Dialogic Cinephilia - May 8, 2020

Easily one of the most radical American films. Deals with class/worker inequality, big business using race to exploit & divide, gender inequality, police brutality, police being used to unfairly evict poor people, all in a quick and powerful 92 minutes run time. Esperanza is easily on my list of one of my favorite women protagonists in a film and her along with her sister comrades should be on any list of badass women! Watching the changing dynamics of her relationship with her husband Ramon was fascinating. No wonder it wasn't shown in America till the mid 60s. This film is radical for right now - a great watch for thinking how post-pandemic we don't return to the previous "normal." A true cinematic expression of the power of solidarity across artificial divisions right up to the last scene!

Watched on MUBI




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Bell, W. Kamau. "What an Oklahoma rancher wants you to know about America's broken food supply system." CNN (April 24, 2020)

Bulkin, Nadia, et al. "The Outer Dark Symposium 2019, Part 5: Ecstatic Weird Panel." The Outer Dark (October 10, 2019) ["In this podcast The Outer Dark presents the fifth installment of The Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird 2019 including the panel ‘The Ecstatic Weird: The Weird as a Source of Transcendence and Awe’, moderated by Gordon B White and featuring Nadia Bulkin, Selena Chambers, Kurt Fawver, Orrin Grey, and Liv Rainey-Smith, as well as readings by Jeff Strand, Kurt Fawver, and Zin E Rocklyn. Also Gordon B White presents Reviews from The Weird including Spirits Unwrapped (Lethe Press), edited by Daniel Braum, and Luminous Body (Dim Shores), by Brooke Warra. The readings and panel were recorded live on Saturday March 23, 2019 at Silver Scream FX Lab in Atlanta, GA. Reviews from The Weird was recorded on Oct. 3, 2019."]

Cho, Joshua. "Corporate Looting as ‘Rescue Plan,’ Robber Barons as ‘Saviors.'" FAIR (May 1, 2020)

Dalpe, Victoria, et al. "State of the Weird 2019, A Roundtable Discussion." The Outer Dark (October 24, 2019)  ["Victoria Dalpe, Gwendolyn Kiste, John Langan and Teri.Zin (Zin E Rocklyn) join host/moderator Scott Nicolay for the most epic episode of The Outer Dark since The State of the Weird 2018. The roundtable conversation kicks off with reactions to pronouncements that the Weird Renaissance/boom is over at a time when so many talented writers from disenfranchised groups (women, PoC, LBGTQ+, disabled) are expanding and transforming Weird fiction with game-changing work. The authors discuss how more perspectives lift all writers and increase readership, the importance of having editors of color and other marginalized groups, changing the definition of agency especially in relation to mentally ill characters, the need to retool storytelling in ways that reflect diverse experiences and not just the same old archetypes, why Weird fiction is a fertile space for exploring different narrative and genre expectations, steps writers and readers can take to support new voices, recognition of Michael Kelly for the now retired award-winning Year’s Best Weird Fiction series (Undertow Publishing), Nightscape Press as an example of a risk-taking press, ‘Trojan Horsing’ diverse authors into anthologies along with the same big names, a Small Press Challenge for listeners, questions from the audience, and the future of Weird fiction."]

Freeman, Chas and Jeffrey Sachs. "COVID's Cold War." Open Source (May 7, 2020) ["The coronavirus may have arrived just in time to punctuate a 50 year turn in the grand tide of events. It could mark, that is, a fresh fixation in American minds on an external enemy. It could become the opening round even of a new Cold War, with China this time. But at what price? The hybrid giant “Chi-Merica” was the name of a partnership as well as a rivalry that grew out of Richard Nixon’s first visit to China in 1972. It was the combination that made China the workshop of the world, for better and worse. In the last decade Chi-Merica has driven a huge portion of global growth. But it’s at risk suddenly in the poisoned fallout of a pandemic. Between the pandemic still spreading, and the presidential campaign taking shape, this is tryout time in the blame game. President Trump’s contentious diplomat, Mike Pompeo, has walked back his accusation that the killer virus came out of a Chinese lab at Wuhan. Probably because US intelligence wouldn’t back him up, the Secretary of State now says there’s evidence on the point, but no certainty. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas is still the point man among “Blame China” Republicans. This week, he said the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for every death, every job lost, every retirement nest egg cracked by COVID-19, and he said that Xi Jinping and his comrades must be made to pay the price. Between Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, meantime, the campaign videos for both sides argue the same point: that the Other Guy was chummier with China and said sweeter things about the Chinese leadership in happier times."]

Hittman, Eliza and Alexis McGill Johnson. "Never Rarely Sometimes Always: New Film Follows Teenager’s Perilous Journey to Access Abortion." Democracy Now (April 27, 2020) ["As multiple states have moved to further restrict access to abortions during the pandemic, a powerful new dramatic film follows a 17-year-old girl as she travels from her small town in Pennsylvania to New York City to get an abortion without having to notify her parents. “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” director and writer Eliza Hittman joins us to discuss the making of the film, which is being distributed online while cinemas remain closed in most states due to the pandemic."]

Kay, Jeremy. "Major film festivals partner with YouTube on free online event." Screen Daily (April 27, 2020)  ["A coalition of A-list international film festivals including Cannes, Venice, London, Toronto, Berlin, Sundance and Tokyo has partnered with YouTube on a free online spring festival produced and organised by Tribeca Enterprises to raise funds for Covid-19 relief."]

Koresky, Michael. "Queer & Now & Then: Vapors (Andy Milligan, 1965)." Film Comment (April 8, 2020)




"Weird Fiction." Horror Pod Class #2 (January 31, 2018) [Michael Benton -- What is very interesting to me is the idea that the "new weird" genre is speaking to a 21st Century dis-ease with the impossibility of truly knowing reality. Propaganda, disinformation & official lies instantaneously and repeatedly disseminated through ubiquitous screen technologies, radically transforming science/technology/theories that even leave those that devote their lives to a particular discipline overwhelmed, and a general distrust from the general population in their traditional experts/leaders. This is played out vividly in Vandermeer's trilogy and Garland's film as the main characters struggling to understand/survive the transmutating Area X/The Shimmer are scientists/soldiers.  ]