By Ali Moosavi. Selections from Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week, and ACID.” Often ignored are the side programs of Cannes, including Un Certain Regard, Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week, ACID (Association for the International Distribution of Independent Cinemas) and others. (In addition to these, hundreds of films are shown […]
Strain in Communities: Three from Berlinale 2023
By Ali Moosavi. The best kind of humour has roots in tragedy.” Silver Haze premiered at the Panorama section of Berlin Film Festival. In most movie productions the starting point is a script (original or adaptation) or at least an idea expanded into a treatment. Sometimes a script is modified […]
Bleak Journeys: Selections from Locarno, Sarajevo and Venice 2022
By Ali Moosavi. Men of Deeds, shown at Sarajevo, hits hard at endemic corruption perpetuated by those who hold power over people, either by position and money or by using religion. Here is a look at a few films shown at this year’s film festivals in Locarno, Sarajevo and Venice. […]
Nature and Individuation: the 41st Istanbul Film Festival
By N. Buket Cengiz. The programs at 41st Istanbul offer an ideal occasion for cinephiles, local and abroad, to return to movie theatres.” Istanbul Film Festival, organized by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), returned to theatres, after two years of the pandemic exile, to the great enthusiasm of […]
Family Affairs: Boston Underground Film Festival 2022
By Thomas Puhr. A common theme – be it literally or metaphorically – at this year’s festival was the dissolution of the family (or family-like) unit. The packaging of this theme, however, ranged from surreal body horror, to supernatural coming-of-age tales, to true-crime docudramas.” This year’s Boston Underground Film Festival […]
Hybrid, and Vital as Ever: AFI DOCS Turns 19
By Elias Savada. Eight years ago, the documentary film festival then known as Silver Docs was rechristened AFI DOCS, expanding out from the American Film Institute’s tri-plex in Silver Spring, Maryland, into multiple other venues throughout downtown Washington, DC. While the new format was connected by the area-wide Metro subway […]
Hate, Perfection, and Some Werewolves Within: Selections from TriBeCa 2021
By Gary M. Kramer. Ruben features jokes and jump scares in equal measure throughout Werewolves Within, which relies on the crackerjack comic timing of the entire ensemble cast, most of whom are playing broad characters.” The 20th annual Tribeca Film Festival is actually three festivals in one this year, featuring […]
Crises Around the Globe: Three from Berlinale 2021
By Ali Moosavi. Writer-director Igor Drljaca shows us the wide gap and the glaring contrast between the haves and have nots in Sarajevo.” In Tabija / The White Fortress, Faruk (Pavle Cemerikic) is a young Muslim boy living in Sarajevo. His mother has passed away and since his parents were […]
Intimate, Disappearing Environments: The Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival 2020
Honeyland By T.R. Merchant-Knudsen. From the carefully curated selection of films and grouped programs… there were a variety of options for viewers, from talks with directors and conservationists, shorts that highlighted issues from around the globe, and feature films at the edge of documentary filmmaking. At the beginning of 2020 […]
Reworking and Immersion: AFI European Union Film Showcase 2020
Grimm re-edit (Alex van Warmerdam) By Gary M. Kramer. The AFI European Union Film Showcase, being held virtually at https://afisilver.afi.com/ December 2-20, offers an eclectic assortment of nearly 50 films. Here is rundown of a half dozen impressive features screening at this year’s fest. Writer/director Jurgis Matulevicius’s auspicious debut, Isaac, […]