By Tony Williams. I had no intention of sending off Romero in anything less than grand style.” As discussed in my review essay, novelist Daniel Kraus began conceiving The Living Dead (written with Daniel Kraus, New York: Tor Books, 2020) with Romero at a time when creative frustration with the […]
Solidarity in a New Era – An Interview with April Wright on Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020)
By Yun-hua Chen. Stuntwomen really represent the larger picture of the ongoing struggle that women and people of color have had, just looking for a fair share in this industry.” Covering the span of film history, from The Perils of Pauline (1914) through Wonder Woman (1975) to Fast & Furious […]
“Sweetheart” Strikes Back: An Interview with Roseanne Liang on Shadow in the Cloud (TIFF 2020)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. Even though it’s set during a world war, it’s not a ‘lest we forget movie’, it’s not a past based thing. It’s a movie that is about the now….this dehumanization is universal.” – Roseanne Liang With its world premiere at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, Chinese-New […]
The Anti Rape-Revenge Film: Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli on Violation (TIFF 2020)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There is something super cathartic about the idea of revenge, and what we recognised when first making the film is that really we’re making an anti revenge film. It’s like the film is designed to scare you not to seek revenge because of how it’s going to […]
Stuntwork over CGI: Filmmaker Brian Skiba on Directing The 2nd
By Ali Moosavi. Politics is a dirty game, no matter which side of the table you’re on.” –Brian Skiba There is a certain genre of film which, perhaps unkindly, can be called “Budget Action”. These are not the big budget action movies starring Keanu Reeves or Tom Cruise; or even […]
9000 Miles from Home and 30 Miles from Nowhere: An Interview with Caitlin Koller
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. If more work was done to showcase and embrace (the Australian) horror film past it could really help to foster awareness and hunger for local horror films.” How did emerging Australian filmmaker Caitlin Koller find herself in rural Illinois directing one of the most fun horror comedies […]
“We Like it When the Characters Fail”: Claes Bang on Bay of Silence
As an actor, you like when a character has both sides – when you actually are terrified but try to keep your calm.” By Gary M. Kramer. Claes Bang excels at playing suave, amoral men. His breakout performance in The Square, pivoted on his smug museum curator getting his comeuppance. […]
Art as Life Practice: Alejandro Jodorowsky on Psychomagic: A Healing Art
[Psychomagic] is an art, not a science. I make all the art.” By Gary M. Kramer. Chilean cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky has always been a cine-magician. He made his feature debut with the surrealistic Fando and Lis (1968) and then achieved worldwide attention for his cult films, El Topo (1970) […]
Hello, Vietnam: Trinh Dinh Le Minh on Goodbye Mother
By Tom Ue. Trinh Dinh Le Minh’s new film Goodbye Mother tells a seemingly familiar story: Van (Lanh Thanh) returns to his home in Vietnam, having been away in the US for nine years. Van brings with him his boyfriend Ian (Vo Dien Gia Huy) but the film’s focus is […]
“Found” in Translation: An Interview with Hirokazu Kore-eda on The Truth
When you have good actors, they know what I want. Hirokazu Kore-eda By Ali Moosavi. Japan has had a fine tradition of presenting world-class filmmakers to the world of cinema. These have included Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Kon Ichikawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Shohei Imamura, Nagisa Oshima and Hayao Miyazaki […]