On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

 

 Susan Chardy as Shula, the film's star.

See my review of Rungano Nyoni’s film, "On Becoming a Guinea Fowl," in this issue of Cineaste: https://www.cineaste.com/summer2025/on-becoming-a-guinea-fowl

Oscar Winner "No Other Land" Gets No Distribution in the U.S.

In the fall of last year, I had the privilege of interviewing two of the four directors, Palestinian Basel Adra and Israeli Yuval Abraham, who collaborated on No Other Land, a documentary about Masafer Yatta, a cluster of 20 small villages in the occupied West Bank. (My interview was published in Cineaste magazine's last issue.) It was a debut documentary for all of the directors, including Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, who skillfully portrayed the attacks by the Israeli army and Jewish citizens living in illegal settlements; both destroyed homes, schools and in some cases the fields and animals that the villagers' relied on for food and water. 

In the course of the interview both filmmakers expressed the hope that their film, well-received at the New York Film Festival by the majority of critics, would get a New York opening. I felt compelled to explain that it would not happen soon because it was election season. Privately, I was heartbroken at their optimism; I knew there was no hope of a theatrical release here. At least a dozen people had walked out of the festival screening, apparently offended by the documentary. When the screening ended, critics feared speaking to each other. Twenty years ago when controversial films, even ones about Israel, screened at NYFF it inspired thoughtful, respectful discussion.

Wanting to hold out hope, I told Basel and Yuval that a theater would most likely give them the qualifying run they needed for the Oscars. One New York theater and another in Santa Monica booked the film, but No Other Land still lacks wide distribution. I am saddened by this and ashamed for my country that professes to uphold freedom of speech. More than that, I mourn the plight of Palestine.

A DVD of No Other Land could be had on Amazon for several weeks but is now listed as "not available."  

Speaking of free speech and tyranny, Google is preventing me from accessing my photos for this post because it wants me to accept cookies. 

Vivid Memories and My Movies for Black History Month 2025

In February 1968, shortly before MLK was assassinated, a Black anesthesiologist and his family moved into our suburban neighborhood. My family had been the first Spanish-surnamed residents in the all-white development, and we had created quite a stir when we arrived even though we were white. It was the time of a great Puerto Rican migration in New York City. 

At dinner one evening my father said that my mother would be making her Italian Ragu sauce to welcome the newcomers, and that I would be delivering it. I remember how heavy that large glass jar was, but I was rewarded for my effort with an invitation for milk and cookies. While I hoped to find a girl my age among the family's two children, the mom who answered was far younger than my parents and both children were toddlers. Several weeks later, someone burned a cross on their front lawn. 

My father, who rarely cooked (although his skills rivaled my Italian mother's), rose at 5 AM the next morning, Palm Sunday, to make Paella. I proudly walked beside him after church, a time when all of our neighbors were also arriving home, to deliver that Paella to the Black family. They met us on their front porch. I tell this story not to lionize my father or our family because we were only doing what we would have done in the Brooklyn neighborhood where I spent most of my childhood, but because the memory is so vivid, undoubtedly because of the past week's news.

We are in another historic moment when Americans must stand with people of color, and speak out against racism. It is with these thoughts in mind today that I compiled an eclectic mix of some of my favorite movies by Black male and female directors whose subject matter may not be Black history, and Black history films by white filmmakers. In this way, I can celebrate a broad spectrum of Black history and artistry. 

Finding these films on streaming platforms may require a search; I have provided some links, as well as links to my relevant reviews or filmmaker interviews. (It is best to read these after watching a film.) I ask readers to excuse the formats of the latter (mostly links to Google Drive) as they were hastily retrieved off the Internet when Film Journal International, where I was a contributing writer, closed its doors in 2018 and all content disappeared.
 
Haskell Wexler, The Bus (1963) https://vimeo.com/233430879

 
Richard Pearce, The Long Walk Home (1990) (Free for Amazon Prime)

Liz Garbus, et. al, The Farm, Angola, USA (1998) Review: https://bit.ly/4aF5LMo  

 

Carl Franklin, One True Thing (1998) Interview: https://bit.ly/4gpduzJ  (Above still, Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger.
 

Frieder Schlaich, Otomo (1999)
 

Jennifer Dworkin, Love and Diane (2002) Review: https://bit.ly/42EY5YG  
 

Ousmane Sembene, Moolaade (2003) Interview: https://bit.ly/40D6kBX  
 

Lee Hirsch, Amandla: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (2022) https://bit.ly/3CKQtcq
 

Adam Leon, Gimme the Loot (2012) (On Amazon)
 

Raoul Peck, Fatal Assistance (2013) (Best Known for I Am Not Your Negro) Interview: https://bit.ly/3CmOQBR
 

Stanley Nelson, Jr., Freedom Riders (2010); Freedom Summer (2014) Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RunJ8kY3YrA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3iBLkAIpsM
 

Amanda Lipitz, Step, (2017)
 

Kasi Lemmons, Talk to Me (2007), Harriet, (2019) Prime Video, Interview: My Cover Story Interview (https://www.cineaste.com/spring2020/home?rq=Kasi%20Lemmons) appears in several academic databases.

