On a recent trip to Seattle I had the pleasure of attending the Northwest Film Forum (NFF), a non-profit film and arts center focused on fostering a cinematic community. Not only do they champion and screen a wide variety of independent films, but they offer educational workshops, a public editing lab, cinema rentals, host film… Read more »
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… Read more »
At twelve noon in Broadway, New York, Harry S. Young, billed the “human fly,” began climbing the side of the Martinique Hotel in 1923. Thousands of people gathered at Greely Square just below the hotel to watch the spectacle, including his wife. After climbing up ten stories Young slipped and fell to his death. The… Read more »
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974) opens to Emmi Kurowski (Brigitte Mira), a German cleaning woman, timidly entering a bar one night on her way home to get out of the pouring rain. Fassbinder’s frame composes her at a distance; she is isolated and alone and by the looks of it, lonely…. 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 »
If there’s one thing I look forward to more than a film screening, it’s two of them back to back. A well curated double bill is a thing of beauty and a complex craft that often goes overlooked. As much as the creation of a film is a miracle in and of itself, how… Read more »