss two explorations of rape culture that approach the topic in very different way. We look at Emerald Fennell’s stylish revenge thriller Promising Young Woman and Kitty Green’s The Assistant, a portrait of a young woman working in a misogynistic office environment."]
Atlantics (France/Senegal/Belgium: Mati Diop, 2019: 106 mins)
After the social realism of her short films, Mati Diop’s supernatural debut feature came as a complete surprise when it premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2019. It nabbed the Grand Prix prize, making her the first Black woman to win it in the festival’s history. Set in Dakar, the film is both damning critique of capitalism and haunting tribute to the men who set sail on a doomed voyage across the ocean from Senegal to Europe in search of a better life. Diop’s film replays Ulysses’ Odyssey from the perspective of his wife Penelope, as grieving partners and family are visited by the lost souls to impart their last words. – Katherine McLaughlin
Diop, Mati. "On Atlantics and Her Filmmaking Process."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast (November 27, 2019) ["This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re sharing an extensive conversation with Mati Diop. The French-Senegalese director earned the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for her debut film Atlantics, which is now in theatrical release and arrives on Netflix this Friday. At the 57th New York Film Festival, Diop was on hand at a Directors Dialogue to discuss her first feature, which is a hypnotic yet grounded ghost and love story, with FLC Director of Programming Dennis Lim."]
Cullors, Patrisse and Ken Rosenberg. "Bedlam: Film Shows How Decades of Healthcare Underfunding Made Jails 'De Facto Mental Asylums.'"Democracy Now (December 27, 2019) ["Are prisons and jails America’s “new asylums”? A new documentary looks at how a disproportionate number of underserved people facing mental health challenges have been swept into the criminal justice system, where they lack adequate treatment. Nearly 15% of men and more than 30% of women in jails have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder. For many of them, jail is their first point of entry into mental health treatment. The documentary “Bedlam” was filmed over five years in Los Angeles County’s overwhelmed and vastly under-resourced Emergency Psychiatry Services, a jail warehousing thousands of psychiatric patients, and the homes — and homeless encampments — of people who are living with severe mental illness. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will air on PBS “Independent Lens” this April. The film features many people, including Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who share their personal experiences with family members’ chronic psychiatric conditions that have pushed them into the path of police officers, ER doctors and nurses, lawyers and prison guards. We speak with Cullors, who shares her experience with seeking help for her brother Monte, who has lived with schizoaffective disorder since he was a teenager, and director Ken Rosenberg, an addiction psychiatrist affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City whose own sister struggled with schizophrenia."]
Chester, John and Molly Chester. "The Biggest Little Farm."Radio West (May 23, 2019) ["It's the vision of filmmaker John Chester and his wife Molly, who wanted to create a place where they could raise crops and animals following the way a natural ecosystem works. They found what seemed at first like Eden -- 200 acres of land in the foothills of Ventura, California. They join us to talk about the daunting work and what they learned from the wisdom of nature. Their film is called The Biggest Little Farm."]
Klayman, Alison. "How Steve Bannon Operates."On the Media (April 12, 2019) ["During Trump's rise to the presidency and early months in leadership, Steve Bannon was often presented as the man behind the scenes: pulling the strings, making big strategic decisions — until he was swiftly ousted. It may not have been a wholly accurate portrayal, but it did help build Bannon's reputation as a modern day Rasputin. The Brink is a new documentary that follows Steve Bannon through the various battles he waged after getting the heave-ho from the Trump White House. The viewer sees him at a low point, as his candidate Judge Roy Moore is upset in the Alabama senate special election, as he grooms hard right congressional candidates in the midterms, and as he builds coalitions among right-wing extremists in advance of the upcoming EU elections. Filmmaker Alison Klayman captures him mingling comfortably with the Washington press corps, dining with fascists, and uncomfortably charming audiences from coast to coast. Bob and Klayman talk about Bannon's symbiotic relationship with the press — and whether her documentary gives him the publicity he craves."]
