By David Greven. An exchange I had with an older, straight, white academic in Film Studies serves as an instructive example of a particular phenomenon that I will call the Miller Effect. Hearing me express admiration for Ang Lee’s 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, which I consider a masterpiece, he stared […]
Embedded in Reality: A Conversation with Raoul Peck on Young Karl Marx
By John Duncan Talbird. When Raoul Peck was nominated for an Oscar last year for his documentary about James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, to many he seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere. But his first feature film, the New York City immigrant drama, Haitian Corner (1987), […]
A Misguided Adventure: A Wrinkle in Time
March 10, 2018
By Elias Savada. If I were a 12-year-old girl (particularly one of color), I probably would be anxiously awaiting, with all my BFFs, the arrival of A Wrinkle in Time, the transformative adaptation (as opposed to the dismal 2003 television version, also brought to you by Disney) of the beloved, best-selling […]
“Too Beautiful for Brilliance” – Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
March 8, 2018
By Anthony Uzarowski. Hedy Lamarr was a movie star for whom the term glamour might have been invented. As far as celluloid goddesses go, she was the crème de la crème, perhaps the most beautiful face to ever have graced the silver screen. During the Second World War, Lamarr offered legions of […]
Swimming Through: Rhonda Mitrani on Supermarket and Adrián Cárdenas on Canoe Poems
March 6, 2018
By Gary M. Kramer. Two worthwhile narrative short films – Supermarket by Rhonda Mitrani, a Miami-based filmmaker, and Canoe Poems by Adrián Cárdenas – premiere March 13 at the Miami Film Festival as part of the program, Supermarket and More Short Films. Both take mind-bending approaches to their stories and […]
Faces and Things: 2018 Miami Festival Shorts Program
March 5, 2018
By Gary M. Kramer. On March 10, the Miami Film Festival will premiere ten short films in two consecutive programs screening at the Tower Theater. The first program, The Things They Left Behind and More Short Films, features three live-action shorts, reviewed below, and one animated short, (Fool Time) Job. […]
Call for Contributions: The Mondo Film and its Legacy
March 5, 2018
Contributions are invited for a special edition of Film International devoted to the “mondo” shock documentary film. The mondo genre was created in the 1960s by Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco Prosperi and Paolo Cavara with their first feature Mondo Cane (Italy, 1962). The genre quickly became an international sensation, hated […]
More Mood Than Mayhem: They Remain
By Elias Savada. In case you’re not feeling enough dread after watching Natalie Portman push her way through The Shimmer in the unsettling Annihilation, there are similar aural, low-frequency bass rumblings that might send your mind and body into similar fits in the smaller but nearly as disquieting They Remain. […]
And the Animated Shorts Nominees Are…
By Elias Savada. The Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts in competition for the ceremony this Friday are a disparate, probing set. They include Lou, the 7-minute Pixar entry directed by Dave Mullins and produced by Dana Murray. If you saw Cars 3 at the Cineplex last summer, this charming, colorful CGI work was the better […]
Looking Back to Tehran: An Interview with Milad Alami on The Charmer
By Ali Moosavi. Milad Alami is yet another one of the many Iranian diaspora directors working today. He was born in Tehran, raised in Sweden, and learned his trade in Denmark. The Charmer (2017), his first feature film, and has won a string of awards at major film festivals. The […]