Guest post by David Church. If or when a person views pornography today, it’s not likely in public, in polite company, or with aesthetic appreciation in mind. This is because mainstream pornography is often considered cheaply made, politically damaging, or crudely single-minded in its purpose: turning a person on or helping get them off. While… Read more »
In 1984, Taiwanese actor and martial artist John Liu directed and starred in his only American production, an action comedy shot on location called New York Ninja. Once filming was completed, however, the project was dropped with the footage abandoned in a film lab and many other materials missing. It seemed that the world would… Read more »
One of the most important figures in African film, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra is a name that deserves to be better known. After directing the first substantial film by a French-speaking sub-Saharan African, Afrique sur Seine, in 1955, Vieyra went on to become the first African admitted to study at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques… Read more »
With her mesmerizing debut feature Faya Dayi, Ethiopian-Mexican filmmaker Jessica Beshir returned to her hometown of Harar to document its rural Oromo community of farmers and the harvesting of the khat plant, the country’s most desired export. Photographed in swooning black and white, Beshir’s Oscar-shortlisted film is both a loving tribute to Ethiopia and a… Read more »
Four years ago, the whole world seemed to hold their breath when a group of boys and their soccer coach became trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. It was an unimaginable, terrifying event to watch unfold, with no guarantee of a happy ending. In their new documentary The Rescue, which was recently placed on… Read more »
If you’ve heard anything about Titane since its release last year, you’ve probably heard it described as the movie where a woman has sex with a car. But Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner is infinitely more complex than that. It is also the kind of film that the less you know about it, the better… Read more »