The Film Comment Podcast

Every spring the New Directors/New Films festival at Film at Lincoln Center and MoMA puts on an exciting showcase of movies by the best emerging filmmakers around the world. It?s always a reliable sign of the trends to come and the talents to look out for?past editions have featured early films by Spike Lee, Christopher Nolan, Kelly Reichardt, and others. Over the past few years, Film Comment has established our own annual tradition of previewing the best movies in the New Directors/New Films lineup with local critics. This time around, FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined by Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine) and Alissa Wilkinson (The New York Times) for a rundown of some of the gems in the 2024 edition, including including A Good Place, Dreaming & Dying, The Day I Met You, Explanation for Everything, and more.

In our May-June 2020 issue, the scholar Aboubakar Sanogo wrote of Med Hondo, the late, great Mauritanian-French filmmaker: ?For Hondo, decolonization and independence were not simply a matter of regime change from colonial to postcolonial, but rather a radical geopolitical and avant-gardist project. The cinema had its part to play in the realization of this emancipatory vision by liberating itself from all varieties of dominance, including those of form and tradition.? Hondo?s brilliant and idiosyncratic ouevre is a testament to that emancipatory vision. From his debut feature Soleil O to the grand anti-colonial musical West Indies; from the collaborative immigrant documentary My Neighbors to the anti-police noir Black Light, Hondo?s films are both formally ingenious and politically audacious. On March 22, Anthology Film Archives will kick off a weeklong retrospective of Hondo?s works, including some brand-new restorations. The series is organized by none other than Aboubakar Sanogo, who joined us on today?s episode to discuss Hondo?s life and legacy.

It?s once again that time of year: that?s right, the Academy Awards are just around the corner. Before the winners are revealed on Sunday, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute teamed up with some colleagues from Tinseltown?the editors of the Los Angeles Review of Books?to preview this year?s nominees. Eric Newman, editor-at-large at LARB, and Annie Berke, the publication?s Film & TV editor, joined us for a special collaboration with their podcast, the LARB Radio Hour. We had spirited debates about all the Best Picture nominees?from Oppenheimer to Killers of the Flower Moon to The Holdovers?and also talk about trends, surprises, and snubs. The Los Angeles Review of Books is a reader-supported online magazine and quarterly print journal that publishes incisive, rigorous, and engaging writing on contemporary literature and culture. If you?re interested in supporting their mission, consider becoming a member at lareviewofbooks.org/membership, where you can get access to LARB?s exclusive book club, featuring members-only chats with editors and luminary authors, in addition to a subscription to their quarterly journal.

The 2024 Berlinale wrapped up on Sunday, February 25, after a fortnight of buzzy premieres and fraught political controversies. The Film Comment crew was on the ground throughout the festival, reporting on each day?s goings-on via daily Podcasts, dispatches, interviews and more. On the final Friday of the festival, FC Editor Devika Girish gathered critics Jordan Cronk, Giovanni Marchini Camia, and Beatrice Loayza to discuss a last haul of films from the lineup?including Encounters prizewinner Direct Action, Generation 14plus prizewinner Who By Fire, Victor Kossakovsky?s Architecton, Kazik Radwanski?s Matt & Mara, Christine Angot?s A Family, and Travis Wilkerson?s Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing. Catch up with all our other Berlinale coverage on filmcomment.com?there?s more coming this week!

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we?ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year?s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter here to stay up-to-date. On today?s episode, our fifth from Berlin, FC Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Ela Bittencourt and Frédéric Jaeger to talk about their recent viewing, with a focus on the German cinema at this year?s edition. They discuss Eva Trobisch Ivo, Julia von Heinz?s Treasure, and Andreas Dresen?s From Hilde, with Love, among others, before turning to a selection of films directed by women, including a retrospective of films by Helke Sander, and new films including Christine Angot?s A Family, Nele Wohlatz?s Sleep with Your Eyes Open, and Anja Salomonowitz?s Sleeping with a Tiger. Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we?ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year?s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter here to stay up-to-date. On today?s episode, our fourth from Berlin, FC Editor Devika Girish is joined by an international cadre of programmers and critics made up of Jonathan Ali, Frédéric Jaeger, and Antoine Thirion to talk about Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias?s Pepe, Hong Sangsoo?s A Traveler?s Needs, Malaury Eloi Paisley?s L?homme-vertige, Dag Johan Haugerud?s Sex, Victor Kossakovsky?s Architecton, and Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell?s Direct Action. As if that weren?t enough! This episode also features a special, short interview by FC Publisher (and President of Film at Lincoln Center) Lesli Klainberg with super-producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films, the production company behind two standout hits of 2023, Past Lives and May December. The two dig into the contemporary and historical importance of the Berlinale for American independent film and how Christine is able to adapt her business to ongoing changes in the industry. Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/berlin-2024/

