Month: November 2020

For two weeks in October 2020, Nigel Larkin’s truck traveled back and forth between the Hull Maritime Museum and his conservation workshop, several hours away, carrying load after load of precious cargo. There was the large tuna skeleton and assorted whale skeletons, among them a narwhal nearly nine feet long and a sperm whale jaw…

I am proud to announce that two documentaries which I champion (and executive produce) are nominees at the 5th annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!,” an illuminating profile of the groundbreaking television show hosted by the director’s uncle, Ellis Haizlip, received five nominations including Best Documentary Feature, Best First Documentary Feature, Best Archival Documentary, Best Historical/Biographical…

In 1829, head of state Ioannis Kapodistrias made Nafplio the official capital of the newly independent Greece. After Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831, many parts of the country fell into anarchy. The nations that assisted Greece in their struggle for independence, Britain, France, and Russia, intervened and held a series of meetings on what was…

Jagshemash! While the legacy of Borat Sagdiyev started, for most, in 2006 at the first glance of neon green swimming apparel and an odd conglomerate accent, legendary comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen actually premiered his other half a decade earlier on Da Ali G Show. While Borat as an entity has been around for two…

The Fontana dell’Acqua Felice or Fountain of Moses is a large monumental fountain in Rome, which marks the end of the Acqua Felice aqueduct. Completed during the 1580s, the inauguration of this aqueduct was a historic event as it was the first new aqueduct constructed in Rome in many centuries. The name derives from the…

Despite not being a single continuous road, the Cedar Avenue of Nikkō is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest tree-lined avenue in the world. It’s also the only cultural property designated by the Japanese government as both a Special Historic Site and a Special Natural Monument. After the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the…

Named for the pink lawn ornaments that make up the exhibit, the Flamingo House is open to the public and is a continuously rotating outdoor display of flamingos in a suburb of Austin, Texas. The owners invite visitors to wander amongst the various displays located on their front lawn.  Created in March of 2020, the…

Disney’s heroines continue to be their own heroes in Raya and the Last Dragon. The animation king has gotten better about making their female characters proactive in recent years, but their long, storied history gives them plenty of room to backslide. That’s why it’s still refreshing to see them offer up something like Raya, which promises…

Luisenfriedhof II is one of the oldest cemeteries in Berlin and was opened in 1867. It’s known as a cemetery of epidemics and is historically connected with the cholera epidemic that hit Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1831. The area is based in the middle of urban structures, but still offers the feeling of a green oasis. Whoever…

Crossing the Streams is our monthly look at all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month, and this time we’re checking out the new Amazon Prime arrivals for November 2020. This month’s titles include five new Steve McQueen films, great movies from Charles Bronson and Jack Nicholson, and more!  Amazon Prime Pick of…

★★★ Directed by #JoeMarcantonio Written by #JoeMarcantonio #JasonMcColgan Starring #TamaraLawrance #FionaShaw #JackLowden ,,Film Review by ,,Hope Madden It’s incredibly hard to make a film that feels fresh. Hell, it’s hard to get a film greenlit unless you can describe it to potential financers as a cross between something they’ve seen and something else they’ve seen….

Director David Lugo has a warning for the mainstream media. Citizen journalists are coming, ready to counter the false narratives peddled by the press. In a way, Lugo is part of that movement. His new film, “Antifa: Rise of the Black Flags,” captures the threats posed by what one presidential candidate flippantly called an “idea.”…

Like so many things in life, David Lynch‘s filmography is an acquired taste. He’s written and directed 10 surrealistic features navigating the gamut of genres from sci-fi epic (Dune) to murder mystery (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me) and biopic (The Elephant Man, The Straight Story). However, Lynch is known for more than…

It’s quite fascinating when you realize that Cooper Raiff was just 22 when he directed, wrote, acted in, and co-edited his debut feature Shithouse, a gentle and heartwarming college dramedy which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at this year’s South by Southwest. But to solely focus on his age would actually dismiss…

