Author Archives: Lars Nilsen

1. SXSW Film Fest 2021 was a Blast – Here are Some of Our Favorites

   March 25, 2021 10:47 am Leave a Comment

   Last week was a whirlwind of screenings, Q&As, and roundtables, as it always is during SXSW, but unlike most years the whole thing was virtual, conveyed through an app. It still feels a little odd to participate in film festivals virtually though it must be said that many fests now have it down pretty well. There is no substitute for the person-to-person interaction, the line conversations, the impromptu meetings, etc, but the ability to watch six or more movies a day is pretty unique to the at-home experience. We saw a bunch of unique films this year and, as usual, we wanted to highlight a few of them for you so that you can keep an eye out for them as they make their way into theaters and/or home viewing setups.

   Here are some of the best and most interesting films that AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen saw at SXSW ’21.

   “Not surprisingly all but one of my picks are docs. It was an especially good class of non-fiction films this year. There were many fine Austin-made films as well, some of which AFS had the honor of providing funding or other assistance for. I am not including these here, not because they were not excellent, but because they have received a fair amount of attention elsewhere.” – Lars Nilsen

   

   DELIA DERBYSHIRE: THE MYTHS & THE LEGENDARY TAPES (Dir. Caroline Catz) 

   The life and times of the electronic music pioneer who was a key contributor to the music and other sounds created by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Only a small amount of footage exists of Derbyshire but director Caroline Catz has added dramatic reconstructions of recording sessions and other key moments to help give us a portrait of an artistic pioneer who climbed some pretty steep walls to help change the landscape of modern sound. Catz has also enlisted the aid of composer Cosey Fanni Tutti to remix and reimagine some newly rediscovered tapes of Derbyshire’s memoirs.

   

   I’M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING) (Dir. Kelley Kali, Angelique Molina)

   The subject matter of this film sounds a little grim – a young mother who lives with her daughter in a tent because they can’t afford a home has to hustle up a few hundred dollars and gets sidetracked continually. In fact, there’s a lot of joy and humor in this sharply observed narrative film. While the struggles are shown in a realistic manner, there is a haze of optimism that hangs over the picture and keeps things from getting too depressing. We have faith in the woman and in the power of her will to succeed.

   

   LUCHADORAS (Dir. Paola Calvo, Patrick Jasim)

   This is something of a real-life superhero film. In the community of Ciudad Juarez, just across the border with El Paso, the violent crime rate is astronomical, and women are especially vulnerable. Against this backdrop, we meet several female wrestlers from different backgrounds, of different ages and even of different heights – one of them is a little person. As we come to see how they cope in this environment—putting on shows, trying to get to America, and teaching self-defense classes for women—we gain respect for their struggle and the character that allows them to fight through it.

   

   WHEN CLAUDE GOT SHOT (Dir. Brad Lichtenstein)

   In this documentary, we see the many facets of a single, seemingly senseless crime. A Milwaukee man is approached by a would-be carjacker with a gun. The driver speeds off but is hit by a bullet fired by the pursuing thief. The victim undergoes a painful surgery to reconstruct his jaw but recovers. The young thief however continues his spree and is shot in the spine. The rest of the film shows us their parallel stories. The victim, a successful businessman and middle-aged law student had some similar run-ins with the law as a young man and he tries to forgive and help. The now-disabled teenage perpetrator does not seem willing to meet in the middle. This is their surprising and moving story.

   

   WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR (Dir. Kier-La Janisse)

   Kier-La Janisse is a legend in the field of film programming and as a film critic – her book House of Psychotic Women is a key influence on modern horror criticism and its intersection with trauma in the lives of fans and makers. Alongside her other work, she has made a large number of what she calls “bibliodocs” which use collectors’ footage, newly created video, and her own narration to tell stories of subjects she personally cares about deeply – subjects have included Bubblegum music and the creative life of Lee Hazlewood. This is a bibliodoc with relatively supercharged means. It is about folk horror and not just the folk horror of the British Isles. This is a comprehensive and long (over three hours) film that will make the viewer consider the themes of folk horror films in new ways.

2. It’s International Women’s Day: Celebrate with these AFS-Supported Films

   March 8, 2021 3:56 pm Leave a Comment

   March 8 is International Women’s Day. This is a day – hopefully only one of many days throughout the year –  when, in the words of the UN: “women are recognized for their achievements without regard to divisions, whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political.”

   In the spirit of that day, we hope you will take some time to watch a film by one of the scores of woman filmmakers who have been supported by AFS Grants. These monetary endowments, funded by AFS’s donors, help to shape the cinematic landscape as we move forward, and the Texan filmmakers who are helped by these grants are given a springboard for making career leaps.

   Allow us to suggest a few streaming films from AFS Grant-supported women filmmakers.

   

   MISS JUNETEENTH

   (2020, Directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples, 2016 & 2019 AFS Grant recipient)

   This story of a connection between a mother and daughter in the lead-up to a Miss Juneteenth pageant. has captivated audiences and netted first-time director a raft of acclaim including awards from the National Board Of Review and four Independent Spirit Award nominations.

   Stream on Amazon, iTunes, Google Play and many other services.

    

   

   BULL

   (2019 Directed by Annie Silverstein, 2019 AFS Grant recipient)

   This film about a connection made across generations and social bounds between a rebellious teenage girl and an aging bull-rider screened at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section, has been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, and garnered ecstatic reviews from critics worldwide.

   Stream on Hulu, Hoopla, Amazon, and many other services

    

   

   PAHOKEE

   (2019, D. Ivete Lucas & Patrick Bresnan, 2017 & 2018 AFS Grant recipient)

   This documentary, made by the wife and husband team of Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan, takes the viewer into the life of Pahokee, Florida as a group of teenagers experience their final year of high school. As the teenagers look to their future, the town also contemplates what the future might hold for it.

