First Annual VIDI SPACE Film Festival (February 22, 2020, Reston, Virginia)
VIDI SPACE’s First Annual Film Festival is being
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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By John Duncan Talbird. I became aware of Polly Jean Harvey in 1993 when I first saw the video for her song “50 Ft Queenie” on MTV’s 120…
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A Book Review by Thomas Puhr. I received Gerd Gemünden’s Contemporary Film Directors: Lucrecia Martel without having seen a single film by the titular artist. To say I’ve…
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By Elias Savada. Love Type D is a light, silly satire that could use a little more development in its wacky plotline. Still, the feature debut from writer-director…
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By Elias Savada. World premiering at the DC Independent Film Festival, director-writer Kevin Tran’s feature debut brews up a disconcerting cross-sampling of concerned residents in a middle-class, suburban…
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By Thomas Gladysz. We are going to see why Rudolph Valentino got his first star billing, in a picture called Blood and Sand…. In 1922, when that picture…
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By Elias Savada. Director Flavio Alves’s indie feature The Garden Left Behind is all about dreamers, whether they are transgender people looking for acceptance, or illegal immigrants hoping…
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By Christopher Sharrett. Many years ago I moved into a small house not far from the university where I took my first tenure-track position. It was a cozy…
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By Areum Jeong. Korean filmmaker Kim Tae-yong made his directorial debut in 1999 with Memento Mori (directed with Min Kyu-dong), the second installment of the girls’ high school horror film…
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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
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…
Read More »“A Love Letter to Life and Film”: An Interview with Willem Dafoe on My Hindu Friend »
By Patrick McGilligan. Five years after it was made, My Hindu Friend, directed by Hector Babenco, finally is being…
Read More »Much to Remember: Chris Wade on Memories of Lindsay Anderson »
By Tony Williams. Leeds-born Chris Wade is one those unique talents thankfully outside the existing psychologically dysfunctional terrain of…
Read More »Refusal to Respond – David Shields and Lynch: A History »
By Matthew Sorrento. Review Filmmaker David Shields found an ideal style to document the onscreen (but off the field)…
Read More »“Cinema is strong and some people are afraid of it”: An Interview with François Ozon »
By Alex Ramon. Speaking with Film International last year, François Ozon asserted that, for him, “the story comes first” when…
Read More »A Hidden Gem: Interview with Trương Minh Quý (Nhà cây / Tree House, 2019) »
By Yun-hua Chen. A hidden gem in the sidebar section “Concorso Cineasti del presente” at Locarno Film Festival, Trương Minh…
Read More »The Method to His Madness: Grady Hendrix and Satanic Panic »
By John Duncan Talbird. Grady Hendrix is a novelist, sometimes-journalist, essayist, and screenwriter. He’s written several horror novels, including…
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