Dialogic Cinephilia - February 7, 2019

We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot often repeat that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawaken'd, notwithstanding the resonance and the many angry tempests out of which its syllables have come, from pen or tongue. It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted. -- Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas (1870)

Albárran-Torres, Caesar and Abel Muñoz-Hénonin. "Latin American Cinema today: An unsolved paradox (Introduction)." Senses of Cinema #89 (December 2018)

Barnes, Rhae Lynn. "Historian: Americans Must Face Violent History of Blackface Amid Virginia Gov. Racist Photo Scandal." Democracy Now (February 4, 2019) ["We discuss the history behind calls for Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to resign after a photo surfaced on his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page showing a man wearing blackface posing next to a man wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. The yearbook also features an image of a white man in a wig, dress and black face. The photo’s caption reads, “'Baby Love,' who ever thought Diana Ross would make it to Medical School!” Another photo in the yearbook shows three men in blackface. We are joined by Rhae Lynn Barnes, assistant professor of American cultural history at Princeton University and author of the forthcoming book “Darkology: When the American Dream Wore Blackface.” Her new article for The Washington Post is headlined “The troubling history behind Ralph Northam’s blackface Klan photo.”" Also: Part 1 - "Virginia Legislative Black Caucus: Governor Northam Must Resign over Blackface Yearbook Photo." and Part 2: "As Virginia Governor Waffles on Blackface Yearbook Photo, NAACP Leader Calls His Apology “Invalid”."]

Beyl, Cameron. "Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World (2017)." The Director's Series (February 7, 2019)




Campillo, Robin. "BPM." Film School Radio (November 3, 2017) ["2018 Official Oscar® Entry – FRANCE Best Foreign Language Film BPM tells the story of how a passionate group of Parisian activists goes to battle for those stricken with HIV/AIDS, taking on sluggish government agencies and major pharmaceutical companies in with bold, invasive actions. The organization is ACT UP – the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power – and its members embrace their task as a literal life-or-death mission. With more than 6,000 new diagnoses made each year in France, there is no time to waste. And yet, the officials and the corporations are not moving fast enough. “BPM” tells the story of that fight from the inside-out. Amid the rallies, fierce debates and ecstatic dance parties, intimate connections are made and vibrant life rages against death. As the activists scramble from boisterous street demonstrations and boardroom face-offs to dance floors pulsing with light and rhythm, Nathan and Sean’s relationship deepens. They confess individual memories of sexual initiation that are profoundly tied, in different ways, to the emerging AIDS crisis, and sexual intimacy itself becomes a kind of resistance. As Sean gets sicker, their passion sparks against the shadow of mortality, and the activist community of activists plots its most dramatic protest yet. Director and writer Robin Campillo joins us for a conversation on his intimate and thoughtful tale of activism and struggle in the face of intractable indifference and antipathy."]

Dear White People (USA: Justin Simien, 2014) Dialogic Cinephilia (Ongoing Archive)




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 WORKoffers 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."]