NYFF: ‘Returning to Reims (Fragments)’ and Freedom from Political Ideology
Inspired by Didier Eribon’s eponymous autobiography, Jean-Gabriel Périot’s film Returning to Rimes (Fragments), urges French citizenry to reinvent democracy.
Rudy Ralph Martinez
Rudy Ralph Martinez is the overly defiant son of two Colombian immigrants. He is currently a resident of New York City, the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Before the Pause, he was a graduate student at the City University of New York and a sometimes-drummer for a post-punk band. He hopes to one day doze off on the train again.
NYFF: ‘Chameleon Street’ and ‘James Baldwin: From Another Place’
Meditations on being Black in America, Chameleon Street and James Baldwin: From Another Place, complement each other in NYFF’s Revivals Program.
NYFF: Assault on Precinct 13’s Message Is Trite in Our Times
The ’70s were politically charged when Assault on Precinct 13 was released. Our perception of the film’s message is the only thing that has changed since.
The Sorrow of a Nation and Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral
The Soviet people feel so close in Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral, it’s as if you ask via whisper if they ever lost a family member to a show trial or gulag.
Marcell Jankovics’ Animated ‘Son of the White Mare’ Goes Behind the Beyond
Beautifully restored Hungarian animation film, Son of the White Mare, is enchanting.
Judy Irving’s Nuclear Weapons Documentary ‘Dark Circle’ Remains Timeless
When America developed the hydrogen and atom bombs in WWII, the Atomic Age's eyes opened upon our species. They have yet to blink. Judy Irving's Dark Circle is now available for on-line viewing from First Run Features.
On Jean-Luc Godard’s Game of Despair, ‘Pierrot le fou’
Pierrot le fou is filled with cars, guns, cash, and books, but Godard is more interested in what exists between these "definite things", namely the thoughts inhabiting empty space.
Of Purges and Prescience: On David France’s LGBTQ Documentary, ‘Welcome to Chechnya’
The ongoing persecution of LGBTQ individuals in Chechnya, or anywhere in the world, should come as no surprise, or "amazement". It's a motif undergirding the history of civil society that certain people will always be identified for extermination.
There’s a War Going on: Spike Lee’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’
Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods engages with the notion of perpetual conflict. But how well does it fit into the current social milieu of demonstrations against police violence?
Atop a Throne of Ashes: On Juraj Herz’s ‘The Cremator’
Far from being escapist entertainment, Herz's The Cremator is a dissection of evil and how deluded one becomes in willing themselves to power.
Daniel Krikke’s ‘Scared of Revolution’ Brings Forth the Last Poet
Hip-hop, the most lasting and revolutionary contribution to popular music in the post-War period, does not exist without the Last Poets Umar Bin Hassan's work.