“Nobody surfs the first day. Takes a lifetime.” There are lots of things that take a lifetime. But in Gringa, from directors Marny Eng and E. J. Foerster, change in characters’ lives seems to happen almost overnight. That makes for a film that oversimplifies almost everything and never manages to find any depth. Marge (Jess…
?My prayer worked! I can?t believe it!? Based on a true story, Julio Quintana?s Blue Miracle is a story of answered prayers, but it is even more a story about finding rebirth in the people around us. It is the story of a washed up boat captain, a fishing tournament, and an orphanage facing eviction….
Every country (except the U.S.) can submit one film for Oscar consideration for Best International Feature Film. How a country makes that choice varies. There are certain criteria, including how much English is allowed. The Academy has a process through which the films are reviewed eventually ending up with the five films nominated for the…
?Sometimes you need to close your eyes and start over to see clearly.? No Man?s Land, from director Conor Allyn, is at one level a story about borders, but at a deeper level it is about the importance of welcoming the stranger in our midst. The Greer family has a small cattle ranch along the…
AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi has teamed up with NBC News to present the Meet the Press Film Festival, programs of short documentaries about issues facing the world. Today I took in the program entitled ?Justice for All? which included three shorts. My Brother?s Keeper (22 minutes), directed by Laurence Topham, is the story of…
?How can it be that a white British woman knows more about Mexican cooking that anyone else?? Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy is the story of a passion. When a British woman found her way to Mexico in 1957, she discovered a love for the food and the culture. For the past six decades, Diana Kennedy…
As a bus rolls through the decaying town of San Gregorio, Mexico, Cagalera (Benny Emmanuel) and Moloteco (Gabriel Carbajal) don clown makeup in an attempt to entertain riders for tips. In this gripping first scene, director Gael Garcia Bernal does a fantastic job at setting the tone as Cagalera explains that they prefer to make…
Films often bring the world to us in many different ways. We see other countries through the eyes of filmmakers who wish to share their cultures?both with love and with a critical eye.
The end of planet earth is a topic many people discuss and debate today: How?s it going to happen? Who?s going to set the pieces in motion? Are we going to be around to see it happen with our own eyes?
The black and white cinematography of Bleak Street sets the mood. There is no brightness or cheer in the Mexico City neighborhood in which it is set. This is a world in which gray is the dominant color.
