Recent Reads: FSFF Turns 10; Teaching Media Against the Global Right, etc.

— Here’s wishing Catherine Grant’s pioneering, iconic blog Film Studies for Free a Happy 10-year Anniversary! Catherine has put up

Recent Reads: Woman with a Movie Camera, etc.

I’m starting a new monthly feature here for recent, particularly interesting reads about cinema, feminism, and politics. Here we go:

2017: A Personal Round-Up

At the end of a monstrous year, here is a personal inventory of some things that were in fact good

TIFF 2017: “Waru”

One of the best films at TIFF was made by eight directors, all Māori women. Waru, from New Zealand, consists

TIFF 2017: Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider”

Years from now, when we look back at 2017’s TIFF, we might recognize it as historic: the moment when one

TIFF 2017: Round-Up

Best-of-the-Fest: Western (Valeska Grisebach, Germany) Faces Places (Agnès Varda, France) Zama (Lucretia Martel, Argentina) The Rider (Chloe Zhao, USA) The

The Disenchantments of “La La Land”

Damien Chazelle’s La La Land has turned out to be a fascinatingly divisive film. It has enchanted thousands and swept

TIFF 2016: “Paterson” and “The Human Surge”

Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson — about a bus driver/poet (Adam Driver) named Paterson who lives in Paterson, New Jersey — is

TIFF 2016: “Toni Erdmann” and “Aquarius”

Cinephile culture tends to be suspicious of bigness. For example: big budgets; or an endlessly extending series franchise; or an

TIFF 2016: A Round-Up

Here’s a run-down of the notable films I caught in Toronto. I’ll be writing about some of these in the