Sundance Review: ‘Three Minutes – A Lengthening’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There have been many films made about the Holocaust, and a great number of them focus on the horrors experienced within concentration camps. In addition to the millions of lives lost, there were also communities throughout Europe that were decimated, some of which have no survivors. Bianca Stigter’s Three Minutes – A Lengthening examines a short reel of footage that was shot in 1938 in Poland and offers a window into a town and way of life that can never be truly known or recreated…

Click to read more ...

Sundance: 'You Won't Be Alone' stirs and shape-shifts

by Matt St Clair

You Won’t Be Alone, the new Macedonian folk horror tale premiering at Sundance, is not for the faint of heart. Yet, for a film with such grotesque violence, Goran Stolevski's feature debut is strangely moving and intimate. His film is a poetic and philosophical depiction of what it means to be human; It arouses and stirs as often as it repels...

Click to read more ...

Sundance: 'Call Jane' is worth answering

By Ben Miller

Handsomely filmed and admirably performed, Oscar-nominated Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy makes her feature film directorial debut with Call Jane. Elizabeth Banks stars as Joy, a traditional suburban Chicago housewife in the 1960s. Joy has a loving but busy lawyer husband Will (Chris Messina) and a 14-year-old daughter Charlotte (Grace Edwards). Joy is newly pregnant, and keeps having dizzy spells and passes out in her kitchen. Her doctor diagnoses a congenital heart blockage that threatens her life, unless the pregnancy is terminated - the only treatment...

Click to read more ...

Sundance: 'Mars One' is a Brazilian gem!

by Cláudio Alves

Looking over the city she calls home, Tércia lingers and, in turn, the camera lingers on her. It's a beautiful, if humble, image, her silhouette against a celestial painting. The twilight sun makes watercolors out of the skyline, yellow bleeding into blue, gray buildings falling into the cold penumbra. The contemplative frame can contain many meanings, and director Gabriel Martins doesn't force the audience's hand. We're free to surmise what we want from the picture. Speaking from a personal place, I couldn't help but feel a melancholic kinship. Maybe it's projection, but I recognized myself in Tércia, looking at a seemingly peaceful world I thought I knew until it proved me wrong...

Click to read more ...

Michael Douglas is the Guest of Honor for the 2022 Meihodo Film Festival

by Nathaniel R

Last year, you may recall, the Meihodo Film Festival honored Juliette Binoche. This year another iconic star, Michael Douglas will be doing double-duty as their Guest of Honor / Advisor. The Meihodo Film Festival, now in its fourth year, is an all streaming international short film festival focused on young visual artists...

Click to read more ...