Have you noticed that little voice in the back of your head that keeps chattering all the time? You know, the one that just asked, “What voice?” Only a short time ago, my own voice was telling me about all the people in my life that I had let down and how I had failed…
In 2016, the Freedom in the World report named Tibet as one of the most repressed countries in the world. Since China occupied Tibet over sixty years ago, hundreds of thousands of people have been tortured and imprisoned. Although the political conflict between China and Tibet plays a part, Moon Chang-Yong and Jin Jeon’s documentary…
Guatemalan Indigenous Leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú Tum said, “We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected.” Unfortunately, however, Indigenous people have been the subject of racism and discrimination throughout history. Massacres, forced-march relocations, the “Indian wars,” death…
Though there have been many coming-of-age dramas set against a galaxy of different backdrops, there usually is a moralistic or sociological approach to the experience in which a catharsis can be universally reached. Composer/writer/director Amman Abbasi makes his feature film debut with the latest addition to the genre with a surprising blend of naturalistic techniques…
The one useful purpose that Night of Something Strange may provide is as an interesting counterpoint to another horror contemporary, “WTF!.” Both are modern takes on the 1970s and 1980s teen slasher model, and both depict shallow, reprehensible heroes getting slaughtered. But while “WTF!” succeeds as a critique of its protagonists’ vacuity, Night of Something…
To capture the autobiographical awakening of sexual urges in teen boys, filmmaker Eyal Resh put all his faith in the hands of his young lead actors. Resh’s Boys is a short film that is content to objectively observe the friendship between Brian (Wyatt Griswold, “The Loud House” TV series) and Jake (Pearce Joza, “Mech-X4” TV…
How to know if a tattered contraption is the harbinger of horror? Sense the way it affects reel people on real people. Commendable then is the Chinese musical wish box at the center of veteran genre cinematographer John R. Leonetti’s latest film where, after each of the lead’s wish is realized, a swath of our…
