When it is time to award the best in films each year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences include three categories of short films in their Oscar presentations. Most people don’t get to see many shorts. They play at festivals, and occasionally in front of a feature film. But short films are an… [Read More]
Everybody Knows – Disclosing Open Secrets
In Everybody Knows, director Asghar Farhadi leaves Iranian stresses behind (cf., A Separation, The Past, and The Salesman) for a more Eurocentric story.
The Last Suit – Road Trip to Grace
Watching the film, I constantly wondered why these people would respond to Abraham with kindness when he was always so mean-spirited. But then that is what makes it grace.
Strangers on the Earth – Along the Camino de Santiago
Each year many thousands of people walk the 600 mile Camino de Santiago, a route that has been a religious pilgrimage since the middle ages. Not all those who walk the Camino are religious pilgrims, but even those who do it as tourists may well discover spiritual insights along the way. Strangers on the Earth is the most recent documentary to focus on the Camino.
Summer 1993 – A Child’s Loss of Innocence
As Summer 1993 opens, children are playing in the street. One of them looks at six-year-old Frida (Laia Artegas), and asks, “Why aren’t you crying?” Is that part of the game or does Frida have reason to cry?
Saturday at AFI Fest 2017
The first full day for the festival took me on a trip around the world. That’s one of the values of film festivals, we get to see other lands and cultures without the expense and time of travel. (Not that I wouldn’t love being able to go to so many places.)
AFIFest – More films from around the world
One of the joys of film festivals is the chance to see the similarities and differences of cultures. That sometimes applies to the subcultures of American life we see as well. But it is especially true in foreign films.