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we?ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year?s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter to stay up-to-date. One of the early and most anticipated premieres of this year?s festival was Olivier Assayas?s new film Suspended Time. It?s a kind of companion piece to his 2008 movie Summer Hours, not to mention his recent TV series Irma Vep, although Suspended Time is the filmmaker?s most direct foray yet into autofiction. The film is based on the time that Assayas spent during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020 confining with his brother Etienne?and their two partners?in their childhood home in the French countryside. The film stars Vincent Macaigne as a thinly veiled onscreen surrogate for Assayas (as in Irma Vep) and features dramatized scenes of the two brothers bonding, clashing, and reminiscing on the ways in which this house and home shaped them as artists and as men. Assayas also weaves interludes throughout the film, narrated by the director himself, in which he reflects on the objects and the landscapes of his youth, and how they?ve influenced his cinema. On today?s Podcast, FC Co-Editor Devika Girish interviewed Assayas about the making of the film, his thoughts on the genre of autofiction, and his relationship with his leading man, Vincent Macaigne, who he describes as an ?agent of chaos.?

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we?ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year?s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter here to stay up-to-date. On today?s episode, our second from Berlin, FC Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Erika Balsom, Giovanni Marchini Camia, and Beatrice Loayza to talk about the political situation in Germany and how it?s affecting the festival, before digging into films including Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor?s No Other Land, Dimitris Athiridis? exergue ? on documenta 14, Bruno Dumont?s The Empire, Ruth Beckermann?s Favoriten, and Diop?s Dahomey. Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/

This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we?ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year?s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter to stay up-to-date. On today?s episode, FC Editors Devika Girish is joined by critics (and FC stalwarts) Jordan Cronk, Jessica Kiang, and Jonathan Romney to talk about the festival's change in leadership, before turning to the cinematic haul of the first couple days, including Tim Mielants?s Small Things Like These, Assayas?s Suspended Time, Alonso Ruizpalacios?s La Cocina, Nicolas Philibert?s At Averroes & Rosa Parks, P. S. Vinothraj?s An Adamant Girl, and Ruth Beckermann?s Favoriten. Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/

The Finnish filmmaker Ilkka Järvi-Laturi, subject of an ongoing retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, made only three features in his life, each of which is maverick in its own right. His 1989 debut, Homebound, is a gritty realist film about a young man struggling to escape a cycle of violence; City Unplugged sets a heist in the wake of Estonia?s independence in the 1990s. And History Is Made at Night, the strangest of the bunch, is an international, star-studded spy-thriller-slash-screwball-comedy set between New York City and Helsinki. The films together represent a unique creative vision?one that combines genre ambitions with a defiantly indie sensibility and unexpected sense of humor. To learn more about Järvi-Laturi?s career, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish invited Steve Macfarlane, one of the curators of the MoMA retrospective, and Hannu Björkbacka, a Finnish critic, to the join Podcast. And if you live in New York, don?t miss the screenings this week at MoMA.

Last week, FC Editor Devika Girish attended the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)?a Dutch festival that, since its inception in 1972, has become known for showcasing independent and experimental cinema by both emerging and established filmmakers. This year was no exception, with a lineup that spanned feature debuts like The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire by Madeleine Hunt-Erlich; wacky American indies like Dream Team; Mario, a new documentary by L.A. Rebellion luminary Billy Woodberry; as well as a robust shorts selection, including Frank Sweeney's Few Can See and Valentin Noujaïm's To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion. To discuss these highlights and more titles to look out for in the coming months, Devika is joined by critics Jordan Cronk and Beatrice Loayza.

It?s January, which means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2024 edition. For the next week, we?ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day?s premieres on the Podcast. On today?s episode, Film Comment Co-Editor Devika Girish is joined by critic and programmer Monica Castillo (The Jacob Burns Film Center) and critics Robert Daniels (RogerEbert.com) and Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker) for a documentary-centric discussion of festival selections including DEVO, Eno, Power, Union, and Soundtrack to a Coup d?Etat, along with the narrative feature Kneecap. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2024/

It?s January, which means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2024 edition. For the next week, we?ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day?s premieres on the Podcast. On today?s episode, Film Comment Co-Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Justin Chang (Los Angeles Times), Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker), and FC contributor Madeline Whittle to discuss festival selections A Different Man, A Real Pain, Sujo, Good One, and Black Box Diaries. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2024/

