Julie Bertuccelli’s (Since Otar Left, 2004) The Tree (adapted from Australian writer, Judy Pascoe’s 2002 novel Our Father Who Art in The Tree) is centered around a family homestead something akin to a hippie compound on the outskirts of the agri-industrial township of Boonah in Queensland, Australia. Considered the “heart Read more…
Literally translated, “The Four Times” (stages may be more accurate in English) is Michelangelo Frammartino’s homage to the Calabria of his heritage and the homeland of 6th century BC Greek philosopher, Pythagoras. Frammartino poetically interprets Pythagoras’s four-fold transmigration theory, which in effect presupposes that four lives live within each human, Read more…
The tightly-made biopic traces the formation, deconstruction, and reconstruction of the Los Angeles band Fishbone. Experimental and exceptional, Everyday Sunshine is a show of raw honesty and integrity of character that commands respect and admiration. An already poignant behind-the-scenes-styled cinematic account is further intensified by Laurence Fishburne’s seamless narration, artful, Read more…
Algerian-French filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb has said, “Cinema is a wonderful tool to converse with French society.” And beyond, I would add. As a filmmaker, Bouchareb is notorious for applying the art of cinematic storytelling to analyses of immigration, rootlessness, racism, alienation, and culture pluralism—matters, one would assume, that are close Read more…
Clustering around the fictitious wedding between young, sweet, and narcoleptic Rym (Sarah Reguieg) and “a certain William Vancooten,” Masquerades lampoons Berber village life in mountainous Algeria. Although many of the characters are cartoonish, the cast is convincing and possessing of an alchemical sense of timing and wit. Mounir (Lyès Salem), Read more…
We first meet Max (Sean Bones), the twentysomething, almost hip, Generation Y guy, playing street soccer in his Brooklyn neighborhood— the significance of which is later revealed as integral to gripping a foothold in a distant land. The next scene is of Max – six-pack of Red Stripe in hand Read more…