In Istanbul, cats have been an essential part of the fabric of its communities for thousands of years. There are hundreds of thousands of them roaming free in the city. The new film KEDi is from Turkish director/producer Ceyda Torun. She highlights these animals, and how they exist independently yet often choose to interact with …
February 2017
A United Kingdom Review: Female director Amma Asante brings us a love story of the brave real-life couple that changed a country
This weekend sees the release of A United Kingdom, the big screen dramatization based on Susan Williams’s nonfiction book Colour Bar, about Seretse and Ruth Khama. In the late 1940s, Khama, the Prince of Bechuanaland (now Batswana) married white English clerk Ruth Williams, and together they bravery faced the prejudice and fight against their union. …
New IMAX Film Dream Big: Engineering our World Inspires Girls to Engineer a Better World
Most of us have been to one of those museum IMAX movies: Think of To Fly, The Living Sea, and Everest. All those, and many more movies you saw on that field trip you’ll never forget, were made by director Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman films. Now he’s got a new film, Dream Big: Engineering …
Amma Asante Interview: On Filming A United Kingdom & Being A Working Director
Director Amma Asante on the set of A United Kingdom. Photo by Stanislav Honzik. © 2016 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved A United Kingdom, a film based on historic events, is being released just after Valentine’s Day on February 17th here in the states. Directed by Amma Asante, a UK-born daughter of …
Toni Erdmann Review: See this Winning, Woman-Directed, Oscar Nominated Film
Oscar nominations were announced this week. Women working behind the camera inside and outside Hollywood and their supporters around the world were chagrined, if unsurprised, to see the list of Best Director nominations comprised entirely of men. Worse yet, director Mel Gibson, who has been accused of anti-Semitism and repeated domestic violence, took the place …
Power to the Protest : 5 Inspirational Documentaries to Prepare You for the Women’s March on Washington
Perhaps you’ve heard. There’s a peaceful transition of power happening in Washington DC this weekend. Also happening this weekend is potentially one of the largest protest gatherings in recorded history. There are hundreds of thousands making their voices of dissent and protest heard by marching in Washington, but with numbers reaching over a million by …
The Ten Best Women-Directed Films of 2016
The Ten Best Women-Directed Films of 2016 With the beginning of 2017, we have to stay positive about the changes, however slow, that are happening in the film community for women in film. Parity won’t ever happen without agitating for equality and consideration in terms of women film directors and all production artists working below …
JACKIE Movie Review: Portman is Perfection in a Pill Box Hat
Most Americans can remember exactly what they were doing when the towers fell on 9/11. It is the national tragedy that connects us all. Before that, though, there was another day of communal sadness and shock in this country. For people of a certain age, it’s the day that John F. Kennedy was killed. Everyone …
THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN review: Sweet Sharp-Edged Cinema
If any of you people have more than five years in the rearview mirror of leaving yourself at seventeen behind, let me remind you. It isn’t any kind of fun. I mean, Janis Ian’s song says it all. In case you’d like a refresher, this week’s release THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN is ready and able …
ARRIVAL Movie Review: Amy Adams Brings Home the Independent, Unwavering Spirit and Brainpower of All Women
ARRIVAL is the science fiction film for people who avoid them because they see them as vapid, effects-driven, plot deficient time-drains. Fans loyal to the genre will also embrace the film, which is about a linguist who is tasked with translating the language of recently landed aliens, in order to open inter-species communications. Auteur director …