The only Palestinian film programmed for Berlinale is from a collective composed of Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal with Israeli colleagues Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. It captures the destruction of a West Bank community whose origins can be tracked to the 1830s. While the filming of “No Other Land” began during Summer … Read more
The latter consideration is a lens that feels particular to Diop’s desire to give voice to the most disaffected. In this case, it’s item #26 of the artifacts, a King Ghezo statue, who speaks in a low distorted voice about the scarring that occurred when he was ripped away from home. He mostly speaks when … Read more
Much could be said of how adventurous Mara is here and how exacting every member of this deep ensemble assumes their part — but it’s Carmona, playing a man in clear agony, who’s every word is delivered with cataclysmic intent that always draws our interest. When he finally blows, unleashing a cathartic primal scream that … Read more
While Ms. Lia and Achi’s tall task forms half the story — how likely is it to find Ms. Lia’s niece in a metropolitan area with only an outdated address in hand? — an equally undaunted Evrim (Deniz Dumanli) forms the rewarding second half. A former trans sex worker turned legal volunteer, Evrim helps during … Read more
Some of those had to do with conditions in Iran. When I started reporting on Iranian cinema in the early ‘90s, the tensions between the country’s government and other nations, and between the regime and its filmmakers, made each cinema year one full of suspense, surprise and off-screen drama. Remarkably, even when hardliners were in … Read more
It’s time to turn the calendar over and start the new film year with the announcement of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival program. This year’s roster, which will be covered here by Brian Tallerico, Robert Daniels, and Marya Gates, includes new projects by Steven Soderbergh, Richard Linklater, Jesse Eisenberg, Dawn Porter, Chris Smith, and hundreds more. … Read more
Bayard Rustin was the architect of 1963’s momentous March on Washington, but was largely overlooked. Directed by DGA Award and five-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe and starring Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo as Rustin, the film shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam … Read more
It’s been a year since the festival’s co-founder, the dearly missed Sergio Mims, passed away. Celebrating its 29th iteration, the first program directly untouched by Mims, the festival conjured a theme that implicitly connected the gathering to its enduring past while looking toward a necessary future. Lead Curator Jada-Amina and Coordinator Nick Leffel rang the … Read more
Speaking of timing being on your side, you mentioned in the Q&A last night that the script was written in 2019, but you didn’t begin filming until 2022 because of the pandemic. With the extra time, the script shifted. In what ways did it shift? The general story and the general approach was always there. … Read more
Not only did Black Harvest Film Festival feature a band of boundary pushing features, there were also smart, imaginative shorts too. Tari Wariebi’s “We Were Meant To,” which initially premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2023, comes out of the AFI Conservatory. The film elegantly mixes fable with political subtext through a community of Black men … Read more