2000s

A young man in southern China has killed his lover. He starts a lonely escape across the whole country towards his land of wonder, a snowy village at the northern border. Sitting at his desk in Beijing, a scriptwriter is writing that man’s story. It is through his characters that his life gains its weight, meaning and freedom. His imagination blurs the boundaries between reality and fiction. The snowy village lies on the quiet border between China and Russia. Old villagers fish under the ice, school children study English text about America. They endure the long winter nights waiting for the sun to come back…Read More »

Yufit continues themes from Silver Heads, this time featuring an artist who paints insects, and who discovers evidence of scientific experiments aimed at understanding and controlling the progress of man. Specifically, what caused man to stand upright, thus moving away from a more practical and natural lifestyle and into a modern, intellectual one. The experiments attempt to recreate this effect or fuse the advantages of both. He moves into an old house with his family, is haunted by strange visions and dreams, but when his children uncover a film archive documenting the experiments, and a strange old man disturbs his peace, he loses his simple pleasures and his mind regresses into a form of insanity. While he slowly unravels the truth, experimental bipedals (naked crouched men) roam and terrorize the countryside chased by the government. By far Yufit’s most conventional narrative, with odd, mildly interesting but simplistic meditations on humankind.

— The Worldwide Celluloid MassacreRead More »

Michelange Quay’s stunning first feature seductively begs the viewer to abandon the rules of traditional storytelling and instead embrace a poetic,… Michelange Quay’s stunning first feature seductively begs the viewer to abandon the rules of traditional storytelling and instead embrace a poetic, cinematic language. Eat, for This Is My Body tells of the evolution of power in Quay’s native Haiti and the colonial relationship between black boys and white women.Read More »

Renowned French photographer and Nan Goldin disciple Antoine D’Agata offers this visual essay of Tokyo prostitution circuits that isn’t for the easily offended. By exploring the prostitutes’ filthy working rooms and capturing the sex workers as they service clients, shoot heroin, and masturbate with their own blood, D’Agata effectively shatters the standard perception of the porn industry. ~ Jason Buchanan, RoviRead More »

This is the fourth in a series of seven projected video essays (four of which were completed) that Ruiz was commissioned to make in 2002-2003 for use among Chilean community organizations and broadcast on public television. Cofralandes, the head-title for each of the segments of Ruiz’s series, is taken from a song by Violeta Parra where it evokes the “land of milk and honey,” the “land of Cockayne,” the “green world” imagined by Gonzalo in The Tempest.Read More »

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By turns voluptuous, whimsical and exceedingly strange, Guy Maddin’s film “Dracula: Pages From a Virgin’s Diary” suggests that silent movies and ballet may have always been natural dancing partners. At least they seem that way when folded into each other by a quirky visionary like Mr. Maddin, the Canadian experimental filmmaker whose work has acquired a fervent cult following.Read More »

This is the second in a series of seven projected video essays that Ruiz was commissioned to make in 2002-2003 for use among Chilean community organizations and broadcast on public television. Cofralandes, the head-title for each of the segments of Ruiz’s series, is taken from a song by Violeta Parra where it evokes the “land of milk and honey,” the “land of Cockayne,” the “green world” imagined by Gonzalo in The Tempest.Read More »

Quotes from IMDB: This film should absolutely be on the “avoid” list of that group of audience fed on Hollywood fodder of car chase, explosions, and the like. But to those who are used to seeking out various kinds of cinematic experience, this could be quite rewarding. First, the visual experience.

Director ZHANG Lu seems to be extremely fond of using slow pan shots, with the interesting effect of showing you something that has been happening off screen, something that you may or may not have anticipated. It’s like that throughout the entire film.Read More »

A sadistic teacher discovers one of his teenage students is a prostitute and blackmails her into becoming his sex slave. When she becomes pregnant, he arranges her demise. His henchmen (who are kind of like the Three Stooges) murder her and chop her up. At this point a mysterious, sunglasses-wearing Dr. Frankenstein-like character intervenes and rebuilds the remains into a cyborg (with the aid of a sewing machine). Now robotically revived, her memory comes back from a shock she had from her chest injury during a fight, and she sets out to avenge herself, going after the teacher and the three henchmen who committed the murder.Read More »