By Christopher Weedman. When celebrated French film director Jacques Demy and composer Michel Legrand were experiencing difficulty securing financing for Les parapluies de Cherbourg/The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), Italian producer Carlo Ponti remarked to Demy, “I really like your story. But you should shoot it in black and white, since color’s […]
Cultivating Young Minds: School Life
September 14, 2017
By Elias Savada. In the quaint, historic town of Kells in County Meath, home to Ireland’s only independent documentary film festival, it seems rather fitting that this is also the locale of School Life, a year-in-the-life exploration of Headfort School, a unique, unconventional primary-age boarding school. This 18th-century estate is where […]
Everything’s Game: An Interview with Filmmaker/Historian John Gallagher
September 13, 2017
By Melissa Webb. Born in 1955 in Flushing, New York, John Gallagher has been an integral player in New York City cinema and theater for over 30 years. Over the course of his career, he’s served as a director, writer, producer, author, historian, and educator. Notable film-credits include his 1997 cult-classic […]
Catharsis, Backstage and Beyond: Spettacolo
September 13, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. There was no plan to launch an annual undertaking where the residents of Monticchiello, a small Tuscan village, would enact theatrical renderings of their own lives in an open-air piazza performance. According to the neighborly troupe’s director, Andrea Cresti, it happened purely by chance. In any event, here […]
Film Scratches: Suspended Ecstasies – Skin Deep (2015)
September 12, 2017
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. In Skin Deep (Hymn to Eros), a 23 minute dance video by Greek artist Angelina Voskopoulos, we first see a lyrical […]
Film Scratches: Songs Behind the Silence – Stille Stadt (2015)
September 12, 2017
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. Stille Stadt (Silent City), Stephen Chen’s hauntingly powerful feature film, shows us the daily life of a character called Everyman (portrayed […]
Film Scratches: Matter = Energy = Images – Shot on Blood (2010)
September 12, 2017
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. Shot on Blood: Kozmikonic Electronica, a fifty-seven minute film by Oliver Hockenhull, is a fascinating essay and experiment which brings together […]
Anti Matter: Alice Tumbles Down the Wormhole
September 11, 2017
By Elias Savada. Memory loss and Queen of Hearts madness team up against a you-shouldn’t-play-with-Mother-Nature anti-hero in Anti Matter, an ambitious and entertaining sci-fi effort from director-writer Keir Burrows. He’s a South African-born, U.K.-based filmmaker who has decided that a his feature debut would journey to (Alice in) Wonderland. Burrows has […]
Updating the Debate – The Elusive Auteur: The Question of Film Authorship Throughout the Age of Cinema by Barrett Hodsdon
A Book Review by Tony Williams. Barrett Hodsdon is an unfamiliar name to me, chiefly because I do not reside in Australia. However, like Victor Perkins, he seems to have written few works but when he has they are characterized by rigorous observations, well-thought-out arguments, and distinguished research. He has […]
A World of One’s Own: The Endearing Humanity of Pavel Cuzuioc’s Secondo Me
September 9, 2017
By Brandon Konecny. Pavel Cuzuioc is a filmmaker with a flair for creating thoughtful meditations on working-class people, and he doesn’t diverge from this course in his recent documentary Secondo Me (2016), which concerns three employees at different European opera houses. Given its settings and Italian title (which means “in […]