Darrel Manson

AFIFest: Smoke Sauna Sisterhood – True communion

Darrel MansonNov 12, 2023

Anna Hints’s Smoke Sauna Sisterhood provides a glimpse into the lives of a group of Estonian women. Their lives are shared with humor, sorrow, and compassion. The documentary won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award and is Estonia’s entry for Best...

AFIFest: The Universal Theory – Sci-fi Noir

Darrel MansonNov 10, 2023

Timm Kröger’s The Universal Theory (Die Theorie von Allem) opens with a brief segment of a 1974 TV talk show on which Johannes Leinert, an author of a new book with the same title as this film, is the guest. While the host talks of the book as science fiction, the...

AFIFest Film Reviews

AFIFest: Stamped from the Beginning

Darrel MansonNov 10, 2023

Roger Ross Williams opens (and will close) his adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s history of racist thought, Stamped from the Beginning, with the question: What is wrong with black people? The query is addressed to Dr. Kendi, and a group of black women academics and...

AFIFest Film Netflix Reviews

AFIFest: The Teachers’ Lounge – World within the world.

Darrel MansonNov 9, 2023

When we visit a school in İlker Çatek’s The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer), we discover a microcosm for society. It is not just a story of teachers, students, and parents. It is a reflection of many of the issues that must be dealt with in many settings each day....

AFIFest Film Reviews

JFK: A Day in America

Darrel MansonNov 3, 2023

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John Kennedy. November 23, 1963, is one of those dates that is unforgettable for Americans who lived through it. Comparable dates would be December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001—dates that are...

Disney+Features Hulu Reviews Television

Bobi Wine: The People’s President

Darrel MansonOct 4, 2023

“We go forward because we know freedom is ahead.” A corrupt and oppressive president seeks to hold on to power. Those who try to bring freedom to the nation face violent retribution. In Moses Bwayo and Chrispher Sharp’s documentary Bobi Wine: The People’s President,...

Disney+Film Hulu Reviews

Mixture of films from HollyShorts Film Festival

Darrel MansonAug 26, 2023

It’s nice when I can put groups together when writing about shorts, but today I’m bringing a bit of a hodgepodge of films that are showing at HollyShorts Film Festival. Sevap/Mitzvah, directed by Sabina Vijrača, tells the true story of two friends in Bosnia during...

Film Film Festivals

The Adults – Can we still play?

Darrel MansonAug 17, 2023

The Apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11, NRSV). I’ve always seen that statement as simultaneously wise and foolish....

Features Film Reviews

Animated films at HollyShort Film Festival

Darrel MansonAug 17, 2023

Animation makes up an important part of the world of short films. That is true at HollyShorts Film Festival. Here are a few of the animated films I’ve been sampling. The first four are considered adult themed, the others are for children or families. American Sikh,...

Film Film Festivals

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