Indiana University Cinema

WhoWhatWhenWhere is Jamaican Film? A Primer

Posted on March 22, 2019 by A Place For Film

Guest post by Terri Francis.

Jamaica’s history with motion pictures radiates in multiple directions within a broad aesthetic and geographic framework that reflects its transnational and multicultural realities. Such an approach challenges a number of conventions in both film studies and Caribbean studies. The division between nonfiction and fiction films becomes less important if we include the cine-parables of the 1950s Jamaica Film Unit, where non-actors played themselves in elaborate fictional scenarios that were meant to educate the public on issues such as farming and dairying techniques (see an example here).

The emphasis on fiction in film history makes it harder to notice the important work in educational, sponsored, promotional, and activist documentary films. And the assumption, supported by concerns about the politics of perception and knowledge, that the pre-independence era holds little of value in terms of film or of cultural authenticity is understandable but maybe a little misleading. (more…)

Re-Imagining Reality at True/False Film Fest

Posted on March 20, 2019 by A Place For Film

Merchandise at the 2019 True/False Film Festival. (Photo by Rebecca Allen)

Guest post by Caitlyn Stevens, IU Cinema’s Social Media Specialist and Marketing & Engagement Assistant, who attended her seventh True/False Film Festival earlier this month.

Anyone who knows me associates me with film — it’s what I do for work, what I talk and obsess about, what I study, and what I do in my free time. This wasn’t always the case. I originally went to the University of Missouri (Mizzou) for Journalism, but at the beginning of my sophomore year, I dropped out of the “J-School” and started from scratch. I had no idea what I was actually interested in, let alone what I wanted to study or do for a career. The seeds of my film fixation had been planted through Ragtag Cinema and the adjacent video rental store 9th Street Video (RIP), but ultimately, I was stagnant.

…and then I went to my first film at the True/False Film Festival. (more…)

The Creative Spirit in Miss Hokusai

Posted on March 19, 2019 by A Place For Film

Still from Miss Hokusai — Still from *Miss Hokusai*

Guest post by Tyne Lowe.

In the first thirty minutes of Miss Hokusai, artist O-Ei walks through Edo with her blind younger sister, O-Nao, and attempts to explain their father’s art to her. The viewer has been introduced to their father, Katsushiko Hokusai (referred to in the film as Tetsuzo), as a somewhat eccentric and performative artist, painting enormous, floor-sized paintings with a mop or rendering minuscule pictures on grains of rice when he was not working in his messy studio with O-Ei. Presenting Hokusai’s best-known work to the viewer and her sister, O-Ei invites O-Nao to experience it, boarding a boat and riding it through increasingly choppy water; the animation slows and then halts as their boat is lifted by the iconic wave, imitating Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa (a woodcut c. 1829-1833). Throughout the film, O-Ei’s act of bestowing vision to the blind symbolically embodies her role as an artist. In the Great Wave scene (and others), the emphasis is placed on Hokusai’s art and exploring the near-mystical quality of his artistic energy; however, much of the film also explores O-Ei’s own vision and the processes by which she hones her own skills. (more…)

Cosmos and Chaos in Carlos Reygadas’ Japón

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Caleb Allison

Still from Japón of the vast Mexican landscape. — Still from *Japón* of the vast Mexican landscape.

Carlos Reygadas’ mysteriously titled Japón (2002) opens in a darkened car tunnel, and for all we know we’re in Japan (Japón’s English translation), but maybe a Japan of the future. The car taillights glow ember-red below the camera line with white orbs of tunnel light above. A motorcycle glides between stopped traffic. It’s so dark the lights appear to float freely of their own volition, until the cars start to creep forward. The music starts, laced with ethereal tension and danger. We round a corner in the darkness and a bright, blinding light appears – the tunnel exit (or so it would seem) – and we move towards it but never reach it before we’re thrust out into the world with a hard cut. We’re in the city, but the highways and billboards soon give way to lush tress and dirt roads. We’re on a journey. We don’t know where we’re going or whose journey it is yet, but we’re along for the ride. (more…)

Coming of Age While Grieving

Posted on March 14, 2019 by David Carter

Still from Jezebel — Still from *Jezebel*

IU Cinema’s very own David Carter is currently at South by Southwest, a major film festival that takes place in Austin, TX every March. This week, David has provided us with exclusive sneak peeks at two of the exciting new films that 2019 will be bringing: Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated Us and, for today’s review, Jezebel, the dazzling debut film of rising filmmaker Numa Perrier.

Numa Perrier wants to tell you her story but she doesn’t want to leave the nasty details out. As the opening minutes role on her debut feature-length film, we see the director, writer and actress moan, coo and tease into a phone, building to a vulgar and feigned climax. All the while, her little sister lays outside her room, pretending to sleep and hearing the whole thing. The title pops up on screen and we have officially begun to explore the frank and intersectional world of sex work, grief and adulthood of Jezebel. (more…)

Us: This is America

Posted on March 12, 2019 by David Carter

Artwork for Jordan Peele's Us — Artwork for Jordan Peele’s Us

IU Cinema’s very own David Carter is currently at South by Southwest, a major film festival that takes place in Austin, TX every March. This week, David will be providing us with exclusive sneak peeks at two of the exciting new films that 2019 will be bringing. Today’s review is courtesy of Jordan Peele’s Us, a brilliant horror film that David is sure we’ll be discussing for a long time.

The first time I sat watching the credits to Jordan Peele’s debut film Get Out, I knew what I had just seen was special but didn’t know what to make of it. It was this film about the smile-and-wink racism that had developed in Baby Boomers during the Obama administration. It was this film about commodification of black bodies. And it was this film that ended on a note that made me scratch my head and question the previous 100 minutes because I wasn’t quite on its wavelength. When Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris Washington rides away with his friend in a TSA security car, I was baffled. It felt like a film that had been building up to bleak irony. Our hero triumphs over his captures but is gunned downed by the police. Night of the Living Dead referenced. Roll credits. (more…)