Guest post by David Brent Johnson. Sun Ra, the bandleader and cosmic traveler whose earthly name was Herman “Sonny” Blount, graced this planet with his presence for just over 79 years. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, he spent his most formative years in Chicago in the 1940s and ’50s, working as an arranger for… Read more »
An iconoclastic talent, Barbara Hammer has been leaving her mark on cinema for over five decades. The author of numerous thought-provoking, audacious works, Hammer has received many awards and honors, while also breaking barriers with her exploration of such topics as lesbianism, aging, the female body, and mainstream portrayals of women and homosexuality. Later this… Read more »
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jesse Balzer, a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture (now IU’s Media School), about his current research on movie trailers and the industry creating them. What was it about movie trailers that first peaked your interest as an area of research? It was simply how familiar… Read more »
Guest post by Noelle Ibrahim. Themester intern Noelle Ibrahim had a conversation with Jonathan Risner, a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at IU. They discussed the upcoming Themester film, Au hasard Balthazar. (This interview was edited and condensed.) What do you find compelling about this film? If I’m going to relate it to… Read more »
Guest post by Noelle Ibrahim. Themester intern Noelle Ibrahim had a conversation with Stephanie Kane, an International Studies professor at IU. They discussed the central tensions captured in the upcoming Themester film, Angry Inuk. Dr. Kane’s new course, INTL-I 302 Arctic Encounters: Animals, People and Ships, explores the ever-evolving Arctic sphere and competing interests within the… Read more »
Guest post by Piibi-Kai Kivik. The second film in the Nordic Privilege and Anxiety series is The Temptation of St. Tony by the Estonian director Veiko Õunpuu. The film shocks and disturbs, its black-and-white starkness and surreal images visually contrasting with the saturated colors of Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side of Hope.