   Stream on iTunes and Amazon

    

    

   

    QUEEN SUGAR

   (television show, multiple directors, 2016-, former producer and executive producer is a four time AFS Grant recipient)

   This one’s a little different. This is episodic TV with a high binge-quotient. The series, created by Ava DuVernay, is about three very different siblings who reunite in Louisiana when they inherit a sugar plantation. The show was directed, produced and executive produced during the 2017 and 2018 seasons by Kat Candler, who received the first of her four AFS Grants way back in 2000 and has credited AFS with helping her make the leap into television, where she has become one of the hottest talents in the business.

   Watch QUEEN SUGAR on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes and in many other services

3. Watch This: This DO THE RIGHT THING Behind-The-Scenes Doc is a Classic in Itself

   February 24, 2021 3:45 pm Leave a Comment

   Almost as long as there have been films there have been documentaries about what happens behind the scenes. Some are amateurish, some are basically just commercials for the feature film, and a rare few are excellent works of art themselves. We have featured St. Claire Bourne’s work on these pages before. Well before Spike Lee asked him to document the making of 1989’s DO THE RIGHT THING, Bourne was a well known documentary filmmaker, and he has a clear idea about what he wants to say here. He wants to place the richness of the culture front and center and show the exertions and the beliefs of the people who are working to bring that culture to a place of prominence.

   It is fascinating to watch the community come together around the production. We see Spike Lee as he guides large forces of people power and then, just as quickly, goes into intimate consultation with his actors about the tiniest aspects of their performances. We can see what a massive responsibility the director has on a film set, while also simultaneously considering the added weight of Lee’s task as he makes a film about social currents that are of such enormous import to the people of a neighborhood.

   It’s a remarkable documentary and an inspiration to creative and cultural workers everywhere. We hope you enjoy it too.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I5vV4WKc-o

4. Five Favorites From the 2021 Sundance Film Festival

   February 12, 2021 3:19 pm Leave a Comment

   You don’t need us to tell you that when it comes to independent film, the annual Sundance Film Festival is the big Kahuna. This is the time when much of the blueprint for the year in indie film is determined. The films that make a big impression here are likely to be the ones that everyone is talking about in a few months – the arthouse hits. But those three or four titles are not the only movies that play at Sundance. For professional film programmers, like our own, the fest is also a first look at a wide variety of projects from around the world. Every year our AFS Cinema screen features dozens of films that we first laid eyes on in Park City, Utah.

   This year was a little different. There was no snow on the ground, and we could watch the films from the comfort of our own homes without having to eat popcorn and milk duds for dinner. But the Sundance programmers delivered another excellent slate of films. Here are some of AFS Lead Film Programmer Lars Nilsen‘s favorites from the fest. Keep an eye on them on our virtual screens and – fingers crossed – real screens this year.

   

   WRITING WITH FIRE (Dir. Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas)

   This doc introduces us to the female journalists who work for the online news outlet Khabar Lahariya in Northern India. These women are not only outcasts due to their gender in a culture that values men much more highly, they are also members of the “lowest” caste, the Dalits. As we observe them covering their beats, mainly using their mobile phones to film and record their reportage, we get a sense of the dangers that people in their socioeconomic class face. This background makes us admire them all the more because these women, led by their editor Meera, are stone cold bulldogs. Their fearless pursuit of the story is contrasted with members of the legitimate media, living soft lives and asking even softer questions. These are remarkable women and this doc honors their courage and tenacity.

   

   WE’RE ALL GOING TO THE WORLD’S FAIR (Dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

   Fans of Jane Schoenbrun’s traveling Eyeslicer programs, which you may have seen at the AFS Cinema, will be eager to see Schoenbrun’s narrative debut film. Here, a teenage girl participates in a mysterious online roleplaying game called the World’s Fair Challenge. The film’s perspective for much of its runtime is the video updates she makes as she records the effects of the unseen stimuli on her mind and body. Schoenbrun is a keen student of online subcultures and this film forces us to keep our antennae on high alert as we digest the context clues about the game and its players. In such a heightened state, the horror elements of the narrative catch us off guard in new and provocative ways.

   

   MY NAME IS PAULI MURRAY (Dir. Betsy West, Julie Cohen)

   The makers of RBG are back with a new doc that is both a major step forward for their filmmaking as well as a much-needed portrait of a brilliant and complex person whose life is the stuff of legend. Pauli Murray’s public and intellectual life is almost too eventful to be believed. Murray, disguised as a boy, rode freight trains during the Depression, was arrested in some of the earliest anti-segregation protests, became a lawyer, gestated some of the key points that were later used in Civil Rights legislation, and more. I won’t spoil the surprises. Throughout it all, she was wrapped up in a personal quest to determine her gender identity. Now, we might consider her non-binary, but in the years before society’s vocabulary could encompass this, she faced a major struggle to come to terms with it. This is a truly remarkable story, and it will not be surprising if a narrative biopic is made about Murray in a few years.

    

   

   REBEL HEARTS (Dir. Pedro Kos)

   The inner workings of convents and religious schools are mysterious things to the (literal) layperson. This documentary shows us the inner workings of Los Angeles’ Immaculate Heart College and the nuns who ran it, the Sisters Of The Immaculate Heart. That is interesting enough in itself, but the time period in which we are given this access is the era of dissent and change that began in the ’60s. As the nuns begin to question their role in the Church and the Church’s role in society, the ecclesiastical higher-ups appoint a very conservative Bishop to oversee their work and the dissent multiplies. A very interesting film even for people who are not involved in religious life. Special alert for lovers of printmaking and serigraphy, as one of the nuns was a very famous artist who worked in this medium, Corita Kent.

