“When Le-hun sobs in the artificial rain, back pressed to a plywood facade, the plainness of the wood’s grain brings the audience closer to the material rather than adding distance: the production and the resulting film seem one in the same, part of an enthusiastic defiance of mass-market cinema in favor of local storytelling.” Continue reading Exposed Plywood: Lin Tuan-chiu’s ‘The Husband’s Secret’ (1960)
curated by Your Fellow Traveler, Ruairí McCann and Maximilien Luc Proctor / images courtesy of Larry Gottheim and Your Fellow Traveler Made in 1987, The Red Thread is a film by American avant-garde filmmaker Larry Gottheim. Its title not only refers to a literal thread but a conceptual one, woven throughout his body of work—and indeed, life. It is also the title of his completed … Continue reading Natural Selection: Five Films by Larry Gottheim
In anticipation of of a new streaming program, ‘Natural Selection: Five Films by Larry Gottheim’, which premieres on Thursday, March 31st and runs through April 14th, Ultra Dogme presents an excerpt from Gottheim’s forthcoming book on his life’s work, ‘The Red Thread’. by Larry Gottheim NATURAL SELECTION: MY MIND AND THE MIND OF OTHERS From the outset I made some films with students. The film … Continue reading Larry Gottheim on ‘Natural Selection’
Three new texts on Tamil cinema Continue reading A Tamil Trio: Views on the Cinema of Tamil Nadu in the 21st Century
“The customary hero-introduction shot in Tamil language drama Kadaikutti Singam (2018) happens during the scene of a rekla race, the traditional bullock cart sport held in Tamil Nadu villages. Before Karthi Shivakumar, the star actor who plays the lead character, makes an appearance, Soori, the comedian who plays the hero’s best friend, takes a look at the bustling arena where bulls are rubbing shoulders with men, and gushes, “How could you curtail this happiness!”” Continue reading Digging Shallow And Deep—Portrayals Of ‘The Farmer’ In New Tamil Cinema
“The subject of this essay is custodial violence in Tamil cinema, films produced in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where over a hundred custodial deaths were recorded in the past two decades without a single conviction.” Continue reading Squeal Like a Pig—Custodial Violence in Tamil Cinema
” When I boarded the Nellai Express early in the morning of 16 June 2019 to journey from Neyveli to Chennai along the eastern stitch of the Indian peninsula, I was only marginally surprised to find a thick diary, of the corner-stationery variety, lying atop the brief table next to my berth. Someone had also left behind a half-eaten packet of salted almonds.” Continue reading A Sculpture of Ashes—Liner Notes On A Modern, Cinephilic Tragedy
Ruairí McCann looks back at two distinctly American titles from this year’s Berlinale, one new and one old. Continue reading “Are You Waving The Flag At Me?”—Sly and Prurient Americans at the Berlinale
The following text originally appeared in the Whitney Museum of American Art book, Gregory J. Markopoulos: Mythic Themes, Portraiture, and Films of Place (1996). Continue reading A lecture by Gregory Markopoulos delivered at Kent State University, June 30, 1968
Happy International Women’s Day! Continue reading International Women’s Day 2022
ULTRA DOGME 