By Michael Sandlin. ‘The election of President Reagan in 1980 initiated a mass transfer of wealth and power away from ordinary Americans’ intones Kristof in his voiceover; of course, what Kristof doesn’t tell you is that many of these ‘ordinary’ Americans voted for Reagan, thus essentially voting away their own […]
The Inferno and its Impact: Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima
By Jeremy Carr. A key aspect of Sekigawa’s 1953 docu-drama concerns the related discrimination leveled against victims (of leukemia, the “A-bomb disease”), based largely on ignorance and misinformation, but on a broader level, the film also focuses on the wide-ranging scars left etched upon the Japanese populace.” Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima […]
Wo Wo We Wa!: Pranks, Satire, and Bathroom Humor Endure in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
By Elias Savada. Forget the news about the Russians doing their worst to screw up the coming election, because we have Uzbekistan’s secret weapon. And there’s nothing Trump, Putin, or all those conservative, right-wing Yankees can do about it. Borat‘s back in town.” Mockumentarians make way for another gatecrashing excursion […]
Frustration in Falfurrias: Lisa Molomot and Jeffrey Bemiss’s Missing in Brooks County
By Elias Savada. The film examines, sometimes in gruesome detail, the unfortunate migrant disappearances and deaths that have occurred in this eponymous region of Texas, about an hour’s drive from the Mexican border….” I’ve watched a lot of documentaries through the years. Among those that make me mad: Blackfish (2013), […]
Questions of Discovery and Retribution: Massoud Bakhshi on Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness
By Ali Moosavi. After only two feature films and a documentary, Massoud Bakhshi has come to the forefront of the Iranian directors. He started his filmmaking career with the faux documentary, Tehran Has No More Pomegrenates!/ Tehran Anar Nadarad (2007). On the surface, it was a nostalgic, amusing, comedy-musical portrait […]
Crisis and Recall: An Interview on “Chapter 1: Liv” (2018) with Dominic Stephenson
Tom Ue
October 16, 2020
By Tom Ue. In “Chapter 1: Liv” (2018) by Manchester-based writer and director Dominic Stephenson (under eight minutes long), we learn of a car accident: Liv (Brooke Vincent) wakes up, apparently recovering from an injury, and she is encouraged by her mother (Sally Ann Matthews) to go over what she remembers. […]
Destined to Be Forgotten: Mark Williams’s Honest Thief
By Elias Savada. Neeson does the job he’s paid to do, and his gruff role here hits the intended spots and one-liners… but Honest Thief gets too cute for its own unbelievable good.” Want some generic escapist entertainment? All you have to do is catch the latest Liam Neeson framed-man […]
Revisiting Wiseman’s Law and Order (1969) in the Era of Black Lives Matter
By Nilita Vachani. The film’s visual evidence speaks to the systemic racism that’s at the heart of the country’s self-reckoning today. What insights does the film contain for law enforcement half a century later?” The large white cop holds the small black woman’s neck in a tight chokehold. Four men […]
Werner Schroeter and Underground Film
The Death of Maria Malibran (1972) By Peter Valente. Werner Schroeter has carried the torch for free expression in cinematic art, and shares with many of these underground filmmakers, particularly Jack Smith, a desire for excess and theatricality. But it was a freedom that was won by overcoming obstacles.” Werner […]
Progress and the Forgotten: the Importance of The Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
By Christopher Sharrett. One of the most important films of the 1990s, certainly the best about poverty and the plight of the homeless.” Tim Hunter’s 1993 film The Saint of Fort Washington enjoyed some applause in its day while having a limited release and poor commercial performance. Today, it seems […]