Blanco en Blanco, Chile?s submission for Best Foreign Film Oscar consideration, takes us into the cold, dark, empty environment of Tierra del Fuego at the turn of the 20th century. Director Th?o Court creates a world in which the land and the people share a...
In Welcome to Earth, from National Geographic and streaming on Disney+, Will Smith tells us of some of the things he?s never done, then goes on to do some of them. Smith is our guide to experience our planet in new ways. The limited series has brought together various...
?And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.? (Gen. 4:8 NRSV) It is worth remembering that humankind?s first murder was a family affair. Ridley Scott?s House of Gucci is the newest way of telling the story of a family that...
In some ways Betrayed, from director Erik Svensson is like many other films about the Holocaust. It tells the story of the deportation of Jews from Norway in 1942. (Actually, we start three years earlier, in more normal times.) But this film doesn?t quite follow the...
Why do people (now a few thousand) climb Mt. Everest? George Mallory (who may or may not have been the first to reach the summit) famously answered the question by saying, ?Because it?s there.? But there has to be more to it than that. Mountaineering is a dangerous,...
Journalism has the power to give voice to those who are unseen in society. In Writing with Fire, from directors Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, we see how a group of women in India have found their own voice through their journalistic work. The film won an Audience...
In Geeta Malik?s India Sweets and Spices, we are put into the world of affluent Indian-American culture, with all its color and exoticness. Yet, all may not be as bright and pleasant as it would seem. The filmmaker draws on her experience of growing up in this culture...
How strange that AFI Fest 2021 is already coming to an end. But perhaps next year the festival will be able to move back to a weeklong fully in person event. Still, it is important to thank the staff and volunteers for the work they did to make this such a...
If you?re in the mood for a time-bending coming-of-age story, Petite Maman will do the trick. From director C?line Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady On Fire, Tomboy) this is the story of eight year old Nelly, who after her grandmother?s death goes to the grandmother?s house...