It?s January, which means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2024 edition. For the next week, we?ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day?s premieres on the Podcast. Today, Film Comment Co-Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Abby Sun (Documentary), Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker), and FC contributor Madeline Whittle to discuss festival selections War Game, Realm of Satan, Love Lies Bleeding, Presence, Stress Positions, Girls Will Be Girls, and more. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2024/

It?s January, which means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2024 edition. For the next week, we?ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day?s premieres on the Podcast. Today, Film Comment Co-Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Robert Daniels (rogerebert.com), Guy Lodge (Variety), and FC contributor Madeline Whittle to discuss their recent viewing, including I Saw the TV Glow, It?s What?s Inside, Between the Temples, Love Me, and Brief History of a Family. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2024/

It?s January, which means that your intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the scene in snowy Park City, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of the 2024 edition. For the next week, we?ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day?s premieres on the Podcast. To kick things off, Film Comment co-editor Devika Girish invited critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter) and Guy Lodge (Variety) to chat about the films we caught during the first few days of the fest?including Freaky Tales, Handling the Undead, Skywalker: A Love Story, Girls State, God Save Texas: Hometown Prison, and Ghostlight. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/sundance/sundance-2024/

More than thirty years ago, director Nancy Savoca premiered what the New York Times described as a ?miracle? of a film. Household Saints was adapted from a novel by Francine Prose about three generations of an Italian-American family navigating faith and modernity in post?World War II New York City. The movie brought together an incredible ensemble cast, including Tracey Ullman, Vincent D?Onofrio, Lili Taylor, and Michael Imperioli, and told a strange and charming tale of fanatically headstrong women who were unlike any other characters to grace the movie screens of the 1990s. It all begins when Joseph, a handsome butcher (D?Onofrio), wins the stubborn Catherine (Ullman) as his wife in a game of pinochle. The first half of the film follows their relationship, which is plagued by the superstitions of Joseph?s bitter mother, while the second half follows their daughter, Teresa (Taylor), who becomes consumed by a saintly devotion to a Catholic God. Last year, after a long and arduous effort to recover and restore the movie?s materials, a new restoration premiered at the New York Film Festival, and introduced contemporary audiences to what still feels like a cinematic novelty. With a restored Household Saints in theaters now, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish interviewed Savoca and her star, Vincent D?Onofrio, to talk about making the film, how they infused it with their own Italian-American upbringing, and the daring mix of sex and religion that the movie explores.

Every January, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute like to take stock of holiday multiplex offerings with an episode they call "New Year, New Releases." For the 2024 edition, they invited FC podcast veteran Alissa Wilkinson, staff critic at the New York Times, and first-time guest Robert Daniels, an editor at RogerEbert.com. They started off this year?s haul with a pair of sports movies about bad dads and the perils of masculinity: The Iron Claw, directed by Sean Durkin, about the Von Erich family of pro-wrestlers; and Ferrari, by Michael Mann, about Enzo Ferrari, and his F1 racing ambitions. Then they discussed the new book-to-movie-to-stage-to-movie adaptation, The Color Purple, and The Book of Clarence, a befuddling Jesus comedy starring Lakeith Stanfield.

Last night, Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish headed a panel of special guests?Bilge Ebiri (critic, Vulture), and Amy Taubin (critic and FC contributing editor)?for a real-time countdown of the films topping our year-end critics? poll. The evening featured a lively discussion (and some hearty debate) about the films as they were unveiled?and now it?s here in Podcast form, for your home-listening pleasure. Consider it a holiday gift from us to you, our loyal listeners. Read the full list, plus Best Undistributed Films, individual ballots, and more, here: https://www.filmcomment.com/best-films-of-2023/

In the epigraph to his new book, writer-slash-film programmer-slash-performance artist Stanley Schtinter succinctly describes his project: ?Last Movies is a dedication to the absence of choice, to chance. If there is any bias in the cast-list it is a bias coded into the tell-ing of the first century of cinema (that I parasitise); the result, a forensic of the last earthly dance of a star, and the pause they took (if indeed they did) to catch a movie.? Conceived of as both a writing project and an epic durational film program, Last Movies explores the seemingly morbid subject of the final films watched by a selection of twentieth century luminaries. Delving into the lives and ultimate viewings of figures from Franz Kafka to John F. Kennedy to Kurt Cobain to the Heaven?s Gate cult, the book maps a strange and surprising cultural history from a seemingly arbitrary scatter plot. Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute sat down with Schtinter and critic Erika Balsom, who wrote the book?s forward, to discuss the many layers of Last Movies, how the project is actually life-affirming, why the author dressed up like a cop for a recent Q&A in London, and much more. Last Movies is available now from Tenement Press: https://tenementpress.com/Last-Movies

