A Link to my Substack, The Other Gaze

 Here is a link to my review of Maiken Baird's documentary, Edward Said: Between Worlds, that screened at NYFF: https://mariagarciawrites.substack.com/p/edward-said-between-worlds-2026

 It's early fall . . . 

So I'm covering the New York Film Festival, as I have for decades as credentialed press. It was not a banner year, in part because the country is in no mood for celebration on the verge of the midterm elections, and in part because the majority of films ran to 3 1/2 hours or more. I also speak for some of the foreign critics, especially from our neighboring Canada with whom I shared wonderful conversations. On my first day I watched five films and could not remember the first one at the end of that day. 

I felt more keenly this year how privileged a lifestyle I have, although I am among the middle class that are struggling to maintain that status. I rushed from a national park vacation to NYFF and at first felt sorry to be back. One of the early films at the press screenings was Naza. I will never forget the silence in the Walter Reade theater afterward. Most of us remained in our seats for several minutes. I reached for my handkerchief. I found I could not shake off the cold that had seeped into my body. As happens when one is in shock, I remembered something I had long forgotten, a professor of mine who admonished me for displaying emotion after watching a difficult film. It was Marcel Ophuls' classic, The Sorrow and the Pity (1969), that is about Vichy France and the Holocaust. 

I think it was on the minds of many in the room as we witnessed another holocaust unfolding on the screen, not in pictures but in the testimony of members of the Israeli military. Yuval Abraham, the Israeli journalist I interviewed last year for my Cineaste feature on No Other Land, spoke with his subjects on a rooftop at night so that they would remain anonymous. As I write this the film has had its New York premier and may also be screening online. I am not sure how long it will take me to write about it; I have started many times and stopped.

Perhaps this is the shadow that I felt lingering over this year's NYFF. It has not has not diminished. 

 

I'm Birding

It is Spring migration in New York City which means I wake up every morning torn between writing (work) keeping up with social media (work), reading the Times (stressful), or birding (joy). Listening to a Carolina Wren and spotting a kestrel wins out every time.

                                                                    Purple Finch (Male)

     

Just Published

 

My interview with Italian filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, for the documentary Below the Clouds, is in the latest issue of Cineaste, which is a print magazine. The subject of the film is Naples, Italy, its citizens, its institutions, and its over 28,000 year history that shaped Western Civilization. It is not a travelogue, but rather an allegorical film about humankind's collective memory, and our memories, what this generation will leave behind.  

My New York Film Festival Coverage

 

Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti as father and daughter in La Grazia.

 

MY AMBASSADOR CINEMA COLUMN about this year's New York Film Festival published recently. It includes an interview with Paolo Sorrentino for his latest film, La Grazia. Here is the link: https://bit.ly/4qpWMFA

 

Sicilian Letters

Here is a link to my interview with co-directors Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia for their latest feature, Sicilian Letters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fb3F_Qr5FQtY6-rFbC1SmnaXjYjE3-Ub/view?usp=sharing 

The film is based on the true story of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro who committed and ordered horrific crimes, yet escaped capture by authorities for nearly 30 years. 

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