Davis, Darryl. "Racial Injustice: KKKrossing The Divide."How Do We Fix It? (June 5, 2020) ["To gain some insight on what can be done to address discrimination and tensions between races, we speak with R&B and blues musician Daryl Davis, a black man who has spent the past 35 years on a remarkable quest of speaking with, and at times befriending, members of white supremacist groups. He has helped more than 200 KKK members to renounce their racist ideology. "We have to ask ourselves the question: do I want to sit back and see what my country becomes, or do I want to stand up and make my country become what I want to see," Daryl tells us. "I've chosen the latter. And so you have to get into the thick of it." As a race conciliator and lecturer, Davis has received numerous awards and is often sought by CNN, MSNBC, NPR and other media outlets as a consultant on race relations and white supremacy."]
Files, Gemma, Orrin Grey and Tyler Unsell. "Blood Quantum."Horror Pod Class #32 (July 2, 2020) ["The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi’gMaq reserve of Red Crow, except for its Indigenous inhabitants who are strangely immune to the zombie plague."]
Captain Marvel (USA: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019: 123 mins)
Koski, Genvieve, et al. "Muscled Memories, Part 1 - Total Recall (1990)."The Next Picture Show #168 (March 19, 2019) ["The newest MCU entry CAPTAIN MARVEL is, among other things, an action-packed science-fiction film that’s also interested in the question of how memory relates to identity. That, plus the film’s 1990s setting, put us in mind of another cosmic blockbuster from that era with similar ideas crackling beneath its action-movie surface: Paul Verhoeven’s TOTAL RECALL. In this half of our pairing of brawny-yet-brainy blockbusters, we debate how much TOTAL RECALL is asking us to interrogate the bloody action in which it revels, whether casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a would-be ordinary Joe contributes to or detracts from the film’s self-awareness, and if there’s any validity to the reading that Quaid’s memory trip is all just a dream."]
---. "Muscled Memories, Part 2 - Captain Marvel (2019)."The Next Picture Show #169 (March 26, 2019) ["Our pairing of sci-fi action films with a side of meditation on memory and identity brings in the new CAPTAIN MARVEL to see how Carol Danvers’ journey of lost and reclaimed memories looks next to the very different (and much bloodier) journey taken by Douglas Quaid in Paul Verhoeven’s TOTAL RECALL. We share our reactions to CAPTAIN MARVEL and its choice to center its narrative on an amnesiac hero, then bring in TOTAL RECALL to compare the two films’ approaches to their central ideas about memory, how they function as science-fiction stories, how they treat their female characters, and more."]
Chukwu, Chinonye. "Clemency."The Close-Up (March 29, 2019) ["The film is an enthralling drama anchored by a powerhouse performance from the great Alfre Woodard as a prison warden struggling with the morality of capital punishment after years of working on death row."]
---. "'Do We as a Society Have a Right to Kill?': Chinonye Chukwu’s Film Clemency Examines Death Penalty."Democracy Now (February 1, 2019) ["As the state of Texas this week carried out the nation’s first execution of the year, we look at “Clemency,” a new film starring Alfre Woodard that examines the death penalty from the perspective of those who have to carry out executions as well as the condemned. Woodard portrays prison warden Bernadine Williams as she prepares to oversee what would be her 12th execution as warden in the aftermath of one that was horribly botched. As her life seems to unravel, Williams, for the first time, grapples with what it means to be part of a system of state-sanctioned murder, as the execution date for Anthony Woods, played by Aldis Hodge, gets closer. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. We speak with Nigerian-American writer-director Chinonye Chukwu, who says she was inspired to take on the subject after the execution of Troy Anthony Davis, who was put to death by the state of Georgia on September 21, 2011. Davis’s execution was carried out despite major doubts about evidence used to convict him of killing police officer Mark MacPhail, and his death helped fuel the national movement to abolish the death penalty."]
Decade of Fire (USA: Gretchen Hildebran and Vivian Vazquez, 2019: 76 mins)
Irizarry, Vivian Vázquez and Gretchen Hildebran. "Who Burned the Bronx? PBS Film Decade of Fire Investigates 1970s Fires That Displaced Thousands."Democracy Now (October 30, 2019) ["The new documentary “Decade of Fire” looks back at the history of a crisis that unfolded in New York City in the 1970s, when the South Bronx faced a near-constant barrage of fires that displaced almost a quarter million people and devastated an entire community. Co-directors and producers Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran tell the story of the government mismanagement, landlord corruption and redlining that lit the Bronx ablaze. They also describe how the community fought back to save their neighborhoods. The film airs next week on PBS."]