This year?s Berlinale saw the filmmaking debut of acclaimed philosopher Paul B. Preciado with the feature, Orlando, My Political Biography. Born in Spain and based in France, Preciado is the author of a number of groundbreaking texts about gender and sexuality?including his 2008 work of "auto-theory," Testo Junkie, in which Preciado weaves reflections on his experience of taking testosterone with ruminations on how the body and its desires are formulated, controlled, and regulated by society. Precaido?s first film is as much of an exuberant formal invention as that book was. He was invited to make a documentary about his life, and instead, enlisted a diverse ensemble of trans individuals to interpret their lives through the text of Virginia Woolf?s 1928 novel, Orlando: A Biography, which details the centuries-spanning adventures of an aristocrat who magically changes gender overnight. Blurring the boundaries between self and other, documentary and fiction, fantasy and reality, and past and present, Preciado crafts a work that explodes binaries not only in content, but also in form. On today's episode, Film Comment editor Devika Girish interviews Preciado about the making of Orlando, My Political Biography, his decision to make a collective portrait rather than a biopic, and about the violence that cinema has inflicted on trans people across history?and how we can use moving images to pave the path for a different future. Orlando, My Political Biography is currently in theaters.

After a three-year hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2023 Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival returned this year with a new curatorial team and a robust lineup of independent and art-house work from all over South Asia and beyond. One of the major international film festivals in the region, MAMI (as it is colloquially known) is a unique combination of corporate glitz and die-hard indie cinephilia. Sponsored in large part by Reliance Industries, the company owned and run by the richest family in India, and boasting major Bollywood figures on its board, the festival is nevertheless an oasis for formally and politically bold filmmaking in a cultural landscape dominated by commercial blockbusters and constrained by censorship policies. Devika attended the festival for the first time this year, as did curator and Film Comment contributor Inney Prakash. On today?s episode, they discuss their experience in Mumbai and some of the highlights of the South Asia selection, including The World Is Family by Anand Patwardhan, Against the Tide by Sarvnik Kaur, Which Colour? by Shahrukhkhan Chavada, a program of short films by Amit Dutta, and more.

Midway through the new documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything, actor and singer Billy Porter says something that distills one of the film?s major themes: ?In the face of insurmountable challenges, sometimes simply existing is a revolutionary act.? The film, directed by the multi-hyphenate filmmaker Lisa Cortés, tells the story of one of the great American artists, a global celebrity whose simple existence as a Queer Black man was a direct challenge to the status quo. A studied deep dive into the archive, filled with incendiary performances and biographical detail, I Am Everything is also a challenge to pop music history, and an effort to finally afford Little Richard his place as both the progenitor of rock ?n? roll and a groundbreaking cultural force unto himself. Film Comment?s Clinton Krute spoke with Cortés about the contradictory nature of a man who swung between libertine impulses and religious conviction his entire life, how she reads his work and life as a utopian and cosmic project, and her own remarkable and varied career in the entertainment industry.

It?s once again that time of year when ghosts, ghouls, and goblins are on the prowl. That?s right: it?s Halloween. And as much as we are scared to admit it, that means it?s also time for another Halloween Hangover episode of the Film Comment Podcast, where co-editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute confront one of their greatest fears?horror movies?with the help of some masters of the macabre. For this year?s festivities, they invited two horror experts to inflict some fear?FC contributor Nicholas Russell, and Clyde Folley, curator of the ?90s Horror series currently haunting the Criterion Channel. The two selected a pair of freaky favorites: Abel Ferrara?s Body Snatchers, an early-?90s remake of the classic sci-fi chiller, and Michael Powell?s 1960 serial killer masterpiece, Peeping Tom. Where Powell?s film lived up to its reputation as an endlessly fascinating text, rich with commentary on the inherent violence of visual culture, Ferrara?s streamlined variation on an oft-told tale opened up surprising questions about identity, family, and conformity. Listen to the end for some bonus, bone-chilling picks!

