The Chinese film Red Mountain is a minor family saga, told by a son about his father and grandfather who served as mountain rangers in a remote section of China. When the (then) young father wants to leave to go to college and see the world, the grandfather forbids...
The Easter Rising of 1916 may be the Irish equivalent of America?s Battle of Lexington. It marks the effective beginning of the road to independence. To celebrate and commemorate the centennial of the Rising, the Irish Film Board curated ?After ?16?, a collection of...
It seems that most every festival has a time travel conundrum, which I love. Something about the paradoxes involved appeals to me. This year at NBFF that is the French film House of Time. A reclusive genius invites a group of his friends to spend a weekend at a...
Flexibility always comes in handy when you make your plans for a festival. For example, the first film I had planned on seeing was for some reason cancelled. That can happen for various reasons, but it does occasionally. I feel for the staff and volunteers who have to...
We often think of philosophers as those who sit in ivory towers unaffected by the actual world. They think their thoughts about the nature of things without really understanding what matters. But often philosophy comes out of profound experiences. Vita Activa: The...
I look forward to film festivals and it is time for me to head to the beach for the 17th annual Newport Beach Film Festival. This year there are over 350 films from 50 different countries. Obviously I won?t get to them all. But I like to try to find a broad sample of...
?Frontiers are where you find them.? Richard Linklater in recent years has done films that follow the evolutions of relationships over a period of time, such as Boyhood and the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight films. In Everybody Wants Some!! he takes us back to a...
?Now this is the Law of the Jungle ? as old and as true as the sky; And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back ? For the strength of the Pack is...
?Am I ever going to be able to understand, forgive, and cherish my mother before it?s too late?? Look at Us Now, Mother is Gayle Kirschenbaum?s look at her family?s angst?especially the difficult relationship she has had with her mother Mildred. Gayle claims she faced...