   

   CRYPTOZOO (Dir. Dash Shaw)

   Like Dash Shaw’s earlier animated feature MY ENTIRE HIGH SCHOOL SINKING INTO THE SEA, this highly imaginative new film is so full of ideas that the new effect can be somewhat exhausting. I will chalk a lot of that up to the fact that I was watching five or six movies every day, but you may find that this one is best taken in smaller doses. The aesthetic is post-psychedelic – I would place the visual and musical reference points at approximately 1980. That’s not a bad thing. There’s also a lot of anti-establishment paranoia, something that never seems to go out of style. The allegorical story of cryptids and their allies trying to survive and thrive in a world of capitalist and militaristic exploitation is stretched to the absolute breaking point but the visual phantasmagoria is endlessly surprising and rich.

   These five films only scratch the surface of course. You’ll surely be seeing a number of our other favorites in theaters or on streaming services in the months to come. Keep an eye out for these: AMY TAN: UNINTENDED MEMOIR, FLEE, HOMEROOM, JOCKEY, RITA MORENO: A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT, THE SPARKS BROTHERS, STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET, SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR: WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED), and others.

5. Watch the Acclaimed Doc 76 DAYS Free This Saturday (1/23) & Support AFS

   January 20, 2021 7:57 pm Leave a Comment

   In commemoration of the one year anniversary of the COVID lockdown in Wuhan, China, our friends at MTV Films are making the doc 76 DAYS available absolutely free to watch on Saturday 1/23. Even better, for every stream of the film you watch, AFS will receive a donation.

   This is one of the best films of 2020, perhaps you saw it on one of the many year-end lists or heard the NPR story about it. It’s a remarkable film, full of heroic medical workers pushing themselves past the point of human endurance as they battle the first wave of the COVID 19 outbreak. It’s a beautiful document of humanity and there are even a few laughs – really!

   Kevin Crust of the Los Angeles Times speaks for critics everywhere – the film has a 100 score on Rotten Tomatoes – when he says:

   “We are likely to be watching films on this subject for years to come, but for it’s sheer in-the-moment rawness, 76 DAYS is one that will stick in your consciousness for some time.”

   You can sign up to watch the film HERE. Be sure to put “Austin Film Society” in the “Your local theater” field.

6. 25 Years Ago: Linklater & Tarantino Present FROM DUSK TILL DAWN World Premiere

   January 14, 2021 2:22 pm Leave a Comment

   It has been twenty-five years since Robert Rodriguez’s FROM DUSK TILL DAWN hit American movie screens. We’re guessing you’ve seen it by now. It’s the one that made George Clooney and Salma Hayek movie stars and it was among the most exciting moviegoing experiences of the decade. You can imagine how thrilling it must have been to see on opening night as a rabid crowd jammed the Paramount Theater for the Austin Film Society world premiere of the film.

   Here from the vaults is a shaky-cam document of the opening night remarks by Louis Black, Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino. Robert Rodriguez was in California working on promotion for the film. Fortunately, Tarantino, never known as a low-energy speaker, kicks it off right. Forgive the low video quality but we think you’ll agree that this moment of Austin film history is worth seeing.

    

7. Crazy Sweaty Cool: Thirteen of Our Favorite Paranoid/Conspiracy Movies

   January 6, 2021 1:02 pm Leave a Comment

   If you are a fan of conspiracy theories, you are living in the right era. Pizzagate, Epstein, personality cults, furniture retailers selling children in armoires… It’s all so weird and dumb, and belief in this stuff is terrifyingly widespread.

   But we didn’t start the fire. Cinema du Conspiracy has been thriving since the ’60s, amply fueled by the confusion and uncertainty that followed in the wake of the Warren Commissions report on JFK’s assassination. Again and again, the JFK story reappears in films and other fictional thrillers about conspiracies and paranoia. But even though the JFK conspiracy is the Big Daddy of them all, there are also movies about other conspiracies and the general paranoia stew that was the late 20th century.

   Here are some deep cuts from Conspiracy and Paranoia land, chosen by AFS Lead Programmer Lars Nilsen. We assume you are familiar with some of the heavy hitters in the genre, THE CONVERSATION, JFK, THE PARALLAX VIEW, BLOW OUT, etc. Here are some others that you may not be familiar with and can help provide you with a few therapeutic hours of controlled mania before you turn on the news and are again confronted with the deep weirdness of real life.

   For the Letterboxers among you, here is a link so you can add these films to your own watchlist.

   

   BLUE SUNSHINE (1977, Dir, Jeff Lieberman)

   In this true classic of seventies paranoia, a bunch of people start flipping out and committing murders for seemingly no reason, until someone pieces together the fact that they had all taken a mysterious strain of LSD back in the ’60s. Dark secrets, harrowing bad trips, it’s all here. A spectacular piece of low-budget horror filmmaking.

   

   CAPRICORN ONE (1977, Dir. Peter Hyams)

   This picks up where the “moon landing was faked” theory lets off. Here, it’s a Mars landing, staged in a TV studio. The astronauts whose lives are in danger are played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and OJ Simpson and the reporter who flips over desks in his crusade to discover the truth and protect the hapless astronauts is played by Elliott Gould! A fast-paced, mildly silly ride, but it’s fun.

   Streaming on HBO Max & Shout Factory TV

   

   CUTTER’S WAY (1981, Dir. Ivan Passer)

   When Jeff Bridges’ character Richard Bone sees a crime perpetrated by a wealthy man go unpunished, he is thirsty for justice. But when he brings his physically and mentally scarred Vietnam vet friend Alex Cutter (John Heard) into the picture, he unleashes a hurricane of righteous fury. A fascinating character study that assumes you agree with the premise that America is hopelessly corrupt and evil and goes from there.

