By Yun-hua Chen. I was already under the spell of Godard. I thought, why not just start in my home country as a self-taught filmmaker?” From his teenage years, Swiss filmmaker Thomas Imbach was ensnared by Godard’s allure. Say God Bye, his latest documentary, chronicles his journey embarked upon with […]
Recent Contemporary Protest Cinema and Political-Cultural Exoticism
By Hamed Soleimanzadeh. By bringing attention to the challenges of the surrounding world, exotic protest cinema encourages audiences to take responsibility against the injustices and inefficiencies.” The concept of political-cultural exoticism in protest cinema refers to the presentation and understanding of ethnic, national, and regional cultures and policies in films […]
War at a Distance: Aurora’s Sunrise
By James Slaymaker. In its intricate tapestry of storytelling modes and its profound engagement with the ethics of representation, “Aurora’s Sunrise” stands as a cinematic work that dares to confront the complexities of historical memory. It forces us to re-examine the role of cinema in shaping and distorting the past….” […]
Starting from Scratch: Asmae ElMoudir on The Mother of All Lies (Kadib Abyad)
By Yun-hua Chen. For the story that I wanted to tell, there were no pictures and no proofs of what happened. I just started with one picture, and I finished with 500 hours of footage. I wanted to tell the story, but how I tell this story should be different.” […]
Into the Universe: Filmmaker Daphné Baiwir on King on Screen
By Leo Collis. “I really wanted to give the audience the feeling that they were entering the Stephen King universe.” The chances are, whether knowingly or not, you’ve seen a Stephen King adaptation on screen. The prolific author from Portland, Maine, has written over 50 books, and he has inspired […]
Collective Catharsis: An Interview with Cyril Aris on Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano
By Yun-hua Chen. For me the process of making this film allowed me to digest my feelings and experience as a means of catharsis on a collective level with the film crew….” On 4th August 2020, a catastrophic explosion devastated the port of Beirut due to 2,570 tons of ammonium […]
Our Only Physical Carrier: Claire Simon’s Our Body (Notre Corps)
By Yun-hua Chen. A natural continuation of Simon’s perpetual quest to intimately connect with humans in various conditions and manifestations.” From life’s inception to its inevitable conclusion, from the intricate tissues within us to the complexities of our identities, Claire Simon’s Our Body looks into the gynecological experience with remarkable […]
Music to Film Streaming: An Interview with Carl Chery on the Hulu Docuseries RapCaviar Presents
By Jonathan Monovich. A lot of times you see shows that reference hip-hop, and it doesn’t feel like it’s made by people that live/breathe it. That was what I was thinking about during the making of RapCaviar Presents and was something that was constantly top of mind. We set out […]
Waste and the Human-Machine Relationship: An Interview with Nikolaus Geyrhalter on Matter Out of Place
By Yun-hua Chen. They were scenes that were a bit more exchangeable; we could choose and find different ways of shooting these scenes, and we were not depending on one specific location. In the end, we found locations that could show that there is a problem.” Austrian Director Nikolaus Geyrhalter […]
James Baldwin Abroad (and on Film)
By John Talbird. Love has never been a popular movement. And no one has ever wanted, really, to be free. The world is held together…by the love and passion of a very few people. Otherwise, of course, you can despair. You can walk down the street of any city…and look […]