The 61st New York Film Festival closed up shop last weekend, which means that it was once again time for Film Comment?s Festival Report, our annual live overview of the NYFF that was. FC co-deputy editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute convened an all-star team of critics?Molly Haskell, Adam Nayman, and Kelli Weston?for a spirited wrap-up discussion about the highlights and lowlights from the NYFF60 lineup. In front of a lively audience, the panel discuss and debate Todd Haynes?s May December, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi?s Evil Does Not Exist, Jonathan Glazer?s The Zone of Interest, Bradley Cooper?s Maestro, Bertrand Bonello?s The Beast, Sofia Coppola?s Priscilla, Thien An Pham?s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Yorgos Lanthimos?s Poor Things, and and many other noteworthy selections. Find all of our coverage of NYFF61 here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/nyff/nyff-2023/

?Every film is a documentary of its own making,? Jacques Rivette famously said, pointing to the mix of fabrication and truth that lies at the heart of every movie. As images increasingly permeate our lives, these questions are ever more complex. What constitutes truth when the camera intervenes? How do we decide to accept?or question?what we see? Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined on stage at the 61st New York Film Festival by World Records editor Jason Fox and NYFF61 filmmakers Kleber Mendonça Filho (Pictures of Ghosts), Rosine Mbakam (Mambar Pierrette), and Frederick Wiseman (Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros) for a discussion about the ways in which filmmakers engage both documentary and narrative techniques to invite and challenge viewers? trust in images. This panel expanded on the ideas in Trust Issues, a new audio series by World Records. Watch a video of this event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cH06adWHQs

As this year?s historic strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild?American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have shaken up the entertainment industry and film festivals, they?ve brought to the forefront a truth sometimes elided by cinema?s glamorous facade: that movies are made by workers. In a business increasingly dominated by massive corporations, what is the role?and value?of the labor of acting, writing, and other craftswork? This panel?moderated by Film Comment editor Devika Girish and FC contributor Madeline Whittle?brought together Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (President, WGA East), Rebecca Damon (SAG-AFTRA Executive Director, New York Local), and Alissa Wilkinson (Senior Correspondent, Vox) for a deep-dive into the circumstances that led to the strikes, the needs of actors and writers working in Hollywood today, and the history and contemporary role of labor organizing in the American film industry.

?To be Black is the greatest fiction of my life. Yet I?m still bound to its myth.? The filmmaker and photographer RaMell Ross shares this excerpt from an artist statement in a conversation with Jason Fox, the editor of nonfiction journal World Records, in a new audio series called Trust Issues. Produced by World Records, the series explores how images can both bring us together and alienate us from each other. The first episode, featuring RaMell, focuses on the historical role of nonfiction cinema in teaching us to see, inhabit, and police race. How do documentaries both reflect and actively reshape the lived experiences of people of color? Last week, at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, Devika moderated a panel discussion with Jason, RaMell, and Milisuthando Bongela (director of CIFF selection Milisuthando) expanding on some of the core ideas of the series?including the responsibilities of the maker, the critic, and the viewer in how nonfiction images construct and reinforce ideas of racial difference. Listen to the end for a surprise cameo from the filmmaker Kirsten Johnson! P.S.: This conversation was recorded live with an audience. Please excuse the occasionally spotty audio quality!

We?re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year?s festival, we?ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests. For our fourth (and final!) podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter) and Alex Barasch (The New Yorker) to talk about festival selections Kristoffer Borgli?s Dream Scenario, Anna Kendrick?s Woman of the Hour, Ellen Kuras's Lee, Cord Jefferson?s American Fiction, and many more.

We?re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year?s festival, we?ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests. For our second podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by local critics Adam Nayman (The Ringer, Cinema Scope, and elswhere) and Saffron Maeve (Cinema Scope and elsewhere). They kick things if with a focus on Canadian films, including Atom Egoyan?s Seven Veils, Chloé Robichaud?s Days of Happiness, and Michael Snow?s Standard Time, before expanding their scope to encompass Cord Jefferson?s American Fiction, Pedro Almódovar?s Strange Way of Life, and Bertrand Bonello?s The Beast. Watch this space for more podcasts from TIFF 2023.

We?re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year?s festival, we?ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests. For our second podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Adam Nayman (The Ringer, Cinemascope, and elswhere)and Chloe Lizotte (MUBI Notebook and elsewhere) to talk about festival selections Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Evil Does Not Exist, Dumb Money, and The Boy and the Heron. Watch this space for more podcasts from TIFF 2023.

We?re reporting this week from one of the major film events of the fall: the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 7 to 17. Throughout this year?s festival, we?ll be on the ground, covering all the highlights (and lowlights) from the lineup with a rotating crew of critics and special guests. For our first podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by Film at Lincoln Center programmer Madeline Whittle and critic Mark Asch to talk about Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, The Human Surge 3, Laberint Sequences, God Is a Woman, and The Mother of All Lies. Watch this space for more podcasts from TIFF 2023!

