Playdates, plastic accessories, paper dollhouses, Bibble, “I Am a Girl Like You,” and the puzzling Schlond Poofa. All of that led me to this: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The public perception of Barbie, the doll–or the idea, as this film also refers to her–has changed over the years, along with conversations around body image, over-sexualization, racial representation and…
Joy Ride, Adele Lim’s directorial debut, comedically takes us on a journey of friendship, honesty and taking chances. Audrey (played by Ashley Park) is sent to China to close a business deal for her law firm. Excited about the trip, Audrey decides to take her best friend, Lolo (Sherry Cola), as a translator because, although…
Directed by David Peck and Nathanael Draper, Broken Courage follows Suon Rottana, a former teenage soldier in the Khmer Rouge, as he finds new purpose and healing in his life. The documentary gives us a glimpse into the effects of war – we know that it is catastrophic for those who live through it, but now we see what…
In Tim Story’s The Blackening, seven friends get trapped in a cabin with a killer who has threatened to kill them. As the killer makes them play games and decide who the Blackest among them is to see who should die first (you know, because of the trope in horror films where the black character…
It’s happened. Halle Bailey’s The Little Mermaid is finally here… and oh, the feels. I realised as I wrote this that I’m about the age that my parents were when the original The Little Mermaid came out in 1989. If you fast forward almost 2 decades later, you’d find my younger sisters and I sitting cross legged on the floor…
Music is something I’ve always considered spiritual, because, as someone who loves music, the reaction I have to it really is inexplicable. Like why does it make me feel good? (I am also Christian, so the conclusion that music is spiritual was not a difficult one for me to reach). Echo of Everything explores the importance of…
Seven Winters in Tehran tells the story of Reyhaneh Jabbari who is sentenced to death for stabbing and killing a man who allegedly tried to rape her. Her family is distraught but, while she awaits execution, Reyhaneh fights for other women in her predicament. She states that she no longer fears death as she faces this…
In The Eternal Memory, Maite Alberdi puts memory front and centre in more ways than one. She reflects on journalist Augusto Góngora’s work documenting the dictatorship in Chile from the 1970s to the 90s, bringing that historical memory back to a new generation; and she follows Augusto and his wife, actress Paulina Urrutia’s, relationship as they…
In Streams Flow From A River, the Chow family is forced to revisit their family traumas and hurt when a snowstorm elongates what was supposed to be the adult kids’ quick stop at their childhood home. This series explores what happens when those closest to you experience hurt at your hands. Even though Diana and Gordon…
In Koromousso, Big Sister, co-directors, Habibata Ouarme and Jim Donovan, give us a peek into the journeys of three women who have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and are reclaiming their autonomy through reconstructive surgery. Ouarme is featured in the film, acting as the Big Sister (Koromousso) to these women, having had her own reconstructive surgery…