Lisa Cortés, Little Richard: I am Everything (2023) Interview: https://www.allarts.org/2023/04/little-richard-i-am-everything-lisa-cortes/  

As always, thank you for reading.

Blue Skying

I just ditched my X account and created an account at the relatively new social media platform, Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/reelcriticnyc.bsky.social Afterward, I felt better. 

The Power of "NO"

Anyone who knows Pablo Larraín's early work may wonder if his recent bio-pics, Jackie, about the First Lady's life after her husband's assassination and Spencer, a portrait of Princess Diana, were made by another filmmaker with the same name. (Larraín's upcoming film is Maria, about the opera singer Maria Callas.) At the beginning of his career he was celebrated for his haunting, sanguineous tales of unrest in his native Chile. 

Then there was NO (2013), his breakout film, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. That movie is about a political campaign, one that Larraín saw as marking a dramatic shift in the history of his country. It is a riveting film, and I interviewed him for Film Journal International upon its release. Here is the link to that conversation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OkruY0ZPaq2oyW1bVITQauswqr0w24c9/view?usp=sharing

To the right of this column are several more wonderful films you may wish to watch while you fret over the outcome of our presidential race. One of them follows the escapades of a millionaire who decides to run for president, and others are skillfully crafted documentaries. My favorite is Preston Sturges's The Great McGinty.

Internet Archive Rediscovers My Work in its "Way Back Machine"

 

 In the spirit of the "Way Back Machine" here is a photo taken

at MoMA in 2013 after my interview with production designer 

Dante Ferretti and his wife set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo. 

 

 

One of the vagaries of writing for online outlets is that a writer's work can disappear if the magazine or newspaper is sold to another company, or if the outlet decides the work is outdated. That is why hundreds of my reviews, features and blog posts, written as a contributing writer for Film Journal International, are no longer on the Internet. I am delighted to report that five of my interviews found their way into the Internet Archive's "Way Back Machine." If you are a film buff, you know that Internet Archive is the best site for free movies. (These are films with no copyright restrictions, and includes the John Ford masterpiece Stagecoach, 1939.)

 

I am lucky to have some of my work preserved on databases such as Jstor and The Film Index, as my interview with Ferretti and Lo Schiavo is, and many of my other features and reviews, but often my "small film" coverage, usually about art house fare, especially documentaries, are not available.  The loss of of reviews and features written contemporaneously with the film's release are irreplaceable because the writer more accurately contextualizes the movie, identifying its relevance in that historical moment, rather than reviews written retrospectively that view the film quite differently and sometimes inaccurately. 

 

While audiences may discover new meanings in the films of the past, it is the critic's job to judge the writer's and the director's original intent so that the historical record is complete. I hope you will read the following reviews and features on Internet Archive, not solely because it revives my work but because it will encourage the website to continue this wonderful practice that, again, preserves the historical record. I have been writing about film for nearly 30 years, and remain one of few critics with an M.A. in cinema studies. 

"Mrs. Henderson Presents," an interview with Stephen Frears (2006): https://web.archive.org/web/20071016062234/http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/filmmakers/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001806375

 

"Leviathan," an interview with Andrey Zvaginstev (2014): https://web.archive.org/web/20150924004113/http://www.filmjournal.com/content/belly-beast-andrey-zvyagintsevs-acclaimed-leviathan-depicts-one-mans-fight-against

 

"Defying Jihad," an interview with Abderrahmane Sissako (2015): https://web.archive.org/web/20151118024817/http://www.filmjournal.com/content/defying-jihad-abderrahmane-sissako%E2%80%99s-acclaimed-timbuktu-dramatizes-city-under-siege 

 

"Power to the People," an interview with Stanley Nelson (2015): https://web.archive.org/web/20150905231846/http://www.filmjournal.com/features/power-people-stanley-nelson-debuts-timely-chronicle-black-panthers 

 

"The Guardians," an interview with Xavier Beauvois (2018): https://web.archive.org/web/20180504210545/http://www.filmjournal.com/features/women-wartime-xavier-beauvois-guardians-offers-documentary-portrait-wwi-hardship-rural

 

 These articles load slowly, so please be patient.

Miracles and Wonders: Alice Rohrwacher on the Mysteries of "La Chimera"

My interview with Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher for La Chimera (2023) appears in the current issue of Cineaste, a print magazine devoted entirely to film. The writer-director is one of the most original voices in world cinema, and her latest movie is about the leader of a group of grave robbers. Arthur (Josh O'Connor) lives in Italy and was once a scientist, but since the death of his wife, he has lost his way. Arthur's peculiar talent for finding buried antiquities provides some income but the trade of the items he finds is illegal. He subsists mostly on his dreams of his late wife and a fleeting romance with Italia (Carol Duarte) until he and his band uncover objects of inestimable value. Rohrwacher is a thoughtful subject and speaks eloquently in the interview about the cinema and her way of work. 