Film Comment just happens to be next-door neighbors with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, whose film and video collection is filled with treasures. On August 31, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute invited our neighbors over for a special, Labor Day?themed screening of 16mm shorts from the NYPL?s collection. The program was curated by Elena Rossi-Snook, the film specialist at the library, who chose four fascinating shorts that captured microhistories of labor organizing across different industries in the ?60s and ?70s. The films offered a window into the history of the American labor movement and also spoke to the worker struggles currently roiling the film industry. To dig into the films and these themes, Devika and Clint sat down after the screening with Elena and filmmaker Brett Story, who reflected on her own experience making a forthcoming film about unionizing efforts at an Amazon facility in Staten Island. For more on the films screened, check out the event page, here: https://www.filmlinc.org/events/film-comment-live-labor-day-with-the-nypl/

At this year?s Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Film Comment participated in a fascinating experimental event called ?A Long Night of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence.? Curated by Rafael Dernbach in collaboration with the Università della Svizzera italiana and Locarno Film Festival BaseCamp, the event began at sunset on August 9 and ended at sunrise on August 10, and involved a series of talks and workshops about the many connotations of ?intelligence,? how A.I. is changing our relationships to ourselves and the world, and how dreams may offer up keys to our future. The event was co-hosted by Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish. This week?s episode is an excerpt from her moderating shift, featuring a conversation with A.I. scholar Andrea Rizzoli and critic Kevin B. Lee, Locarno Film Festival Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts, about the history of artificial intelligence, and its limitations and possibilities vis-à-vis art. Check out last week?s episode for another excerpt from ?A Long of Dreaming About the Future of Intelligence,? featuring Stanford University scholar Shane Denson on the brave new world of ?post-cinema.?

At this year?s Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, Film Comment participated in a fascinating experimental event called ?A Long Night of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence.? Curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Università della Svizzera italiana, the event began at sunset on August 9 and ended at sunrise on August 10, and involved a series of talks and workshops about the many connotations of ?intelligence,? how A.I. is changing our relationships to ourselves and the world, and how dreams may offer up keys to our future. The event was co-hosted by Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish. This week?s episode is an excerpt from her moderating shift, featuring a lecture and Q&A with Shane Denson, a Stanford University scholar who explores the terrain of ?post-cinema??the brave new world of digital images untethered to classical notions of time, space, and reality. Check back next week for another episode from ?A Long of Dreaming about the Future of Intelligence,? featuring A.I. scholar Andrea Rizzoli and critic Kevin B. Lee.

Over the course of his storied career, filmmaker Steve James has delved into the many ways in which individuals?frequently residents of his native Chicago?are subject to the whims of history, society, and life itself. Whether detailing the struggles of young athletes in his watershed 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams, the heroic efforts of anti-violence activists in 2011?s The Interrupters, or the daily experience of high schoolers in his 2018 series America to Me, James has combined sharp social analysis with striking warmth and sympathy for his subjects. His latest documentary, A Compassionate Spy, might seem on the surface to be a departure. The film tells the story of Ted Hall, a physics prodigy who, at age 18, was invited to join the Manhattan Project. Perceptive beyond his years, Hall found himself haunted by the implications of his work and, in 1944, made the decision to share nuclear secrets with the Soviet Union. As compelling as this tale of espionage is, James?s film becomes, in the director?s words, ?a love story,? with Ted?s widow Joan taking center stage as she recounts their life together, sharing the burden of her husband?s secret. For today?s episode, Film Comment editor Clinton Krute called up the director to discuss the impetus behind A Compassionate Spy, the film?s surprising use of recreations, and how Ted Hall?s fascinating story might complement?or offer a counter to?the themes of a certain summer blockbuster about atomic weapons. (Hint: it?s not Barbie.)

If you?re a follower of contemporary world cinema, chances are, you?re a fan of Franz Rogowski. Known for his distinctive screen presence and extraordinary physicality, the German actor has blazed a trail through some of the most well-regarded movies of the last few years, including Michel Haneke?s Happy End, Christian Petzold?s Transit and Undine, Terrence Malick?s A Hidden Life, Angela Schanelec?s I Was At Home, But?, to name only a few. His latest role is as the lead in Passages, a new film by Ira Sachs. Rogowski stars Tomas, a diva-esque filmmaker and very indecisive queer man, who vacillates erratically between his husband, played by Ben Whishaw, and a new love interest, played by Adele Exarchopoulos. It?s a role of chaotic contradictions that seems made for Rogowski: Tomas is self-absorbed, brilliant, repulsive, sexy, vulnerable, and malicious all at once?and Rogowski brings to him a truly unselfconscious, combustible sense of humanity. For today?s episode, Film Comment co-editor Devika Girish called up Rogowski on Zoom to chat about his inspirations as an actor and how he crafted his firecracker performance in Passages. Please note that because Rogowski is not a member of SAG-AFTRA, he is not currently on strike.

