ESSAYS

March 22, 2010

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974)

It was a pleasant surprise to see Alice doesn’t live here anymore. Is it a feminist film? Can a male filmmaker look at a woman through a female perspective?
March 20, 2018

Black Panther: A Perspective

I haven’t been motivated enough by any of the recent movies to add to the discussion. Black Panther has changed that. Although not a revolutionary film, elements of it speak to me profoundly.How does Black Panther paint the African-American portrait? How does it interact with other films from Africa and the African diaspora?
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.
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.
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.
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

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.
March 22, 2010

Araya (Margot Benacerraf, 1959)

The most striking aspect of the movie Araya is its beautifully contrasted black-and-white photography. Benacerraf effectively conveys her love of Venezuela.
February 27, 2018

On the dopeness of Black Panther

I’ve been excited about Black Panther from the moment I heard about it. Anything that involves Our Lady Lupita (you know her as Lupita Nyong’o) get me psyched. I adore Lupita—and the fact that she can actually spit some bars is icing on a fine cake.
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 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.
September 30, 2010

Central Station and the Cinema Novo tradition

Central Station is one of the most popular and internationally acclaimed Brazilian films of the 1990s. It heralded a renaissance in Brazilian cinema.