   

   EXECUTIVE ACTION (1973, Dir. David Miller)

   A lot of these films allude in various ways to the JFK assassination. This one meets it head-on, postulating a theory, put forward by assassination historian Mark Lane, about how and why the President was killed. Starring Burt Lancaster and scripted by Donald Trumbo, it’s a very dramatic Hollywood take on the events, in a good way. This one was pretty controversial and was pulled from theaters. A few short years later, in the aftermath of Watergate, it fit right in with the national tone of skepticism and mistrust in institutions.

   

   THE HIDDEN (1987, Dir. Jack Sholder)

   In this one, the shape-shifting evil that is making people commit mass murders comes from a galaxy far, far away, and so does its adversary, a space cop temporarily occupying the very symmetrical body of Kyle MacLachlan. Hyperviolent, humorous and genuinely surprising in its plot convolutions.

   

   LAST EMBRACE (1979, Dir. Jonathan Demme)

   A real left turn by Demme, whose previous film had been the Altmanesque ensemble dramedy CITIZENS BAND. Here Roy Scheider plays a tough CIA agent on the mend from a nervous breakdown who finds that his employers are not thrilled to have him back. A great cast (the underrated Janet Margolin, Charles Napier and weird young Christopher Walken) adds a lot to this, as does the incredible orchestral score by the legendary old-Hollywood composer Miklos Rosza.

   

   SECONDS (1966, Dir. John Frankenheimer)

   The unsung star of this speculative fiction movie is cinematographer James Wong Howe whose career stretches back to 1923. Always an innovator, here he was allowed to produce some wild effects in the service of the story of a drab, middle-aged man who fakes his death and undergoes a complete identity change including plastic surgery, only to find that all is not what it seems.

   Streaming on Kanopy

   

   SHIVERS (1975, Dir. David Cronenberg)

   Cronenberg’s first feature shows us a tightly controlled utopian condo of the future faced with a parasitic venereal infection that turns its residents into zombie sex freaks. Like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD meets J.G. Ballard’s “High Rise.” The touchy-feely self-help vibe of the condo overlords creates a truly creepy counterpoint to the gory body-horror proceedings within. We’re all scared of the CIA, but this movie makes us fear our horny neighbors too. Sheesh.

   Streaming on the Criterion Channel

   

   SPARE PARTS (1979, Dir. Rainer Erler)

   This one is pretty obscure. Made by Germans in the US for German TV. You can find it on YouTube and on at least one of those 50 movie DVD sets. It’s surprisingly suspenseful and good. A young German couple on their honeymoon in New Mexico (OK, we’ll let that one pass) are pursued by freelance organ harvesters in a supercharged ambulance. There are many plot convolutions involving the military and hospitals and it all ends with a big action-filled bang in New York City.

   

   THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR (1973, Dir. Ivan Dixon)

   This one is something different entirely. An adaptation of a novel written by former US Information Agency official Sam Greenlee about a black man who, recruited by the CIA as a token, becomes disillusioned with the philosophy and utility of the agency and goes rogue, deploying the training and tactics of the racist US government against it. This is a truly groundbreaking film, and there was some offscreen espionage surrounding its release. It was removed from circulation and the negative was (intentionally?) mislabeled and misfiled in the vault. The actor/producer Tim Reid, an admirer of the film, found the negative thirty years later and gave the film its first truly widespread release in 2004. Current Austin Studios Director Martin Jones was an Executive Producer of the rerelease, by the way.

   

   THE STUFF (1975, Dir. Larry Cohen)

   Larry Cohen’s curmudgeonly companion piece to John Carpenter’s THEY LIVE is about a decadently delicious dessert called THE STUFF. Nobody knows what’s in it, or where it comes from, but Cohen’s favorite over-the-top actor Michael Moriarty is a former spy hired by Big Ice Cream to find out. It’s silly, of course, but as usual with the acerbic Cohen, there’s an underlying distrust of authority figures running through the narrative.

   Streaming on Amazon Prime and Hoopla

   

   TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING (1977, Dir. Robert Aldrich)

   The tagline says it all: “WE HAVE INVADED SILO 3. WE ARE PREPARED TO LAUNCH NINE NUCLEAR MISSILES. WE DEMAND TEN MILLION DOLLARS, AIR FORCE ONE… AND YOU, MR PRESIDENT.” That’s the crux of the drama, but it has some of that good old anti-establishment juice as well. The leader of the insurrection is a disgraced former general (Burt Lancaster again) who wants the public to hear the real truth about why America was in Vietnam. Gritty, grimy and kind of dimly photographed, it benefits from Robert Aldrich’s dependable mastery of film direction and ratchets up that tension big time.

   

   WINTER KILLS (1979, William Richert)

   Maybe the platonic ideal of a conspiracy movie, it has just about anything you would ever want. Jeff Bridges plays the half-brother of the assassinated President “Keegan,” whose father, played by John Huston, is a string-pulling zillionaire. When Bridges gets a hot tip about who killed his brother, he finds that seemingly everyone is out to stop him. While it works as an exhilarating thriller, it also works as a pitch black comedy and social satire. It was not a hit at the time, to put it mildly, but the passage of time has been kind to the film, and audiences seem to finally be ready for it.

   Streaming on Amazon Prime, Hoopla, Kanopy

8. Streamers: AFS Programmers’ 2020 Streaming Faves

   December 28, 2020 2:38 pm Leave a Comment

   2020 was the year of not going to the movies, and of discovering great movies on our small screens. We’ve been sharing some of our very favorite films of the year via our virtual cinema, which is playing some of the year’s must-see films (We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: COLLECTIVE! LUXOR! And many more…) but several of our favorites this year skipped theaters and virtual cinemas entirely. If you’ve already made your way through our picks on AFS@home and are looking for more AFS recommendations, this list is for you.