Greene, Robert and Larry Fessenden. "Bisbee '17; Depraved."FilmWax Radio (July 11, 2019) [""Bisbee '17" is a nonfiction feature film set in Bisbee, Arizona, an eccentric old mining town just miles away from both Tombstone and the Mexican border. Radically combining collaborative documentary, western and musical elements, the film follows several members of the close knit community as they attempt to reckon with their town’s darkest hour. Then old friend of the podcast, Larry Fessenden, returns to discuss his latest film from Glass Eye Pix, "Depraved" which stars two actor friends of the podcast: David Call & Joshua Leonard. "Depraved" centers on Henry, a field surgeon suffering from PTSD after combat in the Middle East, who creates a man out of body parts in a makeshift lab in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The creature he creates must navigate a strange new world and the rivalry between Henry and his conniving collaborator Polidori."]
Doctor Sleep (UK/USA: Mike Flanagan, 2019: 152 mins)
The Great Hack (USA: Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, 2019: 114 mins)
Amer, Karim, Emma Briant and Brittany Kaiser. "The Weaponization of Data: Cambridge Analytica, Information Warfare & the 2016 Election of Trump."Democracy Now (January 10, 2020) ["We continue our conversation with the directors of “The Great Hack,” Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, as well as former Cambridge Analytica employee Brittany Kaiser and propaganda researcher Emma Briant, about Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL Group’s history as a defense contractor. “We’re in a state of global information warfare now,” Briant says. “How do we know if our militaries develop technologies and the data that it has gathered on people, for instance, across the Middle East … how do we know when that is turning up in Yemen or when that is being utilized by an authoritarian regime against the human rights of its people or against us? How do we know that it’s not being manipulated by Russia, by Iran, by anybody who’s an enemy, by Saudi Arabia, for example, who SCL were also working with? We have no way of knowing, unless we open up this industry and hold these people properly accountable for what they’re doing.”"]
Kaiser, Brittany. "Meet Brittany Kaiser, Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Releasing Troves of New Files from Data Firm."Democracy Now (January 7, 2020) ["New details are emerging about how the shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica worked to manipulate voters across the globe, from the 2016 election in the United States to the Brexit campaign in Britain and elections in over 60 other countries, including Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil. A new trove of internal Cambridge Analytica documents and emails are being posted on Twitter detailing the company’s operations, including its work with President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton. The documents come from Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, who worked at the firm for three-and-a-half years before leaving in 2018. We speak with Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, co-directors of the Oscar shortlisted documentary “The Great Hack”; Brittany Kaiser, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower featured in “The Great Hack” and author of “Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower’s Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again”; and Emma Briant, a visiting research associate in human rights at Bard College whose upcoming book is titled “Propaganda Machine: Inside Cambridge Analytica and the Digital Influence Industry.”" Part Two: "The Great Hack: Big Data Firms Helped Sway the 2016 Election. Could It Happen Again in 2020?" Part Three: "Propaganda Machine: The Military Roots of Cambridge Analytica’s Psychological Manipulation of Voters."]
Honeyland (Republic of North Macedonia: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019: 89 mins)
Kotevska, Tamara and Ljubomir Stefanov. "Honeyland."Film at Lincoln Center #237 (July 24, 2019) ["The Sundance World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner, directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, is an evocative, often outrageously funny modern-day parable of the Good Samaritan."]
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Vice Principles Pt. 1 - Casino."The Next Picture Show #194 (September 24, 2019) ["The big question at the heart of Lorene Scafaria’s new Hustlers — one about the corrupting force of American capitalism and who is allowed to rip off whom — is the same one that drive’s Martin Scorsese’s 1995 Vegas gangster epic Casino, a question both films address with no small amount of verve and flash. In this half of our vice-ridden pairing, we dig into Casino’s reputation as a Goodfellas retread and how its characters conform, or don’t, to our expectations about Scorsese characters."]
---. "Vice Principles Pt. 2 - Hustlers."The Next Picture Show #195 (September 30, 2019) ["Lorene Scafaria portrays the criminal scam at the heart of Hustlers with a sort of cinematic brio that has earned the film comparisons to the work of Martin Scorsese, in particular the similarly flashy Vegas epic Casino — and not just because both prominently feature chinchilla fur coats. In this half of our vice-ridden pairing, we talk over what works and what doesn’t about Hustlers before diving into the two films’ shared preoccupations with destructive trust and capitalist systems and compare the filmmaking flourishes Scafaria and Scorsese use to draw viewers into their seductive worlds."]