My Interview with Giuseppe Tornatore for "Ennio"

 

                                                        The Italian composer Ennio Morricone.

Giuseppe Tornatore and the iconic composer Ennio Morricone have been friends since their initial collaboration on Cinema Paradiso (1990). Morricone went on to write music for all of the writer-director's films. Tornatore's comprehensive documentary, "Ennio," that had a recent U.S. theatrical release in New York City, is now streaming. My interview with the filmmaker was published in Ambassador Magazine (https://www.niaf.org/niaf_magazine/ambassador-magazine-vol-35-no-3/), but it's easier to read here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i5EvSsR4mq7qsUcltB5GiKH66OsYjIrk/view?usp=sharing

Alice Rohrwacher's "La Chimera" Gets U.S. Theatrical Release

 

 

 

 The (mostly) Italian band of grave robbers in "La Chimera."

 

Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher's latest film that had its American premier at The New York Film Festival last year will open in the U.S. on March 29th. The film is mentioned in my "Italian Slate" article in Ambassador Magazine: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bZp1gTdqkmPrMxh6EcJMyUm_au7l3Tzc/view?usp=sharing

This is the Season

 

                                            Cameroonian Writer-Director Rosine Mbakam

 Every August and September, film critics are either in Toronto or New York City (or both) for the busiest and most important season for movies. The Toronto Film Festival is the largest in the world by attendance, and while The New York Film Festival is much more intimate, it has grown into an equally prestigious venue for filmmakers. This year the press corps seemed much larger, and for the first time different films were screening at the same time at the festival. 

Most of us attend dozens of screenings, but because critics are also interviewing filmmakers and/or reviewing films on deadline during the festival, it's almost impossible to see all the films we want to see. I am a film columnist for Ambassador, a D.C.-based magazine and have been for over 20 years, but I am also a freelance critic, and film festival press credentials mean a great deal to me and to others who are not on the staff of newspapers and magazines. 

For me, it is a season I look forward to each year. TIFF is terrific, but there is a special quality to the New York Film Festival. It's my hometown, and each year I catch up with NYFF regulars, former college professors, other film critics, and writers who are not necessarily professionals, but whose viewpoints I always want to hear because they are fans, or because they have specialized knowledge. I have one friend who knows everything about Asian films, and another whose encyclopedic memory allows him to immediately name several films that resemble a new movie we have screened. This year, waiting on line (yes, critics and industry do have to wait on line) I met a playwright who had a Broadway debut this year.

It's New York, and you never know who you will meet in the ladies room. Many years ago, it was Nicole Kidman. She is as beautiful as she looks onscreen. 

Here is a link to my interview with Rosine Mbakam, a Cameroonian filmmaker whose "Mambar Pierrette" screens this weekend: https://www.allarts.org/2023/10/mambar-pierrette/

Umberto Eco: A Library of the World

 Courtesy of Cinema Guild

My interview with filmmaker Davide Ferrario for this documentary appears in All Arts, WNET's online magazine: https://www.allarts.org/2023/07/umberto-eco-a-library-of-the-world-documentary/ If you are a New Yorker, you can see it at Film Forum, one of the city's premier art house cinemas. It will stream in the near future. 

Filmmaker Interview: Lisa Cortés

         

Little Richard performing in a mirror-embellished outfit of his own design. (Photo Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

My interview with Ms. Cortés will surprise you: A former music executive, she speaks about her commitment to "colonizing" music documentaries. Read here: https://www.allarts.org/2023/04/little-richard-i-am-everything-lisa-cortes/

A Wonderful Sophomore Feature from Carla Simón

 

                                     Carla Simón, Catalan Filmmaker. (Photo Credit: Xavier Torres-Bacchetta)

My filmmaker interview for Alcarràs just published on All Arts: https://www.allarts.org/2023/02/carla-simon-alcarras/ Like Ms.Simón's debut feature, Summer 1993, Alcarràs is set in Catalonia, the region of Spain where she was born and raised. In the interview, she speaks about her preoccupation with families, and touches upon the social and political issues that are reshaping the rural area depicted in the film.  

All That Breathes

I hope you will read my interview with filmmaker Shaunak Sen for one of the best films of 2022, "All That Breathes": https://www.allarts.org/2022/12/shaunak-sen-documentary-all-that-breathes/ It recounts the story of two brothers who rescue Black Kites, the raptors endemic to their hometown in Delhi, India.

Exact Editions Interviewed Me

This blog for librarians and publishers interviewed me this fall about my career as a film critic and feature writer. Here is the link: https://blog.exacteditions.com/meet-the-contributor-maria-garcia-cineaste/