   Here are some of our favorite new discoveries, available on VOD or streaming services. 

   Holly Herrick, Head of Film & Creative Media, Austin Film Society, recommends:

   

   SMALL AXE – By now you’ve probably heard about the five-film tour de force from Academy Award-winning British director Steve McQueen, but we’re listing it here to encourage you to make it your top holiday viewing priority, if you haven’t yet watched. Developed from stories of London’s West Indian communities in the 1960s and 1970s, the series has formal similarities to Kieslowski’s THE DECALOGUE, which it has been compared to critically, and it is equally groundbreaking and brilliant. While individual films are masterpieces in their own right, taken as a whole, McQueen has delivered the year’s cinematic knock-out, bringing the most delicate directorial touch to these stories of resistance and cultural resilience, making visible the struggles and the joy of a powerful community. (Amazon Prime). 

   

   RESIDUE – In the discovery category, this debut feature is another case sample of 2020 being a year of astonishingly good debut features (Texas’ own BULL and MISS JUNETEENTH among them). RESIDUE takes on the emotional, cultural and spiritual degradation wrought by rapid gentrification in Washington D.C. Directed by Merawi Gerima, the son of pioneering LA Rebellion filmmakers Haile Gerima and Shirkiana Aina, who appears to have inherited his parents’ revolutionary and anti-colonial approach to the creation of cinema image. Combining elements of formal production, guerrilla-style filmmaking and cinematic essay, RESIDUE’s distinct style and voice make it one of the most unforgettable films of the year. (Netflix). 

   

   DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD – Kirsten Johnston spent many years as a documentary cinematographer before being nominated for an Oscar for her breakthrough film as a director, CAMERAPERSON. Placing rapport between filmmaker and subject at the center of the narrative, Johnson confronts the consuming fear of her father’s oncoming dementia. Johnson’s filmmaking journey is about the complexity of the cinematic image and it’s successes and failures in conveying our humanity, and this latest film is an intensely emotional, immersive and totally entertaining addition to her oeuvre. (Netflix) 

   

   TIME – 2020 was the year when the wider cultural narrative reflected back what people of color have known for centuries about America’s failures. The poetry of Garrett Bradley’s film reverberates even more strongly given the moment of its release and it’s titular question. Through the story of one woman and her family in the face of the carceral state, Bradley conveys the resilience and resistance of Black women who must fight against the engines of their own society to build a life with their families. Subject and collaborator Fox Richardson was named one of this year’s Unforgettables by the Cinema Eye Honors, and is without a doubt among the most compelling documentary lead characters of the year. Her story comes alive in Bradley’s brilliant eye for conveying the spiritual weight of Richardson’s struggle. (Amazon Prime)

   

   THE GOOD LORD BIRD – AFS programmers don’t watch much TV. We swear we are not snobs– we just find ourselves frustrated by the number of critically-acclaimed television shows serving narrative conventions that will help them get to the next episode more than the artistic integrity of their own storytelling. In general, we still pretty find ourselves on the same page with this stance. But there are of course, exceptions, particularly in the world of limited series. Among the most powerfully cinematic and revelatory small screen storytelling this year was this adaptation of James McBride’s novel by creator Ethan Hawke and screenwriter Mark Richard. It’s off-kilter tone and subversive humor, boosted by dedicated performances from it’s excellent cast, lent itself to challenging our ideas about ethical choices in an ethically compromised society. (Showtime) 

   Lars Nilsen, AFS Lead Film Programmer, recommends:

   

   THE VAST OF NIGHT –  Set in small town America in the ’50s, this sci-fi thriller avoids some of the pitfalls of the way this period is depicted in modern films. There are some unusual narrative choices – for example two key scenes feature long, excellently delivered, monologues. The subject matter is familiar, but the execution is excellent. The dialogue and direction of actors is reminiscent of the crackling pace that Howard Hawks and Chris Nyby utilized in the classic THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD. (Amazon Prime)

   

   NATALIE WOOD: WHAT REMAINS BEHIND – Natalie Wood’s gifts as an actress and photographic subject have been overshadowed somewhat by her mysterious and shocking death. This documentary, made with the close cooperation of Wood’s daughter Natasha Gregson Wagner, seeks to remedy that. If you needed a reminder that actors are the very life force that cinema runs on, this is it. Wood, seen in hundreds of film clips and photos is radiant beyond all comprehension. Additionally, the matter of her death is covered in a way that may make many people re-examine their priors. (HBO)

   

   CRIP CAMP – If you like movies with good guys reaching deep inside themselves and triumphing over bad guys – and who doesn’t? – this is a movie that will have you pumping your fist in the air in triumph. It’s the story of the greatest generation of disability rights activists, many of whom had as teenagers attended a summer camp called Camp Jened which imbued its differently-abled campers with life-skills and the confidence to achieve. Through remarkable archival footage we watch them grow up and challenge the prevailing state of affairs as activists and professionals in many different fields. This is a very uplifting film about a group of heroes whose names have hitherto been too little known by most of us. (Netflix)

   

   LA LLORONA So many recent horror movies have been rehashes of earlier horror tropes with the addition of much busier sound design, shock cuts and jump scares. This film, which has nothing to do with the similarly titles CURSE OF LA LLORONA, or with the Mexican folk horror legend of the same name, has all of the modern conveniences that the horror movie fan expects. It does shock and startle the viewer, but the root of the terror is a real life atrocity, a Guatemalan genocide, and the “monster” is not the ghost but rather an elderly general who lives in luxury and seeks to escape his karmic debt. (Shudder)

   

