ESSAYS

September 28, 2010

Flowers of Shanghaï (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 1998)

Hou Hsiao Hsien’s depiction of life in Flowers of ShanghaÏ explores the inherent contradictions in the era’s Chinese society.
March 22, 2010

Knocks at my Door (Alejandro Saderman, 1994)

Knocks at my door explores the political instability that has plagued Latin-American countries and Third-world countries in general.
March 22, 2010

Macunaïma (Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, 1969)

One of the most interesting aspects of South-American cinema is its post-colonial perspective. Having lived myself and being raised in a Third-world country, I can identify and relate to the plight of South-American characters, living up to their (displaced) roots while fighting their imposed colonial heritage. I’ve seen firsthand the social stratification that the colonial rule instilled into the indigenous […]
March 26, 2010

Felicidades (Lucho Bender, 2000)

In Felicidades,several lives intersect on Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires as they all strive not to spend the holidays alone.
October 1, 2010

African cinema, Ousmane Sembene and the Western gaze

In its perspectives and traditions, African cinema draws the spectator into its narrative, nurturing a symbiotic relationship with life itself.
March 22, 2010

Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)

In Les Carabiniers, Godard is in control, from playing with our scopophilic gaze in the makeshift rape scene or denying us narcissistic satisfaction.
October 1, 2010

Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966)

In Come Drink With Me, King Hu considers each of the director’s tools, using camera movement differently than editing or the wide-screen space.
September 28, 2010

Cronenberg’s discourse through Videodrome and eXistenZ

This essay will explore the duality of Cronenberg’s works, as a statement on man’s curiosity and an open window to the unknown in Videodrome and eXistenZ.
September 28, 2010

In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

Wong Kar-Wai is considered influential. In the Mood for Love (2000) was a big commercial success for him. How does it compare to Wong Kar-Wai’s other work?
March 22, 2010

The World Of Apu (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

What I found most interesting in The World Of Apu is how much the representation of India came so close to my vision of Haiti, my native country.
March 22, 2010

The Journey (Fernando E. Solanas, 1992)

Argentina has one of the most impressive cinematography in the world. Within that cinema, Fernando E. Solanas is a director of seminal importance. In his essay, Towards a Third cinema, Solanas and his co-writer, Octavio Getino, galvanize the overall revolutionary ideas of the time into the concept of a decolonization cinema, denouncing the weak, liberal arts that have, up until […]
March 26, 2010

I Don’t Want To Talk About It (Maria Luisa Bemberg, 1993)

In I Don’t Want To Talk About It which precedes her sudden death in 1995, Maria Luisa Bemberg explores the same themes as in her most famous movie, Camila.