First Annual VIDI SPACE Film Festival (February 22, 2020, Reston, Virginia)
VIDI SPACE’s First Annual Film Festival is being
By Christopher Sharrett. Those who know me will be shocked to read this piece, a partial valuation of Quentin Tarantino’s last film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I…
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By John Duncan Talbird. Vsevolod Pudovkin entered Moscow University to study physical chemistry at the age of seventeen. His studies were disrupted by the start of World War…
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A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. It’s hard to make the mental jump from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to, say, Douglas Sirk, but Robert B. Pippin pulls off…
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By Jeremy Carr. According to Ian Christie, Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying is “in many ways the most important post-war Soviet film.” Christie, who is interviewed for…
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By Tony Williams. This short, but concise 120-page monograph belongs to a developing series initiated by Auteur Publishing: Constellations: Studies in Science Fiction Film and TV. Akin to…
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By Gary M. Kramer. Writer/director Tayarisha Poe’s feature debut, Selah and the Spades, is a precisely calibrated spellbinder. Anchored by an exacting performance by Lovie Simone as the…
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By Ali Mossavi. Review Scott Teems, The Quarry’s director who, together with Andrew Brotzman, adapted Damon Galgut’s novel for the screen, hammers home one of the main themes…
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By Yun-hua Chen. After winning Canadian Best First Festure at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Film at the Los Cabos International Film Festival, The Twentieth Century…
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By Elias Savada. Now, more than ever, films that you’d expect to find in your Sadly Infrequently Occasionally Constantly attended art house cinemas aren’t there because of the…
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A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Thanks to one of my connections, I was able to see all of the episodes of the TV series Naked City (1957- 1963), 32…
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By Jeremy Carr. There’s no denying Adam Mars-Jones has amassed a considerable resume of writing experience. The research professor at Goldsmiths, University of London has penned novels, essays,…
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Festival Reports
Berlinale 2020: Spotlight on New Iranian Cinema »
By Ali Moosavi. There were four films made by Iranian directors in this year’s Berlin Film Festival, shown at four different festival sections: Panorama, Forum, Generation and Berlinale (Main Competition). Mohammad Rasoulof’s There…
Read More »Come One, Come All!: The 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival, 20-28 September 2019 »
By Ali Moosavi. San Sebastian is a beautiful coastal town in the Basque region of Spain. It has one of the oldest film festivals in the world which somehow has not become as…
Read More »Back with 40 More: AFI Shorts 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. There are 40 shorts screening in six programs (as well as in front of features) at this year’s AFI Fest presented by Audi. Here are ten highlights from the…
Read More »Three from the Open City Documentary Festival 2019 »
By Ali Moosavi. Three interesting documentaries screened at the Open City Documentary Festival in London, September 4-10, 2019. Sergei Loznitsa, the distinguished Ukrainian director known for films such as A Gentle Creature (2017) and…
Read More »On Programming Content and Context: 73rd Edinburgh International Film Festival in Review »
By Mina Radovic. A lady patiently cleans her house. The yellow lights of Athens peer in through the windows as her husband smokes a cigarette and between puffs complains to her about his…
Read More »Experimentation in NYC: NYFF Shorts 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. Two shorts programs at this year’s New York Film Festival are designed to provoke audiences. This is a welcome approach to short films, where the format encourages experimentation. As…
Read More »Crises in Detail: AFI Docs 2019 »
By Gary M. Kramer. At the 2019 AFI Docs Film Festival this year, five provocative shorts and features tackled important topics ranging from the drug crisis and immigration to the creationism debate and…
Read More »Coming of Age with Care: the 21st Maryland Film Festival (2019) »
By Gary M. Kramer. Now in its 21st year, the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore is a showcase for eclectic independent features, shorts, and documentaries. This year’s program features films both homegrown and far-flung.…
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Interview
Schizophrenic “Downstairs” and “Upstairs”: Filmmaker Vaughn Stein on Inheritance »
By Ali Moosavi. British writer-director Vaughn Stein’s feature film debut was Terminal (2018), starring Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg, Mike…
Read More »On the Tribeca That Should Have Been »
By Gary M. Kramer. The Tribeca Film Festival sadly did not take place this year because of the global…
Read More »Portraying the “Big Book of Testimonies”: Armando Espitia on Our Mothers »
By Gary M. Kramer. Our Mothers is a somber but powerful drama getting a virtual theatrical release on May…
Read More »Dueling Identities: An Interview with The Quarry Writer-Director Scott Teems »
By Ali Mossavi. Review Scott Teems, The Quarry’s director who, together with Andrew Brotzman, adapted Damon Galgut’s novel for…
Read More »Understanding Actors: An Interview with Laurent Maria »
By Gary M. Kramer. French filmmaker Laurent Maria started his career as an actor—he appeared in several theatrical productions…
Read More »Nightmare of Cinematic History: An Interview with Matthew Rankin on The Twentieth Century (2019) »
By Yun-hua Chen. After winning Canadian Best First Festure at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best Film at…
Read More »Rocket Mom: An Interview with Alice Winocour on Proxima »
By Ali Moosavi. A welcome fact at San Sebastian was that women film directors were conspicuous by their presence…
Read More »Coding the Language: Corneliu Porumboiu on The Whistlers »
By Amir Ganjavie. A la Police, Adjective (2009) and with a tough of noir style, Corneliu Porumboiu’s The Whistlers introduces us…
Read More »The Beast Survives: Ivan Silvestrini on Dragonheart Vengeance (2020) »
By Tom Ue. The opening of Dragonheart Vengeance (2020) juxtaposes two seemingly unrelated narratives. First, we learn of the…
Read More »Interweaving Korean Film and Performance: A Conversation with Korean Filmmaker and Performance Director Kim Tae-yong »
By Areum Jeong. Korean filmmaker Kim Tae-yong made his directorial debut in 1999 with Memento Mori (directed with Min Kyu-dong), the…
Read More »A National Tradition Continues: Festival Director Kamel Aouij on the 2020 Panorama International Short Film Festival »
By Matthew Fullerton. Tunisia is no stranger to film festivals. Well before its 2011 Jasmine Revolution, which toppled a…
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