A Displaced Child Prodigy’s Imagination Offers Ideas For Our Collective Future—‘Anbessa’, dir. Mo Scarpelli, 2019November 15th, 2020|Country: Ethiopia, Italy, USA|Urban development in Addis-Ababa and humanity’s race for progress are explored through the eyes of a curious, talented ten-year-old boy living in a hut in the shadow of shiny new condominiums
A Vulnerable Portrait of Girlhood Between Two Cultures Is a Searing Indictment of the Commercialization of Budding Sexuality— ‘Cuties,’ dir. Maïmouna Doucouré, 2020September 24th, 2020|Country: France, Senegal|In a much-discussed coming-of-age comedy-drama, French filmmaker of Senegalese origin does not pull any punches while shedding light on the way cultural excesses harm those caught between them
The Voices of Women Reclaim Algerian History Through Colonization, Wars, and Personal Infractions—Assia Djebar, ’Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade,’ 1985, trans. Dorothy S. BlairSeptember 2nd, 2020|Country: Algeria|A linguistically ornate exercise exploring postcolonial history and identity, Assia Djebar’s account of her homeland is a monument to the country’s women and their heroic lives
At the Intersection of Queer and Samoan Identity, Nature, Magic, and Decolonization Through Poetry—Dan Taulapapa McMullin, ‘Coconut Milk,’ 2013 August 23rd, 2020|Country: Sāmoa Amelica, USA|While reclaiming his culture from the Tiki bars, Samoan poet and artist dwells on his fa’afafine identity, his family history within colonialism and the enchanting environment of Tutuila island
A Burning Desire to Belong and Some Heartbreak On a Roadtrip Across Bosnia & Herzegovina—‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’, dir. Ena Sendijarević, 2019August 9th, 2020|Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands|A young woman’s absurdist journey across her estranged homeland in an intelligent candy-colored debut from a Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker with an exhilarating young cast
In Postwar Chad, Vengeance Is Served With Freshly Baked Bread, by a Boy With a Gun—‘Dry Season’, Dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, 2006August 6th, 2020|Country: Austria, Belgium, Chad, France|In the aftermath of the Chadian war, a young man looks to avenge his father's death but instead finds a father figure in this stunning parable about the humanity hiding beneath the scar tissue
The Kids Aren’t Alright In Danish Artist Ole Tersløse’s Digital ArtAugust 2nd, 2020|Country: Denmark|Unsettling dystopias unravel in eerie sculptures and postapocalyptic scenes rendered in meticulous 3D, where nature, humanity and the neural networks converge and dissolve into each other
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 Breakaway State on the Cusp of Adulthood—‘Transnistra’, dir. Anna Eborn, 2019June 8th, 2020|Country: Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Transnistria|An intimate and haunting portrait of six teenagers in rural Transnistria shows the splintered prospects and the many limitations of growing up in a melancholy landscape
‘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
Disability Rights Activists, a Radical Reimagining of Social Institutions, and the Summer Camp That Made It Possible—’Crip Camp,’ dir. James Lebrecht & Nicole Newnham, 2020May 27th, 2020|Country: USA|A summer camp inspired by Woodstock allowed kids with disabilities to find their voices and a sense of community. Then, these kids led the movement towards an accessible, open social landscape for all
A Sublime Vision of Faith, Race, and Destiny in Contemporary Cuba, Buttressed by Magic and Poetry—’Black Cathedral’, Marcial Gala, 2012, trans. Anna KushnerMay 26th, 2020|Country: Cuba|The English-language debut by a Cuban writer of staggering talent is a fantasy-spiked exploration of the paths that crime, creativity, Christianity, and craziness can offer
A Shy Girl, Her Shy Dad, and the Tempests That Rage Within— ‘Alba’, dir. Ana Cristina Barragán, 2016May 25th, 2020|Country: Ecuador, Greece, Mexico|A debut feature offers an incomparable exploration of the growing pains of femininity in a searing story about a pre-adolescent girl who is sent to live with her estranged—and very strange father
There Are No Bad Kids, Just Bad Approaches to Them—‘In My Blood It Runs’, dir. Maya Newell, 2019December 11th, 2019|Country: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Arrernte, Australia, Garrwa People|A stunning documentary about a gifted unruly child decries the imperialist methods of education and punitive discipline in place in Australia. Its subject matter, however, is ubiquitous
Daughters of Mujahideen in ‘Before Father Gets Back’, dir. Mari Gulbiani, 2019December 4th, 2019|Country: France, Georgia, Germany|An intimate portrait of two girls in a Georgian village who come of age and learn about the beauty of cinema, while their fathers are in Syria fighting for mujahideen groups