   COMING HOME AGAIN – This one is a little bit of a cheat, as it is not yet streaming on one of the subscription services. It’s a film that I missed at first but caught up with quite a bit later. Writer-director Wayne Wang (CHAN IS MISSING) is still operating at top power in this story of a young man (Justin Chon) dealing with a loss in the family and being visited by memories of his early upbringing. (available via some Virtual Cinemas, such as Row8 with the Jacob Burns Film Center) 

9. Critics’ Year-End Lists Are Out: Watch the Best 2020 Films with Us

   December 23, 2020 12:21 pm Leave a Comment

   In what has been perhaps the strangest and most disruptive year for movies ever, there have still been a great many excellent films. Even before the pandemic hit, more and more titles were going direct to the streaming television services and the bells seemed to be tolling for mainstream movie theaters as viewers chose the sofa over the multiplex. Naturally, the COVID quarantine accelerated that process considerably and it should not surprise anyone that a lot of the year’s best went directly to Netflix or other streaming services.

   For many arthouse cinemas, however, a new innovation emerged: virtual cinema. Arthouses have been able to offer slates of films via streaming platforms and a significant portion of that revenue goes to help that theater or organization. In this fashion, AFS has been able to offer many of the best films of the year. Our philosophy on virtual cinema has been similar to our in-cinema philosophy. On our virtual cinema platform, AFS@home, we only offer a small number of films, but they are all films that we like and think you will like as well. As theaters reopen in 2021, we plan to continue innovating and offering new solutions in addition to our world class AFS Cinema.

   Speaking of the Best Films of the Year, the 2020 Critics Lists are hitting now, and we are seeing a lot of familiar titles. Some have gone directly to Netflix and other streamers, but a great deal have played in the AFS Virtual Cinema. Many of these are no longer available in the Virtual realm and have moved on to other platforms (BACURAU, MISS JUNETEENTH, DRIVEWAYS, and others) but a good number are still available on AFS’ Virtual Cinema channel for those folks who may care to catch up on some of the year’s best.

   Here, arranged in order of the year-end hype they have received, are some of the 2020 critics’ darlings now available in the AFS Virtual Cinema:

   

   COLLECTIVE

   Believe it or not, a doc about corruption in the Romanian healthcare system is one of the most compelling movies of the year. As a bunch of small-time journalists from a soccer newspaper close in on the facts behind a national tragedy, the stakes grow higher and the gangster-ish thugs who profit from human misery begin to fight back. Completely riveting from beginning to end.

   COLLECTIVE appears on the following lists: Indiewire, Barack Obama, New York Times, Vulture (Bilge Ebiri), Sight & Sound, Vanity Fair, Film Stage Best Docs, ScreenCrush (Matt SInger), Vox Media, Screen Slate, Slate (Dana Stevens), LA Times (Justin Chang), Time (Stephanie Zacharek), Artforum (Amy Taubin), also 99% on Rotten Tomatoes

   

   CITY HALL

   If COLLECTIVE is a nail-biter, the doc CITY HALL is an oddly reassuring reset as we watch four and a half hours of the incomparable Frederick Wiseman’s observational impressions of the workings of the Boston City government. From the mayor’s feel-good speeches to veterans and seniors, to a building inspector’s rigorous examination of a renovated home, it shows how a bunch of competent, committed people can make a big government work for the people.

   CITY HALL appears on the following lists: New Yorker (Richard Brody), Indiewire, New York Times, FilmStage Best Docs, Vox Media, Screen Slate, LA Times (Justin Chang), Cahiers du Cinéma, also 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

   

   MARTIN EDEN

   Jack London’s novel about a young sailor coming of age, and social consciousness has survived the transition to a Mediterranean locale and has perhaps even become richer for it. This is classical arthouse cinema, and deserves to stand with the greats in the field.

   MARTIN EDEN appears on the following lists: Indiewire, Barack Obama, New York Times, Vulture (Alison Willmore), Vulture (Bilge Ebiri), Sight & Sound, AV Club, LA Times (Justin Chang)

   

   FOURTEEN

   In Dan Sallitt’s closely observed, novelistic drama, two young women, friends since childhood, stay connected while also diverging in their personal and professional lives.

   FOURTEEN appears on the following lists: New Yorker (Richard Brody), Indiewire, AV Club, Artforum (Cassie da Costa), also 98% on Rotten Tomatoes

10. Streamers: Family Style Programmer Stacy Brick Recommends Holiday Films

    December 18, 2020 12:45 pm Leave a Comment

    Our friend Stacy Brick, programmer of the AFS Family Style series, is a sought-after movie list maker of late. The New York Times has published a pair of articles from her, 7 Films to Help Children Dealing With Grief and Family-Friendly Movies Made by Diverse Filmmakers, and she has been kind enough to share a list of Family Friendly Holiday titles with us. As always, Stacy has put in the hard work of testing these films with her own kids – a tough audience.

    Here’s Stacy:

    Every family has favorite holiday movies they return to each year. Perhaps you’ve already watched ELF and HOME ALONE – now what? Listed below are some less obvious choices – maybe one of them will become a new family favorite? 

    

    BABES IN TOYLAND (1934)

    Streaming on: YouTube & Amazon
    Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy star in this adaptation of Victor Herbert’s 1903 operetta. Stannie Dum and Ollie Dee work in the Toyland factory making toys for Santa. Toyland is populated by Little Miss Muffet, the Three Little Pigs, and a monkey (yes, a real one) in a Mickey Mouse suit. When evil landlord Barnaby threatens to foreclose on the shoe Mother Peep and Bo Peep live in, Stannie and Ollie spring into action to save the day. They must navigate a dunking, the Bogeymen and crocodiles (again, real) in order to escape. Hilarity ensues.

