<h1>Darrel Manson</h1>

Darrel Manson

Posts by Darrel Manson:

Julie Keeps Quiet: Loud silence

Julie Keeps Quiet: Loud silence

“It’s just that I don’t want to talk about it.” Not talking is at the core of Leonardo Van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet. Of course, everyone has things they don’t want to talk about. Should we have to talk about things? Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) is an aspiring teen...

Julie Keeps Quiet – Loud silence

Julie Keeps Quiet – Loud silence

“It’s just that I don’t want to talk about it.” Not talking is at the core of Leonardo Van Dijl’s Julie Keeps Quiet. Of course everyone has things they don’t want to talk about. Should we have to talk about things? Julie (Tessa Van den Broeck) is an aspiring teen...

Art for Everybody: Warm cottages hid darkness

Art for Everybody: Warm cottages hid darkness

Thomas Kinkade sold more paintings than any painter ever. He found his niche and mass marketed his work that struck a chord with many people. You may have one of his works. Or, like me, you may think his works were saccharine schlock. Art for Everybody, directed by...

Some Slamdance 2025 Docs

I’ve previously noted the award winning docs at Slamdance, but I saw other interesting documentaries as part of the festival. Let’s look at some. 40 Watts from Nowhere, directed by Sue Carpenter, is a look back at a pirate radio station in Los Angeles in the 1990s....

Unstoppable Shorts at Slamdance 2025

Unstoppable Shorts at Slamdance 2025

The organizers of Slamdance see film as a way of helping us see beyond the barriers of life. The “Unstoppable” films that are part of the festival are about overcoming such barriers (usually involving disabilities). The films feature or highlight the people and...

Narrative Feature Award Winners, Slamdance 2025

Narrative Feature Award Winners, Slamdance 2025

Here’s a look at the Award winning Narrative Features at Slamdance Film Festival for 2025. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize is Gamma Rays, directed by Henry Bernadet. This is a triptych of stories of young Moroccan immigrants in Montreal. Abdel’s life is confounded with...

Sampling Short Docs at Slamdance

Sampling Short Docs at Slamdance

Slamdance Film Festival features a strong shorts program, as is befitting a festival that is very much filmmaker focused. Here is a sampling of some of the short documentaries being shown at the festival. Adidas Owns the Reality (22 minutes, directed by Keil Orion...

Unstoppable Winners at Slamdance 2025

Unstoppable Winners at Slamdance 2025

Slamdance has for some years had a commitment to including films from or about disabled people. The festival sets aside a special section for them to compete in. Films here include narrative and documentary. Here are the winners from this year’s “Unstoppable” films....

Feature Documentary Winners at Slamdance 2025

Feature Documentary Winners at Slamdance 2025

As with other festivals, Slamdance has awards to pass out to the films deemed most noteworthy. Here are some of the awards garnered by the feature documentaries that showed at Slamdance. The Grand Jury gave an Honorable Mention to Twin Fences. Written and directed by...