Ready for an unforgettable ride? Fasten your VR headset as Courtney Gardner shares her first experience with VR in The Wild Immersion at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The film’s director, Adrien Moisson, takes the journey too, sharing with Courtney his views about the potential for VR technology to create new forms of compassion and empathy—in this case around the needs of large animals around the world.
Courtney Gardner, who attended this year’s Sundance Film Festival (January 23—February 3) shares insights abut Paradise Hills, the feature debut of 28-year-old, Spanish director Alice Waddington. Bringing her love of science fiction and fantasy to the screen, Alice tells a story of women traditionally underrepresented in film. Alice spoke with Courtney about the identities she holds close, the barriers she sees and has faced in the film industry, and of the symbolism in Paradise Hills
Immigrant artisan, insatiable curator, preservationist, fearless exhibitor who got the world to understand that raw and unruly “underground” cinema could be classic independent moviemaking —Jonas Mekas did it all, passing away January 23 at age 96. Senior film critic Kurt Brokaw salutes the life and work of the pioneer who built Anthology Film Archives in lower Manhattan, proudly calling himself a filmer and not a filmmaker.
Mike Sullivan introduces readers to the Coolidge Corner Theater’s new “Summer Seminar” series by revisiting memorable screenings from the 2018 season. As part of the educational series, seminar attendees enjoy a pre-screening presentation and participate in post-film analysis, led by experts in various aspects of film: technique, theory, style, trivia, etc. In this article, Mike describes the fascinating lectures and evocative screenings of Jaws (a Coolidge Corner Theater summer tradition!) and The Silence of the Lambs.
In this final installment of Bette, Marilyn, and #MeToo, Kerry McElroy brings her timely and informative series to a close. But not before considering what today’s feminists and Hollywood insiders have to say about the relevance of studio-era actresses on this contemporary moment.
The 2018 American Film Market just wrapped up in Santa Monica, California. This year saw comparably stronger sales for small, independent films. Courtney Sheehan was at the AFM, and writes about the importance of relationships and risk-taking, key themes that emerged in the conference sessions on production and distribution.
As the world opened up to women’s liberation, civil rights, and new social movements, Hollywood of the 1960s doubled down on the exploitative practices that had made the industry so harmful to women. In this sixth series installment, Kerry McElroy argues that the sexual revolution stirring the larger culture, epitomized in the rise of Hugh Hefner, fanned the flames of an already misogynist, violent industry culture. As seen through the lives of Tippi Hedren and Marilyn Monroe, this article shows that the commodification of women only increased, even as the old studio system was dying. Few stars experienced the exception; read on about a compelling example: Elizabeth Taylor.
The 1950s was era of bigger stars, bigger budgets, and bigger bombshells. At same time, the studio system was weakening in the wake of television and a fearless and libelous emerging tabloid press. In this fifth series installment, Kerry McElroy examines the supreme pop cultural star of the twentieth century, Marilyn Monroe. Examined, in her own words and in new ways, McElroy’s Monroe is a kind of economic sociologist, a surprising forerunner of the #MeToo movement, and a forgotten proponent of social justice. Finally, McElroy considers another marquee court case, one in which star actresses fought back against the tabloids with bravery.
The 1930’s saw the studio system in peak Fordist condition, especially in terms of its financial and bodily control over women. “Glamour” was the disciplinary strategy of the day, and the most famous women stars of the twentieth century learned to negotiate it in new ways. In this third series installment, Kerry McElroy looks at race, queerness, and economic disadvantage in Depression-era Hollywood. Women like Mae West created new channels of power, attaining international stardom and unfathomable wealth in the process. Bette Davis, on the other hand, brought forth a watershed court case for actors’ rights, and demonstrated just how much the industry feared political agitation and class consciousness.