By Jacob Mertens. The road sweeps before me, and I watch snowcapped mountains peer through the dark like ghosts. They tower above, catch the faint light of sunrise, and I would be in awe if I were not so paranoid that any moment a truck could smash into me, obliterating […]
Upstream Color (2013): A Sundance Review
By Jacob Mertens. A woman sits on her living room floor, lips parched, transcribing Henry David Thoreau’s Walden by hand. Each time she finishes a page, she folds the paper into a loop on a paper chain and takes a sip of water. Lately, she shares her house with a […]
After Fall, Winter: An Interview with Eric Schaeffer
By Gary M. Kramer. Eric Schaeffer did not plan to make a sequel to his 1997 film Fall but fourteen years later, he wrote, directed, produced and starred in After Fall, Winter, now out on DVD. The film continues the story of Michael Shiver (Schaeffer), an author who is deeply […]
Before Midnight (2013): A Sundance Review
By Jacob Mertens. For those who love film, there will always be seminal viewings that helped foster that love. And I do not mean watching classics on Blu-Ray or DVD, or even cassette tape, digesting the film long after its vibrant beginnings. I mean seeing a film in its theatrical […]
God Loves Uganda (2013): A Sundance Review
By Jacob Mertens. Allow me to begin this review with a truism: life is complicated. We are born and we die, and everything we build within that span of time grows lonely with our passing. Without ever being a religious man, I have always held the utmost respect for the […]
Inside Pim’s Emotional World: A Conversation with Bavo Defurne
By Tom Ue. Born in 1971 and a graduate of the St Lukas Art School in Brussels, artist, photographer, and filmmaker Bavo Defurne established himself as an exciting new talent with a sequence of critically-acclaimed and prize-winning short films that explore gay love and loss, the body, and the power […]
Bringing Up Bobby: A Conversation with Famke Janssen and Spencer List
By Amy R Handler. The strangeness and beauty of Famke Janssen’s first feature film, Bringing Up Bobby (2011) is that it mimics “real life,” at the same time that it exposes the artistry of cinema. This filmmaking-wizardry allows unsuspecting viewers to misconstrue Bobby as comic relief, when it is really, […]
“It was Dr. Schultz, in the library, with a hidden pistol up his sleeve”: Django Unchained (2012)
By Jacob Mertens. Several hired thugs stand idle in a parlor holding shotguns and revolvers, while two gentlemen put the final touches on a bill of sale for a slave girl in the adjoining library. The civility they maintain stands in stark contrast to the brooding men waiting just […]
Dutch Horror Minimalism: Claustrofobia
By Cleaver Patterson. Just when you’d given up hope of ever feeling discomfort in the cinema again, along comes something which reaffirms your faith in the art of tense and edgy film. The Dutch thriller Claustrofobia (2011) is one such exercise. The debut from director Bobby Boermans, starring Carolien Spoor, […]
Secret City (2012)
By Anthony Killick. On November 28, 2012, Secret City, a new feature-length documentary about the City of London and the Corporation that runs it, was screened in Venezuela’s Bolivar Hall in London. As a postgraduate student and member of the production team I have, over the past year, gained insight […]