Christopher Nolan?s blockbuster Oppenheimer, a biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the key leaders of the Manhattan Project, has sold out movie theaters all over the country. With its three-hour runtime, notoriously large 70mm IMAX reels, and star-stuffed cast, it is nothing less than an epic. The film spans nearly four decades, from Oppenheimer?s days as a physics student in Europe, to his time teaching at UC Berkeley during World War II, to his days developing the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Laboratory, and, subsequently, to the investigation into his possible communist ties during the McCarthy era. Amid all that plot is plenty of awe-inspiring spectacle and musings on the ethics of war and the perils of genius. On today?s episode, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute are joined by Film at Lincoln Center programmer Madeline Whittle and critic Mark Asch for a discussion about Nolan?s opus. The group was evenly split between fans and skeptics, and the result was a lively conversation?which, of course, is what the movies are all about.

Last February, the magazine The New Republic invited a host of film critics to participate in a new poll, curated by esteemed critic and longtime Film Comment contributor J. Hoberman: a list of the 100 Most Significant Political Films of All Time. Not best or favorite political films, mind you?most significant. The New Republic unveiled the results of the poll on June 22, along with an essay by Hoberman analyzing the results. Topped by The Battle of Algiers, the final list is both a fascinating snapshot of what political cinema means to critics today, and the limits of such exercises in ascertaining consensus. On today?s podcast, we invited Jim for a deep-dive into the impetus behind the poll; the surprises, disappointments, and notable entries in the list, from The Birth of a Nation to La Chinoise to Hour of the Furnaces to All the President's Men; and how notions of political cinema have changed over time. For show notes and a list of the movies discussed, go to filmcomment.com/podcast.

Musician, filmmaker, and  wearer of (many) hats Boots Riley has a new series streaming on Amazon Prime Video, called I?m a Virgo. It?s as bizarre, serious, and original as his breakout feature, 2018?s Sorry to Bother You, a workplace comedy set in a telemarketing office that unfurls as a scathing satire of life under late capitalism. I?m a Virgo is also about the urgent need to redistribute wealth, though it begins as a strange, sweet coming-of-age tale about a 13-foot-tall Black man named Cootie, played by Jharrel Jerome. Having been raised in hiding by his protective aunt and uncle, Cootie stumbles, in the series's opening, into a world of drugs, sex, and radical politics with a ragtag crew of youngsters, navigating an Oakland that is only slightly more dystopian than reality. Riley draws on a wide range of sources, from comic books and superhero movies to T.V. commercials and socialist propaganda, for a tale that is as much a furious critique of the failures of capitalism as it is a rollicking joyride. (There?s also cameo from Slavoj Zizek.)  Riey joined us for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the CIA funding of Abstract Expressionism, the history of the Communist Party of the USA, the Writers Guild of America strike, and the challenge of making politically engaged art in an industry dominated by corporations.

This week, we take a peek into the world of Robert M. Rubin, a New York?based collector of film scripts. An architectural and art historian by trade, Bob began buying rare and historical significant screenplays seriously in the 1990s, and has now amassed an archive of what he calls ?exformation??that is, the ephemera that was often discarded in the process of moviemaking, but now reveals hidden and forgotten histories.  Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish sat down with Bob and bibliographer Erin McGuirl, who manages the collection, to leaf through some of these treasures. These include variant copies of classics like Citizen Kane and Notorious, editor Louis Lombardo?s working scripts for Robert Altman?s films, Ben Gazzara?s personal copies of the script for The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and much more. They delved into the ways in which this material?with its pictures, notations, and scribbles?challenges our understanding of auteurism and sheds light on the crucial roles played by script supervisors, secretaries, and writers in Hollywood. Stay tuned for supplementary photos of the collection, included in this week?s edition of The Film Comment Letter. Subscribe here: https://www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

You may know Trinh T. Minh-ha from her groundbreaking films, like Reassemblage (1982) and Sur Name Viet Given Name Nam (1989); from her foundational books, like Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality on Feminism (1989) and When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural Politics (1991); or her wide-ranging scholarship and multimedia projects, which have been presented at museums and institutions worldwide. In a body of work spanning decades, the multi-hyphenate theorist and artist has challenged and reshaped how we think of documentary, visual culture, feminism, nationalism, and race. A new artist book by Minh-ha, titled The Twofold Commitment, traces all of these threads in her film Forgetting Vietnam, which was released in 2015, 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War. Published by Primary Information, the book features the film?s script, paired with creatively arranged stills, as well as conversations between Minh-ha and various scholars. To mark the launch of The Twofold Commitment in May, Minh-ha joined us on the podcast for a rich discussion about the genesis of the book; the different functions of voice, text, and image in her practice; how she turns familiarity and alienness into productive ways of looking at the world; and more.

