Cinética has started publishing a series of articles in English about some of the films we saw at this year’s New Directors/New Films. The festival just wrapped yesterday, but as usual we’re taking our time (hopefully not too much time) to avoid the pitfalls of quick responses and allow for slightly deeper dives into the […]
Archives for March 2016
A Brighter Summer Day (Gǔ lǐng jiē shàonián shārén shìjiàn), Edward Yang, 1991.
Based on a real event from the early 1960s, Edward Yang’s 1991 masterpiece, A Brighter Summer Day, is set in the static tension found in the middle of a cultural tug-o-war. Taking place about 15 years after the end of the Japanese colonization in Taiwan, at a moment where the post-war geopolitical climate allowed for […]
Pendulum, James Nares, 1976.
One of the first works a visitor encounters when entering MoMA PS1’s Greater New York exhibition is a huge projection of a digital transfer of James Nares’ 1976 Super 8 film, Pendulum. Set in the ground level shaft, the big screen stands against the museum’s exposed brick walls, creating a kind of trompe l’oeil effect […]
France Is Our Mother Country (La France est notre patrie), Rithy Pahn, 2015.
About three years ago, I was invited to speak at a round table at a Rithy Panh retrospective in São Paulo. The fact that the conference took place right after the screening of Panh’s 2003 masterpiece, S-21: the Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, made me focus less on the formal similarities his films shared with Chris Marker and […]