Chile, a Rough Beast Emerging: Patricio Guzman’s The Cordillera of Dreams

By Michael Sandlin. In this, the third and final entry of Chilean exile filmmaker Patricio Guzman’s documentary trilogy poetically examining his native country, he uses the famous Cordillera mountains as his geographical and philosophical centerpiece. From the initial lavish overhead shots of this majestic mountain range we eventually get to […]

The “Kids” are Back: Rene Eller’s WE

By Gary M. Kramer. We (aka Wij), now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films, is being billed as a shocking story of reckless, amoral youth. The film features pornography and explicit sexuality (involving teens), death, (teenage) prostitution, blackmail, more sex, more death, violence, rape, and more bad behavior. […]

In Remembrance: Marj Dusay (1936-2020)

Actor Marj Dusay has died. Marj is one of the lead actors in my second feature film, A Chronicle of Corpses. Marj and I met by chance at the New York-Avignon Film Festival in 1998 where the first feature film I directed, Magdalen, was screening. I knew who she was […]

Cinema of Hidden Histories: Leontina Vatamanu’s Siberia in the Bones (2019)

By Brandon Konecny. Moldova has a fascinating recent history, and Leontina Vatamanu is perhaps its most articulate cinematic chronicler. Poke through her films, and you’ll realize that her cinema is one of hidden histories: whether it’s exploring one of Moldova’s most famous modern poets and politicians in Grief of Ion […]