At the end of a recent appearance of The Late Show, host Stephen Colbert asked his guest, Run the Jewels rapper Killer Mike, what white people could do to be better allies in what has become a serious moment of reckoning in our country. The artist’s answer: go watch the work of Jane Elliott, an educator who’s been conducting classroom experiments involving race, role play and the pain of exclusion since the Sixties. We have no idea how many people took his advice and sought out the Frontline...
- 6/4/2020
- by David Fear, Tim Grierson and Maria Fontoura
- Rollingstone.com
10 Great ‘Small’ Movies You Might Have Missed in the 2010s, From ‘Manakamana’ to ‘The Fits’ (Photos)
The films on this admittedly non-comprehensive list were not distributed by major studios, but by smaller specialty companies. They played for a couple of weeks (or less) in big cities, maybe even just one night in a museum. They weren’t on the multiplex radar at all. But to adventurous film audiences, they were a vital part of any discussion about cinema. They told complex stories ignored by major studios. The dug deeper into abstraction or discomfort. And they pushed at the edges of filmmaking practice in ways that will influence the mainstream in the future.
“Cemetery of Splendor” (2015)
A makeshift hospital on an ancient royal burial ground houses soldiers overcome with a mysterious sleeping sickness. Then they begin psychically communicating with the women who work there. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s oblique, delicate story of historical memory and collective awakening that plays out like a dream.
“Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?...
“Cemetery of Splendor” (2015)
A makeshift hospital on an ancient royal burial ground houses soldiers overcome with a mysterious sleeping sickness. Then they begin psychically communicating with the women who work there. Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s oblique, delicate story of historical memory and collective awakening that plays out like a dream.
“Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?...
- 12/11/2019
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
The Art of Self-Defense (Riley Stearns)
If Fight Club taught us one thing and one thing only it is to never underestimate the power of a bored single man with nothing to lose. And that is, in some ways, also the central thesis of Riley Stearns’ delightfully twisted The Art of Self-Defense, a pitch-black comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg as sad sack Casey, a lonely auditor who, in the film’s opening scene, is mocked at a distance in French by a couple. He, unfortunately, has become proficient in French, working his way through cassette tapes on his commute to work. He’s an easy and perhaps asexual target,...
The Art of Self-Defense (Riley Stearns)
If Fight Club taught us one thing and one thing only it is to never underestimate the power of a bored single man with nothing to lose. And that is, in some ways, also the central thesis of Riley Stearns’ delightfully twisted The Art of Self-Defense, a pitch-black comedy starring Jesse Eisenberg as sad sack Casey, a lonely auditor who, in the film’s opening scene, is mocked at a distance in French by a couple. He, unfortunately, has become proficient in French, working his way through cassette tapes on his commute to work. He’s an easy and perhaps asexual target,...
- 10/11/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
An epic concert from nearly a half-century ago, sports documentaries that break the mold, a look at the American Midwest, a document of a film that never was — these were just a few of the subjects and stories that this year’s documentary offerings brought us. With 2018 wrapping up, we’ve selected 16 features in the field that left us most impressed, so check out our list below and, in the comments, let us know your favorites.
Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack)
A time capsule that’s as fresh and powerful an experience as it must have been when recorded live in Watts in 1972, Amazing Grace is arguably one of the year’s most-anticipated films arriving after years of litigation and a fetal technical glitch that was finally resolved thanks to digital workflows and persistence. What remains is a powerful and captivating performance by the great Aretha Franklin as she opts to...
Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack)
A time capsule that’s as fresh and powerful an experience as it must have been when recorded live in Watts in 1972, Amazing Grace is arguably one of the year’s most-anticipated films arriving after years of litigation and a fetal technical glitch that was finally resolved thanks to digital workflows and persistence. What remains is a powerful and captivating performance by the great Aretha Franklin as she opts to...
- 12/13/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
There’s a sentiment expressed early on in Black Panther that just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. It’s a fitting ethos for the 18th film in Marvel Studios’ ten-year assembly line of blockbusters. However same-ish or fatigued some of the cinematic universe might feel, on the balance sheet, they work. While Ryan Coogler’s deep dive into the titular character’s Wakandan homeworld keeps the assembly line working, it heralds not only an improvement on the McU, but a striking and grandiose fantasy in its own right. – Conor O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Did...
Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
There’s a sentiment expressed early on in Black Panther that just because something works doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. It’s a fitting ethos for the 18th film in Marvel Studios’ ten-year assembly line of blockbusters. However same-ish or fatigued some of the cinematic universe might feel, on the balance sheet, they work. While Ryan Coogler’s deep dive into the titular character’s Wakandan homeworld keeps the assembly line working, it heralds not only an improvement on the McU, but a striking and grandiose fantasy in its own right. – Conor O. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Did...
- 9/7/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Upon first glance, the title of Travis Wilkerson’s “Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” carries an air of mystery, as though the film will start with a body and then work its way through a vast conspiracy before identifying the killer. And — in a way — that’s exactly what it does. But not in that order. First we identify the killer: Se Branch, Wilkerson’s great-grandfather, a virulent racist who murdered a black man in 1946 and got away with it scot-free. Then we have the victim: Bill Spann, who had the misfortune of living in Alabama at a time when his life most certainly didn’t matter to the people in charge. Finally, we sift through the vast conspiracy that separated these two men, a vapid system of violence that left one of them alive with his family, and the other dead in an unmarked grave, as Bill...
- 3/1/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Throughout the remarkable Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? – director Travis Wilkerson’s attempt to learn more about and confront the murder of the African American Bill Spann by his white great-grandfather, S.E. Branch, through a cinematic essay on racism in America – there are many black-and-white images of houses, forests, and roads in Alabama, the state in which the killing took place. As interview subjects recount memories or details related to the crime — through either first-person testimony or Wilkerson’s second-hand paraphrasing — the film often eschews focusing on the speaker to dwell on local spaces, quietly moving through static shots of Alabaman milieus. These images are so still that, at first, they resemble photographs — specifically, old photographs of the sort that one might find in the photo album of someone who was alive when Bill Spann was killed. But if you look closely, you’ll see that the...
- 2/27/2018
- by Jonah Jeng
- The Film Stage
Travis Wilkerson’s Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? was one of the must-sees on last year’s festival circuit, presented either as a straight-ahead documentary or through a “live cinema” environment wherein the writer-director presented his footage with an in-person voiceover. In whatever form it’s seen, many — from the Village Voice to the New York Times to Sight & Sound to Artforum to the New Yorker — spoke of it as a titanic experience, inciting chills for its exploration of personal history as a microcosm of national shame.
The theatrical version of Wilkerson’s project will be released next month by Grasshopper Film, and thus there is a trailer to mark the occasion. Overlaying the horrifying history with images of southern life and the ultimate image of decency, Atticus Finch, it gives some taste of the journey endured by its creator.
Watch below:
Formally audacious and emotionally powerful: a meditation on conscience and responsibility,...
The theatrical version of Wilkerson’s project will be released next month by Grasshopper Film, and thus there is a trailer to mark the occasion. Overlaying the horrifying history with images of southern life and the ultimate image of decency, Atticus Finch, it gives some taste of the journey endured by its creator.
Watch below:
Formally audacious and emotionally powerful: a meditation on conscience and responsibility,...
- 1/29/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
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