Invisible Life (Brazil/Germany: Karim Aïnouz, 2019: 139 mins)
"Service Guarantees Citizenship [with Kino Lefter]."Hammer & Camera #26 (February 1, 2020) ["Fascism... What is it? And more importantly, is it in movies? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in our twenty-sixth episode, which features Abdul, Laura, and Evan from the Kino Lefter podcast. We talk Life is Beautiful, JoJo Rabbit, Dragged Across Concrete, and Starship Troopers as representations and depictions of fascist movements, and inquire about their function and the responsibilities of the artist."]
Weekes, Princess, et al. "Knives and Skin (2019)."Horror Queers (November 2, 2022) ["Prep your 80s New Wave acapella and your dead girl tropes because we're talking Jennifer Reeder's Knives and Skin (2019). Helping us search for the body is The Mary Sue's Princess Weekes, who offers invaluable insight into the costuming of WOC in this female-centric text. This is an unconventional episode for an unconventional film, which is much more of a vibe than a straightforward murder mystery. Plus: why Mrs. Harper is so empathetic, messy clown sex, Reeder's interest in female agency, wet ass pussy papers, admiring a film even if you struggle with it, and smelling teen boys' t-shirts."]
Blotnick, Robin and Rachel Lears. "Knock Down the House."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast (May 8, 2019) ["Knock Down the House, Rachel Lears’s remarkable documentary following four female politicians as they challenged local Democratic incumbents in the 2018 midterm elections. Featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearengin and Amy Vilela, Knock Down the House is an emotional portrait of the changing profile of America’s political hopefuls."]
Liberté (France/Portugal/Spain/Germany: Albert Serra, 2019: 132 mins)
Murillo, Manu Yáñez. "The Devil's Playground."Film Comment (January/February 2020) ["In Serra’s explicitly imagined Liberté, an 18th-century cruising ground hosts fickle and fearsome games of desire"]
Lingua Franca (USA/Philippines: Isabel Sandoval, 2019: 89 mins)
Gardener, Caden Mark, et al. "Trans Cinema Roundtable."The Film Comment Podcast (April 20, 2021) ["“A film that centers on a transgender person or storyline enters the culture like any other movie. The difference lies in the discourse around it.” So writes Caden Mark Gardner in a recent essay in the Criterion Collection’s online publication, the Current. “Trans people in movies are written and talked about as if they were abstract concepts, anomalies. For years, it’s been clear that very little attention is being paid (by filmmakers, critics, or marketers) to the ways in which a trans audience might see and react to these attempts at putting their lives in front of the camera, and the cisgender majority continues to control the conversation.” On this week’s episode, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute brought together a roundtable of writers and artists who are reframing this conversation: critics Caden and Willow Maclay, and filmmakers Isabel Sandoval and Jessica Dunn Rovinelli. We asked the panel to respond to a number of excellent questions submitted by the Film Comment community, including: How does one define trans cinema? Are visibility and representation important, or should questions of labor be foregrounded? And which classic movies do our panelists consider to be “covertly” trans? The rich and wide-ranging conversation touched upon a number of movies—see below for links!"]
Moulton, Jack. "Jungleland."Letterboxd News (September 26, 2019) ["'You’re in the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen, but it’s hell.' Colombian filmmaker Alejandro Landes takes us deep inside the extreme filming conditions of his acclaimed jungle thriller Monos, and the art of letting life come onto the page."]
The Mustang (France/USA: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, 2019: 96 mins)
One Child Nation (USA: Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, 2019: 88 mins)
Wang, Nanfu. "On One Child Nation."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast #239 (August 2019) ["The film, directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang, powerfully and personally explores China’s One Child Policy, which made it illegal in most circumstances for couples to have more than one child. The film screened at Human Rights Watch Film Festival, where co-director Nanfu Wang joined Yaqiu Wang, China Researcher at Human Rights Watch and Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch."]
The Operative (France/Israel/USA/Germany: Yuval Adler, 2019: 116 mins)
Leigh, Mike. "Peterloo."Film Wax Radio #547 (April 4, 2019) ["“Peterloo” is an epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. The film stars Rory Kinnear and Maxine Peake, and is being distributed by Amazon Studios."]