    

    LITTLE WOMEN (1994)

    Streaming on: Amazon
    All of your favorite 90’s actresses are fresh-faced in this 1994 adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel. There’s Winona Ryder (Jo), Kirsten Dunst (Amy), Claire Danes (Beth) and Trini Alvarado (Meg) with Susan Sarandon as their “Marmee”. Orchard House is the perfect setting for a traditional family Christmas full of cheer, music, and snow. The family’s Christmas celebrations bookend the first part of the film and set the tone of coziness and family togetherness throughout. Make sure you have tissues handy. 

    

    CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945)

    Streaming on: Hulu
    Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) is the newspaper columnist behind the “Diary of a Housewife” column. The thing is, it’s a sham – she doesn’t know the first thing about running a household. When a fan (who also happens to be a handsome war hero) asks to spend Christmas at her family’s Connecticut farmhouse, she must scramble to convince him that she is who she claims to be. 

    

    MILLIONS (2004)

    Streaming on: Disney+
    In the weeks leading up to Christmas, a young boy finds a bag of money near the railway in his small British town. He and his brother try to keep it a secret from their father, but there are two problems. First, the UK is about to switch to the Euro and the bag is full of pounds (a fictional event). Second, the money belongs to thieves who show up in town asking questions. The boys are forced to try and spend all the money before time runs out.

    

    EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS (1977)

    Streaming on: Amazon
    Emmet and Ma Otter don’t have money for Christmas gifts, but they’re both amazing musicians. They each decide (unbeknownst to the other) to compete in the Waterville talent show to win the $50 prize and use it to buy gifts. The rolicking tunes of the Jug Band can’t be beat. This Henson favorite clocks in at just under an hour, making it a great option for younger kids. 

    Here’s the Letterboxd version of the list so you can easily add them to your watchlist.

11. Celebrating 40 Years of the Radical Feminist Comedy 9 TO 5

    December 15, 2020 1:30 pm Leave a Comment

    Forty years ago this week a film hit American theaters that would do its part to change the fabric of American culture, though people who saw it at the time might be forgiven for failing to notice it was anything but a raucously funny comedy. But for millions of women 9 TO 5 illustrated some of the mostly unspoken realities of office life, casual sexual harassment, double standards in performance evaluation and advancement, and other outrages. It must have been wildly cathartic for women who had faced these realities to see the trio of Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda get their over-the-top revenge against the reprehensible boss.

    The movie was an enormous success, by every measure. Audiences roared with laughter, and the lines formed around the block. It’s also a intentionally radical piece of agit-prop, carefully designed by its producer Jane Fonda to inject awareness of the prevailing workplace circumstances into the audience’s consciousness. While, when viewed through today’s lens, it lacks an intersectional perspective about matters pertaining to race and sexuality, at the time it was by far the most radical piece of film that ever played theaters in America’s heartland, to be sure. For all the marching and activism that Fonda was known for, this may have been her most effective political maneuver.

    In order to make the situations as true to life as possible, Fonda and her producing partner Bruce Gilbert arranged to talk to the membership of a group called the Association of Office Workers. From this diverse group of women, Fonda heard first-hand about the conditions faced by women in office workplaces, and from this raw material the script was born.

    The matter of casting would be tremendously important, of course. Fonda could essay one of the roles, but the other two were up for grabs. One night, Fonda went to see Lily Tomlin’s one-woman show and she became an obvious candidate for another one of the leads. On the way home from the theater she turned on the radio and heard Dolly Parton singing. Parton had never acted on screen before, but come on – she clearly had it. The triad was complete – theoretically, that is, it took a year to get everyone on board. The part of the boss was unforgettably played with maximum unctuousness by Austin native Dabney Coleman.

    It’s a hell of a story and Jane Fonda can tell it best, so we’ll let her.

    Here’s an uncut interview with Jane Fonda with local DFW entertainment reporter Bobbie Wygant in which Fonda discusses the origin story of the film in more depth. Enjoy.

    Of course, Hollywood’s scorecard always reflects dollars and cents above all else, and it succeeded in that department too, grossing over $103 million domestically. Adjusted for inflation that is over $325 million in 2020 dollars. Its social value was even greater than that, of course, and it is still widely watched and enjoyed today.

12. Holiday Movie Refresh: 20 Classics That Are Not ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’

    December 4, 2020 1:00 pm Leave a Comment

    Every year at this time we start getting into the holiday spirit with some classic films. There are some movies that get a lot of play at this time of year – both because they’re movies that have long been in heavy rotation on television and because they’re really good. IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, A CHRISTMAS STORY, MIRACLE ON 34th STREET; All are fantastic and we will certainly never try to persuade anyone to knock these off the pine-scented pedestal of holiday classics, but there are some others that you may not have seen before, or may have seen but not considered in the context of holiday films. The holiday season is also not one of unalloyed joy for all of us, and that aspect is reflected in some of the films on this list.

    We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites here. Not all of these are deep obscurities, but the best known films here are not necessarily thought of as holiday films, though they might have a seasonally appropriate setting.

    Here is the list in Letterboxd form, click on the “Show Notes” button to see where each film is currently streaming.

    

    From the classic Hollywood days we have THE THIN MAN (1934) which takes place over a Christmas vacation in New York, as wealthy sleuths Nick and Nora Charles get blitzed on Martinis, shoot the ornaments off the tree, and find time to solve a murder.

    

    The great Barbara Stanwyck stars in CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) as a Martha Stewart-like columnist who is an absolute mess in real life, but has to pull it together to stage a publicity-motivated Christmas welcome for a returning serviceman.

    

    1949’s HOLIDAY AFFAIR, about a struggling single mother (Janet Leigh, phenomenal) juggling her obligations to her son and her financially secure boyfriend (Wendell Corey) as an attractive new fellow (Robert Mitchum) begins to turn her head.