If you've been following the podcast and the Film Comment Letter, you'll know that for the last two weeks, we've been reporting from the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Before the festival ended last Sunday, Devika Girish, Co-Deputy Editor of FC, gathered Justin Chang, Dennis Lim, and Rachel Rosen?all of whom serve on the selection committee of the New York Film Festival?for a look back at the Cannes that was. As experienced festival veterans, the three reflected on the trends of this year's festival, including the preponderance of long films, experiments with historical representation, and hybrids of fiction and documentary. They also discussed some of the festival's late premieres, including films by Catherine Breillat and Hong Sangsoo. We hope you enjoy the conversation?and keep your eyes on filmcomment.com for more Cannes wrap coverage, coming later this week: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/cannes/cannes-2023/

Cannes 2023 has wrapped?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. As the tide of cinema ebbs from the shores of the Riviera, FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish was joined by Frédéric Jaeger (editor at critic.de and programmer), Caitlin Doherty (editor at the New Left Review), and critic James Wham to discuss later-day standouts including Alice Rohrwacher?s La chimera, Ken Loach?s The Old Oak, Wim Wenders?s Perfect Days, Nuri Bilge Ceylan?s About Dry Grasses, Tran Anh Hung?s The Pot-au-Feu, and more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 is here?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For our latest episode from the shores of the Riviera, critics Mark Asch, Miriam Bale, and Kevin B. Lee join FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish for a discussion of their recent festival viewing, through which they trace a thematic thread of performance. The four touch on Justine Triet?s Anatomy of a Fall, Wes Anderson?s Asteroid City, Víctor Erice?s Close Your Eyes, Martin Scorsese?s Killers of the Flower Moon, Aki Kaurismäki?s Fallen Leaves, Wei Shujun?s Only the River Flows, Kleber Mendonça Filho?s Pictures of Ghosts, and more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 is here?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. On today?s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish is joined by Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival, for a special joint interview with Todd Haynes, whose new film, May December, is one of the unanimous favorites of this year?s lineup. The film was inspired by one of the great scandals of the 1990s: Julianne Moore plays Gracie, a woman who, twenty years ago, was convicted of having an affair with a 13-year-old, a lover (played by Charles Melton) with whom she now lives a cozy married life. Natalie Portman plays an actress who arrives at Gracie?s home to do research for a movie based on the affair and starts probing into the couple?s lives, slowly pulling down bother both their and her own façades. Haynes turns the tabloid-fodder source of the script into a remarkably witty, dark, and intelligent meditation on the ways in which we construct and consume identity. Devika and Dennis talked to Haynes about his references for the movie, his thoughts on the term camp, why he loves zooms, and much more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 is here?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. Our latest episode covers Cannes 2023 as it crosses the midpoint, with critics Lovia Gyarkye, Abby Sun, and Kelli Weston joining FC Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish to discuss some of the festival?s buzziest films, including Martin Scorsese?s Killers of the Flower Moon, Todd Haynes?s May December, Joanna Arnow?s The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Molly Manning Walker?s How to Have Sex, and more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 is here?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. On our latest episode from sunny shores of Southern France, critics Jonathan Romney and Giovanni Marchini Camia join FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish to discuss two of the festivals most fascinating films: Jonathan Glazer?s much-anticipated The Zone of Interest, and Lisandro Alonso?s mysterious western Eureka. Listeners be advised: spoilers abound?along with our critics? typically insightful, in-depth analysis. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

On today?s episode, FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish sits down with Oscar-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen, whose new documentary Occupied City was one of the early standouts at the festival. It?s a more than four-hour opus that combines a voiceover drawn from a book written by Bianca Stigter, McQueen?s collaborator and spouse, about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, with footage of the city shot by McQueen in the last three years. The result is a haunting superimposition of the past and the present that makes us think about the ways in which the spaces we occupy today are resonant with history. Devika talked to McQueen about the genesis of the film, the experience of making it during the pandemic, and why it feels so crucial to revisit history right now. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2023 is here?and as news of standing ovations and walkouts, throwaway raves and pans, spit takes and hot takes flood the feed, we?ll be reporting on all the cinematic goings-on, with our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts. For our second episode from the Riviera, critics Beatrice Loayza and James Wham and programmer and critic Inney Prakash join FC co-deputy editor Devika Girish discuss some recently screened high-, low-, and in-between?lights, including Sean Price Williams?s The Sweet East, Hirokazu Kore-eda?s Monster, Wim Wenders?s Anselm, and Wang Bing?s epic Youth (Spring). Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter today for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2023 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/