Giovannesi, Claudio. "Piranhas."Film at Lincoln Center Podcast (July 31, 2019) ["The Berlinale Silver Bear winner, co-written and directed by Claudio Giovannesi, is a singular coming-of-age story and a haunting reflection on doomed adolescence. The film was the Opening Night selection of our Open Roads: New Italian Cinema festival earlier this year, where the director joined programmer Florence Almozini for a Q&A."]
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Print the Legend, Part 1 - Velvet Goldmine."The Next Picture Show #184 (July 9, 2019) ["Martin Scorsese’s new ROLLING THUNDER REVUE takes a documentary-esque approach to Bob Dylan’s titular 1970s tour-slash-roadshow, blending fact and fiction in a manner reminiscent of Todd Haynes’ 1998 cult favorite VELVET GOLDMINE, which creates a similar sort of parallel fiction around an extraordinary moment in music history. In this half of our pairing looking at “print the legend” musical histories, we focus on VELVET GOLDMINE and its dense, post-modern approach to crafting an ersatz Bowie biopic, debating the advantages and disadvantage of doing a fictionalized history of a real movement, and whether it matters that Bowie himself did not approve."]
---. "Print the Legend, Part 2 - Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story."The Next Picture Show #185 (July 16, 2019) ["Our look at musical films that willfully straddle the line between fact and fiction brings in Martin Scorsese’s newest effort for Netflix, ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY, to see how it applies that MO to a documentary format, where Todd Haynes’ VELVET GOLDMINE applied it to a narrative one. After debating to what extent ROLLING THUNDER REVUE tells us anything about its slippery subject, we bring these two films together to see how they each play with ideas about alter-egos and disposable identities, what they have to say about art and commerce, and how each reflect their 1970s setting."]
Acolytes of Horror. "Saint Maud: God As A Self-Portrait." (Posted on Youtube: May 12, 2021) ["Having recently found God, self-effacing young nurse Maud arrives at a plush home to care for Amanda, a hedonistic dancer left frail from a chronic illness. When a chance encounter with a former colleague throws up hints of a dark past, it becomes clear there is more to sweet Maud than meets the eye."]
So Pretty (USA/France: Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, 2019: 83 mins)
Gardener, Caden Mark, et al. "Trans Cinema Roundtable."The Film Comment Podcast (April 20, 2021) ["“A film that centers on a transgender person or storyline enters the culture like any other movie. The difference lies in the discourse around it.” So writes Caden Mark Gardner in a recent essay in the Criterion Collection’s online publication, the Current. “Trans people in movies are written and talked about as if they were abstract concepts, anomalies. For years, it’s been clear that very little attention is being paid (by filmmakers, critics, or marketers) to the ways in which a trans audience might see and react to these attempts at putting their lives in front of the camera, and the cisgender majority continues to control the conversation.” On this week’s episode, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute brought together a roundtable of writers and artists who are reframing this conversation: critics Caden and Willow Maclay, and filmmakers Isabel Sandoval and Jessica Dunn Rovinelli. We asked the panel to respond to a number of excellent questions submitted by the Film Comment community, including: How does one define trans cinema? Are visibility and representation important, or should questions of labor be foregrounded? And which classic movies do our panelists consider to be “covertly” trans? The rich and wide-ranging conversation touched upon a number of movies—see below for links!"]
Ahmed, Riz. "On Politics, Identity and Being."Deconstructed (October 4, 2018) [MB: I always appreciate hearing cultural creatives that are intelligent and are willing to express authentic ideas "Riz Ahmed became the first actor of South Asian descent and the first Muslim to win an Emmy last year when he picked up the award for outstanding lead actor in a limited series for his starring role in the HBO drama, “The Night Of.” In the new Marvel movie “Venom,” he plays the villainous Carlton Drake opposite Tom Hardy’s titular anti-hero. Off the big screen, Ahmed uses his unique platform to bring attention to issues, from the lack of minority representation on TV to Islamophobia and racism."]
