Review: "Orlando, My Political Biography"

by Cláudio Alves

The future of cinema is in non-fiction. Though conventional narrative cinema still dominates the mainstream, it's within the documentary realm that the medium's most radical innovations tend to manifest, paving a path to the seventh art's tomorrow. That said, to consider cinema in binaries may be holding on to an outdated model. The way forward could entangle the cinema, as Iranian and Portuguese filmmakers have done for decades. In that regard, Orlando, My Political Biography is the future of cinema dressed in ruffs, non-binary, and transgressing past neat categorization.

Philosopher turned director Paul B. Preciado rejects structural dualities in search of something somewhere between academism and anarchic theater, a reflection of his and his subjects' essential queerness…

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Berlinale: Winners Roundup and More...

Seán McGovern completes his Berlinale coverage. Until next year's fest!

You're no-one in Berlin unless you're coughing, which is what 75% of people (myself included) have been doing this last week.

Negative temperatures make for more serious cinema goers, although 2018's edition had its share of sideswipes. The festival's director Dieter Kosslick has two years remaining before his tenure is up and many are anxiously awaiting a fresh vision. Nevertheless, Berlin has some of the most offbeat and independently-minded filmmakers showing their work, and the gems are absoultely there. Let's have a final look at some of the curiosities that may or may not end up in a cinema near you.

Golden Bear Winner - TOUCH ME NOT (dir. Adina Pintile, Romania/Germany/Czech Republic/Bulgaria/France)

The only premiere at the Berlinale Palast that I managed to go to also turned out to be the the winner of the Golden Bear...

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Berlinale: Three queer docs and one all too brief feature

Seán McGovern's continued reporting from the Berlin International Film Festival. Click back to part one if you missed it the opening film "Isle of Dogs". Here are notes on four more films playing at Berlinale 2018. 

Shakedown (dir. Leilah Weinraub, 2018)
This slightly chaotic documentary charting the history of a Los Angeles lesbian dance club in the early Aughts is dope-tempered and energetic. Leilah Weinraub's confident and assured filmmaking features several years of footage of Shakedown's nights – the women who performed and the women who watched. There are plenty of anthropological documentaries about queer subcultures, but Weinraub's doc is anything but...

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