Category: essay

Ann Arbor Film Festival, essay, Festival Coverage, Film

A Few Bright Spots in the Desert: A Report on the 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival

by Joshua Peinado As the oldest avant garde film festival in North America, the Ann Arbor Film Festival has proudly staked its claim as one of the foremost bastions for emerging experimental filmmakers. There is not only the distinction of playing a film in the festival that has had the likes of Kenneth Anger, Phil Solomon, and Nathaniel Dorsky but also a range of cash … Continue reading A Few Bright Spots in the Desert: A Report on the 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival

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essay, Film

Children of the Night: On ‘Obscure Night – Goodbye Here, Anywhere’ (2023)

by Arta Barzanji Sylvain George’s latest work, Obscure Night – Goodbye Here, Anywhere, follows up 2022’s Obscure Night – Wild Leaves (The Burning Ones, the Obstinate). While the film itself hasn’t been made available thus far, theatrically or otherwise, the memory of its viewing at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival has vividly stayed with me. As I waited for a wider release of the film to provide the … Continue reading Children of the Night: On ‘Obscure Night – Goodbye Here, Anywhere’ (2023)

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essay, Film

Visualising the Palestinian Struggle: Khadijeh Habashneh and the Palestine Film Unit

by Leena Habiballa The Naksa of 1967 and the rapid expansion of the Israeli occupation during the Six Day War marked a significant turning point in the development of Palestinian cinema. The escalation in Israeli settler violence sparked an insurrection in Palestine and the rise of guerilla freedom fighters, fedayeen, as regional actors against a new mass exodus. Palestinian filmworkers exiled in the diaspora across … Continue reading Visualising the Palestinian Struggle: Khadijeh Habashneh and the Palestine Film Unit

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essay, Festival Coverage, Film, New York Film Festival 2023

Mambar Pierrette: All of Cameroon’s Cares on Her Shoulders

by Abiba Coulibaly Mambar Pierrette continues Roisin Mbakam’s exploration of the confessional function offered by informal businesses and the entrepreneurial African women who man them—following the thread of her previous film Chez Jolie Coiffeur (2018), about a sliver of a Belgian hair salon. Until now, Mbakam’s steady output has focused largely on the diaspora of her native Cameroon (Chez Jolie Coiffure [2018], Delphine’s Prayers [2021]) … Continue reading Mambar Pierrette: All of Cameroon’s Cares on Her Shoulders

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essay, Film

Spirits Rebel: On Julius-Amédée Laou’s Cinema of Revenants

by Ruairí McCann In his poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939), Aimé Césaire, through the painful, rocky passage back and forth between Africa, Martinique and France, arrives at the following commitment.  “And I should say to myself:  << And most of all beware, even in thought, of assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of … Continue reading Spirits Rebel: On Julius-Amédée Laou’s Cinema of Revenants

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essay, Festival Coverage, Film

Celluloid Now, More Than Ever

by Olivia Hunter Willke On my way home from the first program of the all-analog avant-garde film festival organized by the Chicago Film Society, Celluloid Now, I received the call that my grandmother was dying. The next evening, as I sat watching the beautiful 35mm program unfold, my grandmother was read her last rights and I was confronted by the film III. (2022) by Alexandre … Continue reading Celluloid Now, More Than Ever

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