Swallow (France/USA: Carlo Mirabella-Davis, 2019: 94 mins)
Koski, Genevieve, et al. "Home Sickness, Pt. 1 — Safe (1995)."The Next Picture Show #221 (April 7, 2020) ["We continue our shelter-in-place film series with a pair of films featuring magazine-perfect housewife archetypes struck by mysterious illnesses that are inextricably linked to their oppressive environments: Todd Haynes’ 1995 feature SAFE and Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ debut film SWALLOW. In this half we dig into the many shifting metaphors at play in SAFE, how they reflect both the film’s era and our current moment, and how they’re all held together by Julianne Moore’s remarkable central performance. And what to make of that ending? Is there any sense of optimism or closure to be drawn from Haynes’ film?"]
---. "Home Sickness, Pt. 2 — Swallow."The Next Picture Show #222 (April 14, 2020) ["Where the unsettling illness metaphor at the center of Todd Haynes’ 1995 film SAFE tendrils out in a manner that defies easy resolution, Carlo Mirabella-Davis’ newly released debut SWALLOW tracks a similarly metaphorical affliction toward a more finite ending point. But within those two very different arcs, the two films explore complementary ideas about isolation, gender roles and archetypes, and societal expectations about sickness and recovery, all of which we get into following an in-depth discussion of SWALLOW’s successes and failures as both film and metaphor."]
Rankin, Matthew. "The Twentieth Century."Cinematalk (November 2020) ["As a bonus to the Cinematheque's presentation of The Twentieth Century, Mike King leads a lively conversation with the movie's ingenious creator, Matthew Rankin. Their talk touches on Canadian national identity, the real and fake Mackenzie King, "dollar store" production design, and much more."]
The Two Popes (UK/Italy/Argentina/USA: Fernando Meirelles, 2019: 125 mins)
When we first meet him, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is trying to make an airline reservation by phone; he has just become Pope Francis. His soft voice doesn't portray frustration or anger when the person on the other end of the phone hangs up in disbelief. "The Two Popes" is based on script writer Anthony McCarten's play and is a series of conversations. In the movie, music has meaning. At the 2005 enclave where Pope Benedict XI is chosen, Bergoglio is listening to ABBA, but there's nothing in his step or posture that reveals a physical need to dance. His dancing is part of his Argentinian identity just like his devotion to soccer. What enfolds instead is a man who has given up much and believes the position of pope makes one a martyr. His demeanor is one of gentleness, of a grandfatherly embrace. One could imagine being at a milonga in Buenos Aires and being approached or approaching this kindly, gentle man and having a peaceful exchange, a flow of give and take. The subtext of the screenplay is not only the Old World of Europe versus the New World of the Americas (Bergoglio was the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the first from outside of Europe since Syrian Gregory III in the 8th Century), but also the American and European concept of what tango is. The secondary definition of tango in Merriam-Webster is "interaction marked by a lack of straightforwardness" and you'll often hear soundtracks resort to tango to suggest a con, spies in action or other nefarious doings. That is not what is going on here. Pryce's Bergoglio is open, honest and filled with compassion and an example of why the humble will inherit the earth. (Jana Monji: December 23, 2019)
Unbelievable (Netflix: Michael Chabon, Susannah Grant and Ayelet Waldman, 2019: 385 mins)
Cronk, Jordan. "House of the Spirits."Film Comment (January/February 2020) ["Pedro Costa returns with the masterful Vitalina Varela—a story of mourning and rebirth, a return to old haunts, and quite possibly the most beautiful film of 2020"]
Linklater, Richard and Ginger Sledge. "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?"Film Comment Podcast (August 21, 2019) ["Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, Before Sunset and beyond—it’s hard to match Richard Linklater when it comes to movies basically about how we find our way through life. And probably a lot of us found our way with the help of Linklater’s thoughtful, restless movies. His latest film Where’d You Go, Bernadette adds another chapter to his work with the story of a woman rediscovering a creative self she left behind when she started a family. It’s a terrific, nervy, and funny performance by Cate Blanchett, with a touching portrait of a mother-daughter relationship. For our latest Film Comment talk at Film at Lincoln Center, we were extremely happy to feature Linklater alongside his producer Ginger Sledge. FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold sat down with the two for a conversation on Bernadette and beyond."]
Tafoya, Scout. "Reincarnation of Cool: Bertrand Bonello and Zombi Child."Notebook (October 18, 2019) ["The enormity of colonization, the way its mindset bled through to the colonized and continued in insidious ways even when it was legally abolished. Slavery is indeed more ghastly than any knife-wielding maniac, and Bonello’s been saying so for the last decade of his career."]