    

    In Douglas Sirk’s ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) Jane Wyman plays a mother who has sacrificed everything for her children and finds the opportunity for a little happiness of her own in the strong arms of non-conformist Rock Hudson. Not a happy film, but a richly satisfying one, and one with Christmas scenes that are gorgeous and bitter at the same time.

    

    1958’s BELL, BOOK & CANDLE stars Kim Novak as a lovely, cat-eyed beatnik witch who casts her spells on square Jimmy Stewart over the course of a snowy Greenwich Village Christmas week. A midcentury modern joy.

    

    BLAST OF SILENCE (1961) also takes place in New York at Christmas, and also has a jazzy, beat feel, but here the tone is downright nihilistic. It is a dark, scuzzy independent film noir that gets as black as the dark night of the soul in its story of a conflicted hired killer named Frankie Bono.

    

    John Ford’s DONOVAN’S REEF (1963) was not the great director’s last film, but it has the knock-down, drag out feel of an Irish vacation wake. Between all the brawling action and ill-advised romantic subplot, there’s a beautiful poetic story of a father and daughter reuniting and of racial prejudice being washed away by a tropical torrent of love and familial devotion. Ford is sneaky. Before you know it, he has you by the heart strings and won’t let go.

    

    MY NIGHT AT MAUD’S (1969), directed by Eric Rohmer, is set on Christmas Eve, and was in fact shot on Christmas Eve. It is a film of conversations and missed connections. If you have never spent a whole night drinking and talking about philosophy and love, this may not be the film for you, but if you have, the movies of Eric Rohmer are right up your alley.

    

    SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT (1972), directed by the underrated Theodore Gershuny, should not be confused with the howlingly funny SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT (1984). This tale of murder and madness on Long Island is genuinely atmospheric and terrifying. Though its cast is full of Warhol superstars, everyone plays it straight. Widely available in a really crappy looking transfer that oddly adds to its appeal.

    

    FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982) is not a Christmas movie through-and-through but oh boy what a Christmas sequence it depicts. A large family gathers in a huge and beautifully decorated old house and every kind of Christmas treat is prepared. This film accomplished a kind of magical synesthesia – you will believe you can smell the pies and cakes. It’s a remarkable film through and through, but the Christmas scenes may linger with you the longest.

    

    Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL (1985) is a pretty good candidate for the best Christmas-hater’s Christmas movie. Holiday cheer is deployed throughout as a distraction from the dystopian hell-scape, and, as such, pushes the anxiety and unpleasantness into the red (and green).

    

    Don Bluth’s animated feature AN AMERICAN TAIL (1986) is the only Hanukkah film on this list. It begins with the Mousekowitz family (they are mice, you see) celebrating the holiday together in the old country. This allegory about the struggle of immigrants in America is shown through the eyes of mice who face many challenges, including the fact that the cat population was wildly underestimated. A massive hit, it spawned a number of sequels.

    

    The French action-thriller DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS (1989) looks a lot like HOME ALONE (1990) in that a boy protects his home from invasion. The big difference is that the kid in DIAL CODE SANTA CLAUS is a mechanical and computer genius who has set a trap to capture Santa Claus and “Santa” is a marauding lunatic. It’s extremely fast-paced, exciting and scary. We should note that it’s not for kids. We should also note that AFS will be screening this at the Rocket Drive-In on 12/10 and 11. More details here.

    

    Whit Stillman’s 1990 film METROPOLITAN is also very much for the type of person who enjoys Rohmer’s MY NIGHT AT MAUDS. It is also a Christmas break movie, only this one is a period piece set in 1969 and it shows us a New Yorker fiction world of sophisticates as their heyday of high society draws to a close over the course of the holiday season.

    

    THE DAY OF THE BEAST (1995) from the Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia is a howl. It is about the emergence of the antichrist in Barcelona and a search-and-destroy mission undertaken by three very unlikely partners – a fallen priest, a slick TV reporter and a metalhead – to neutralize the evil at Christmas-time. It is a slapstick comedy that seems to get faster and faster as everything goes wrong. Hysterical and underrated.

    

    Stanley Kubrick’s last film EYES WIDE SHUT (1999) is now, after some initial turbulence, recognized as one of his major works. The events of the film, about a happily married couple facing a crisis of fidelity, take place against the backdrop of Christmas and New Year. It’s a film that gets deeper in its resonances with every viewing.

    

    Arnaud Desplechin’s A CHRISTMAS TALE (2008) is an ensemble piece about a subject we’re surprised has not been covered more thoroughly in Christmas movies, the long-simmering resentments between family members that boil over at family gatherings. A movie like this is anchored by the gravity of its biggest star, and in this case that star is the great Catherine Deneuve.

    

    WHITE REINDEER (2013), written and directed by Zach Clark, is also about the dark side of Christmas. The ludicrously dark side of the season that makes already difficult life circumstances almost unbearable. Here, thankfully, it is presented as a black comedy. Anna Margaret Hollyman plays the lead here, a young woman who copes with a hellish holiday using extreme means.

    

    Sean Baker’s TANGERINE (2015) also finds unexpected comic buzz in the season. Without prior judgment on the part of the filmmaker, the viewer is thrust into the raw lives of a pair of marginalized trans women who go about their business on Christmas Eve. It feels realer than real, thanks to the performances and direction, and also thanks to the fact it was famously shot on iPhones. You won’t notice – at least not in any negative way.

    

    CAROL (2015) has a dream pedigree, directed by Todd Haynes from an autobiographical novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. It is the story of an affair that sparks to life over the holidays and is suffused with the tragedy of the love that must not (yet) speak its name.