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Political Cinema: The Past as a Provocation for the Present
By Rowan El Shimi “History repeats itself” is as common a belief as vegetables are good for you. Many states find themselves in recurring patterns, a consistent swinging between right and left wing...
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People in Peril
By Richard Bolisay In Michael Rabiger’s book, “Directing the Documentary” (Focal Press, 1987), he writes: “Documentaries make human issues palpable in order to exercise the hearts and minds of an...
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ALL YOUR CORPSES NOW BEGIN TO SPEAK – THROUGH FILM
By Petra Meterc “But all our phrasing – race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy – serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience,...
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You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks
By Héctor Oyarzún Some of the films in the 67th Berlinale seem like a direct response to the current global preoccupations with security and border protection. Aki Kaurismäki’s THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE...
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SUPERCOLLIDERS AND BUILDING BLOCKS – GUADAGNINO VS. KAURISMÄKI
By Christopher Small In subtle and surprising ways, Luca Guadagnino’s CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the story of a relationship that develops between a 17-year old boy and his father’s academic resident, is...
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SUBVERTING THE GENRE
By Aslı Ildır Representing political trauma is a hard task, especially for an artist who is depicting it while simultaneously experiencing it. This challenge is often met most effectively when the...
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IN THEIR SHOES
By Archana Nathan What does a love story between two young men of the Xhosa community in South Africa have in common with a documentary featuring 3,000 gay men aboard a week-long cruise on the...
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Negotiating a Reel Appreciation of History
By Adefoyeke Ajao Whenever the word “history” is mentioned, it tends to conjure an image of depressive black and white images fleeting across the screen, voiced-over by an equally dismal monologue...
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Nonexistent Destination: TSCHICK
By Hammurabi Hernández Known for addressing Eastern European cultural conflicts in his films, it is surprising that Turkish-German director Fatih Akin decided in his latest feature film to adapt "Why...
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Interchangeable terms: A commentary on Max Zunino’s BRUMA
By Rafael Guilhem Filming is not an event limited to the technological field. It is not a product of a materialistic historical development nor is it only related with capturing reality from an...
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VERÓNICA and ANADINA: Won't You Buy Me a Marzipan?
By Davo Valdés de la Campa One of the maxims in stories is that a tale contains a secret narrative. For Ricardo Piglia, the structure of a story “is constructed to artificially reveal something that...
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Mist in Berlin: BRUMA
By Hammurabi Hernández In the closing of BRUMA by Mexico resident and Uruguayan director Max Zunino, the viewer is informed that the recently watched film was performed using improvisation techniques....
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We Are Still the Same Species: LA LIBERTAD DEL DIABLO
By Carlos Armenta The sixth documentary feature by Mexican Everardo González, LA LIBERTAD DEL DIABLO, starts with a voice-over that announces “we still are the same species.” It is under this motto...
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Giving New Life to a Classic: MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO
By Carlos Armenta Almost fifty years ago, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s film MEMORIAS DEL SUBDESARROLLO, based on Edmundo Desnoes’ novel of the same name, was first seen on screen. Since its debut and to...
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A Cloak of Magic and Mysticism: SUEÑO EN OTRO IDIOMA
By Karly Gaitán Morales Like a lyrical dream, the Mexican rainforest opens as a backdrop in filmmaker Ernesto Concretas’ SUEÑO EN OTRO IDIOMA. Not surprisingly, this film won the Audience Award in the...
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A Simple Encounter: SANTA AND ANDRÉS
By Carlos Armenta The new feature film by Cuban director Carlos Lechuga, SANTA AND ANDRÉS, is a critical commentary on totalitarian Cuba after the revolution. However, the treatment of characters and...
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LAS DOS IRENES: The Triumph of Childhood
By Davo Valdés de la Campa A girl in the process of becoming an adolescent discovers that her father has another family. In a nearby village in the Brazilian hills, he has another daughter with the...
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Log # 1
by Aldo Padilla More than 18 years after I left Buenos Aires with a strange taste, I returned under a totally different scenario, on a plane which arrived 15 minutes before schedule in contrast to...
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Log #2
by Andrés D’Avenia You lose track of time. It’s been two days and it feels like a week. You return to the hostel and start to glimpse faces with names with countries with origins with stories with...
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