Worker Exploitation and Misogyny: Where the Real Looting Happens in the Retail Industry—’Made in Bangladesh’, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain, 2019July 13th, 2020|Country: Bangladesh, Denmark, France, Portugal|A sizzling drama about a feminist uprising and union organizing at a garment factory in Dhaka puts the necessary spotlight on the exploitation of labor of which many consumers remain oblivious
Manga Bears, Latex Pigs and Tireless Activism in Japan’s Struggle for Equality and Queer Acceptance—‘Queer Japan’, dir. Graham Kolbeins, 2019June 23rd, 2020|Country: Canada, Japan, USA|A head-spinning tour of the many ways in which queerness manifests itself in Japan, from art-forms to infrastructure, from communities to mass media, made with affection for every featured voice
A Grieving Family, A Cryogenically Frozen Toddler and a Death, Postponed— ‘Hope Frozen’, dir. Pailin Wedel, 2018June 21st, 2020|Country: Thailand, USA|When a father’s attempts to stop his young daughter’s terminal cancer fail, he persuades the family to look into cryonics so that the girl could have another chance at life in the remote future
The Human Cost of Duterte’s Drug War—‘The Mortician of Manila’, dir. Leah Borromeo, 2019 + ‘The Nightcrawlers’, dir. Alexander A. Mora, 2019June 15th, 2020|Country: Philippines, Qatar, United Kingdom|Vigilante brigades committing extrajudicial murders to help the police, journalists trying to shed light on the atrocities, and an undertaker who takes care of the victims’ bodies
‘The Legal’ versus ‘The Moral’; The Plight of the Family in Contemporary Japan —’Shoplifters,’ dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018June 2nd, 2020|Country: Japan|Facing crippling poverty, one family’s attempt to survive may be emblematic of wider societal problems plaguing a Japan that’s in a deep economic recession
Gasping at the Horrors of Past Internment Camps, as We Build More Prisons—‘Dead Souls’, dir. Wang Bing, 2018May 31st, 2020|Country: China, France, Switzerland|An exhaustive, gutting look at a Chinese internment camp allows us to learn from the survivors first hand. However, what exactly are we as a carceral society taking away from it?
Iron Horses, Flesh Elephants, and Human Survivors of Taiwan’s History—Wu Ming-yi, ’The Stolen Bicycle,’ 2015, trans. Darryl SterkMay 12th, 2020|Country: Taiwan|A highly imaginative novel rooted in the personal and historical comes together as a multi-faceted vision of Taiwan’s past and distills Taiwanese identity out of wars and calamities
Queerness, Gender Discrimination, and Cults on the Margins of the Chinese Dream—‘A Dog Barking at the Moon’, dir. Lisa Zi Xiang, 2019April 7th, 2020|Country: China, Spain|A taut, inventive drama dissects how preoccupation with gender fulfillment and marriage in the Chinese society can lead to alienation: an expectant mother rediscovers the misery in her childhood home
Meat, Lust and Madness Against the Bhutanese Greenery— ‘The Red Phallus’, dir. Tashi Gyeltshen, 2018March 31st, 2020|Country: Bhutan, Germany, Nepal|An emotionally intelligent, masterfully arranged film that explores the power-dynamics in Bhutanese society through the eyes of a traumatized, disaffected teenage girl
The Magnificent Pencil Pushers: The Planet’s Leading Miniature Carvers Working on the Sharp End, Part 2March 30th, 2020|Country: Bashkortostan, India, Russia, Taiwan, Tamil Nadu, USA, Vietnam|There is no topic that those micro sculptors with mad skills can't pencil in: from Baby Yoda to endangered species, from complex engineering to the taboo of menstruation.
The Many Facets of Kyrgyz Womanhood—‘Jamilia’, dir. Aminatou Echard, 2018 February 26th, 2020|Country: France, Kyrgyzstan|Ethnography meets experimental film in a stunning, sprawling study of Kyrgyz femininity and its relationship to the culture's defining novella about a rebellious woman
The Past, Present, and Future of Dance in the Muslim World—‘When Arabs Danced’, dir. Jawad Rhalib, 2018January 20th, 2020|Country: Algeria, Belgium, France, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco|Trailblazing performers from Arabic countries and Iran, as well as glimpses from the pre-hardline cultural landscapes in this tantalizing primer on the role dance plays in Islam-adjacent cultures
The Sheltering Power of Art and Pedagogy in Occupied Palestine—‘Hurdle’, dir. Michael Rowley, 2019January 19th, 2020|Country: Palestine, USA|An intimate documentary about two men who seek freedom from Israeli occupation through creativity and kinship unfolds into an antidote to toxic masculinity
One Afghan Family’s Clandestine Perspective of the Contemporary Global Refugee Crisis in ‘Midnight Traveler’, dir. Hassan Fazili, 2019January 14th, 2020|Country: Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey|An urgent documentary about a family seeking asylum provides an intimate perspective of the way that countless people plea for state powers to recognize their humanity
Family Values, Fraud, Post-Colonialism, and Scary Healing Rituals in ‘Suleiman Mountain’, dir. Elizaveta Stishova, 2017January 6th, 2020|Country: Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Russia|A husband, his two wives, and estranged young son grapple with opportunities and morals in rural Kyrgyzstan—a powerful road-movie from a young Russian director
A Lighthearted Lesbian Romcom With Serious Politics: ‘Billie and Emma’, dir. Samantha Lee, 2018December 15th, 2019|Country: Philippines|A queer romance is blooming at an all-girls catholic school in rural Philippines in the 90s—but pregnancy puts the relationship, as well as the girls' agencies, to the test
Film: From Its Mouth Came a River of High-End Residential Appliances, dir. Jon Wang, 2018December 5th, 2018|Country: China, Hong Kong, USA|
Film: The Lebanese Rocket Society, dir. Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, 2012October 22nd, 2018|Country: Armenia, Lebanon|
Book: Emily Jungmin Yoon, A Cruelty Special to Our Species, 2018October 19th, 2018|Country: Canada, South Korea|
Music: Smithsonian Folkways, Folk Music of the USSR, 1960October 18th, 2018|Country: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bashkortostan, Belarus, Dagestan, Georgia, Karelia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, South Ossetia, Tajikistan, Tatarstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan|
Film: A Cambodian Spring, dir. Christopher Kelly, 2016October 13th, 2018|Country: Cambodia, United Kingdom|
Book: Joseph Safieddin and Kyungeun Park, Yallah Bye, 2015October 12th, 2018|Country: France, Lebanon, South Korea|