By Yun-hua Chen. I was initially attracted to the concept of space, but space brought many limitations, which I actually like because they encourage exploring more possibilities.” Composed of snippets that capture different hotel rooms inhabited by various “strangers”, Chicago-based Chinese director Zhengfan Yang is acutely sensitive to how spaces […]
To Fully Live Out Their Lives: Theo Cutland on The Lost Art of the Future
By Àbigaïl Yartey. When I was starting out as a queer indigenous filmmaker in the 1990s, there wasn’t a lot of us making work. Since then, there has been a lot of people who’ve gotten into this arena….for me it was wanting to bring back queer elders, or queer people who […]
The Rhythm of Real Life: Michał Chmielewski on Roving Woman
By Savina Petkova. I think in the long take, we observe the rhythm of real life…. if we would cut between different emotional states, it would be artificial.” It would be reductive to call Roving Woman, the debut feature by Polish filmmaker Michał Chmielewski simply a road movie. That it […]
We Need to Talk About Yu-ning: Nelicia Low on Pierce
By Yun-hua Chen. We are nothing if not thorough in our deception of others.” –Oyinkan Braithwaite, My Sister, the Serial Killer Nelicia Low’s Pierce is a poignant portrayal of deception, a kind of deception that one falls into willingly out of blood bonding, also reminiscent of We Need to Talk […]
La Bête Humaine – Robert Singer on Beyond Realism: Naturalist Film in Theory and Practice
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. It is my wish that Beyond Realism would inspire active dialogue and research with other disciplinary practices, academics, and film lovers. I would enjoy hearing a geneticist discuss the child serial killer in pigtails and speculative heredity in Mervyn Le Roy’s The Bad Seed (1956) or a […]
A Warden and Actors: An Interview with Filmmaker Nima Javidi
By Ali Moosavi. I prefer films and novels in which a character who plays a critical part in the story is mainly absent.” With just two feature films and a TV series under his belt, writer-director Nima Javidi has established himself in the upper echelons of Iranian cinema. He got […]
Escape from Their Golden Cages: Filmmaker Kurdwin Ayub on Mond (Moon)
By Yun-hua Chen. That’s why I chose MMA fights and combat sports. It’s all about being in a cage. Women’s MMA fights have this expectation that they must look sexy, and it’s about this strange desire of Sarah’s to return to the cage. Meanwhile, the girls in the film want […]
Dreams Remastered: On the 4K Remaster of Burden of Dreams (1982)
By William Blick. Les’ combination of integrating nature and the indigenous people and the story of the burden of Werner’s dream, all these elements make for a really compelling story, and in such a sensitive and poetic way.” –Harrod Blank Harrod Blank, Nick Bergh, and Anthony Matt discuss the new […]
Flight in Search of Asylum: On In the Land of Brothers
By Yun-hua Chen. People often say there are more important problems in Iranian society and no time to discuss [the Afghan refugee crisis]. That’s not a good excuse.” –Alireza Ghasemi Filmmakers Raha Amirfazli and Alireza Ghasemi discuss their new feature Stemming from profound concerns and affection for Afghan refugees who […]
Danse Macabre: Filmmaker Karen Arthur on The Mafu Cage (1978)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. I find that there is an emotional energy in a theater piece [the basis for The Mafu Cage] and that the relationships are so much stronger and more connected. I always use the concept that you have to see in film and so therefore I took the […]