“I pointed my camera at people mostly who needed someone to say something for them… They couldn’t speak for themselves.” I love a good short film that makes me audibly gasp “wow” when watching – and this one did. What Gordon Parks Saw is a fascinating look at the photography of legendary artist / novelist…

One of the world’s most unique and historically significant landmarks can be found tucked away in the northeastern region of Louisiana. Poverty Point was settled by indigenous peoples more than 3,000 years ago over a period of 600 years. Characterized by earthen mounds oriented in a concentric half-circle formation, this UNESCO World Heritage Site was…

This year I was fortunate enough to be reached out to cover a film festival that has never been on my radar. The San Diego Asian Film Festival was founded in 2000 and has been operating as a low-key but important venue for featuring many of the year’s overlooked films by Asian filmmakers. When I…

Geology, history, recreation, public art, and natural wonder can all found on an acre of granite and sand known as Sharp’s Island. The Piedmont meets the Coastal Plain along the James River, with north-south rapids bisecting the island. The area makes for amazing fishing, especially during the spring. Members of the Sharp family lived on…

When the Wainwright State Office Building was completed in 1891, it towered ten floors over the city of St. Louis and won the praise of critics and passersby alike. The exterior of the building is composed of terra cotta. The design was the brainchild of  Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Commissioned by Ellis Wainwright, who was a St. Lous…

Until 1976, the extent of this Iron Age hill fort at the summit of Sunnyhill near Clun in Shropshire, England was unknown. When a massive storm in 1976 removed many of the trees at the summit, the importance of the site was revealed. Multiple rings of ditches and embankments were revealed and heightened the historic…

Pandemic content is here with Songbird, the latest from co-writer and director Adam Mason. Few people were asking for pandemic content. After the world shut down and we all watched Contagion everyone seemed to drift to more feel-good material, trying to get our minds off the strange world we’ve existed in for much of 2020. But…

A stroll through the historic town of Kingston upon Thames, now part of London, may lead curious visitors to a dozen phone boxes leaning against one another like a set of dominoes.  This art installation is known as “Out of Order” by David Mach and was installed in 1989. While it’s not quite as iconic…

Crossing the Streams is our monthly look at all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month, and this time we’re checking out the new Shudder arrivals for November 2020. This month’s titles include a documentary on The Exorcist, a collection of Mario Bava films, the terrifically titled Blood Vessel, and more! The list…

Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for November 3rd, 2020! This week’s…

★★ Directed by #AlastairOrr Written by #DavidDJones Starring #LieslAhlers #ReineSwart #SeanCameronMichael ,,Film Review by ,,Rachel Willis If you’re looking for a not-so-scary, violent, sort-of funny horror film this post-Halloween, Triggered might be for you. Director Alistair Orr’s (Indigenous) latest effort starts with a violent opening, but quickly shifts focus to nine twentysomethings camping in a…

To love is to be able to let go. The premise, so often employed by all manners of artistic expression, is at the beating heart of Harry Macqueen’s sophomore feature, Supernova. Centered around Sam (Colin Firth) and Tusker (Stanley Tucci), an aging couple facing the latter’s dementia diagnosis, Supernova lovingly ponders on the preciousness of…

Each episode of Hannah Fidell‘s steamy and messy miniseries A Teacher (based on her much better movie of the same name) opens with a content warning: “This series contains sexual situations as well as depictions of grooming that may be disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.” Considering the subject matter explored in the story — a…

“Back then, we really thought we had more time… [But now the] climate has reached a global crisis point.” Time for everyone to wake up and make real change to save our planet. This isn’t really a short film, per se, but it is a short doc film and it certainly has some impressive filmmaking…

Edouard Pignon was a French painter whose artwork explored interwoven subjects such as the working class, boat-sails, tree trunks, and the horrors of war. Many of his works are considered commentaries on social and political issues. A close friend of painter Pablo Picasso, Pignon frequently exhibited his work in France and abroad. In 1976 in…

The moment I realized Wes Anderson had become a major figure in American film was when I met a partygoer in 2005 who told me “Rushmore” (1998) was his favorite film. It wasn’t what he said but how he said it: I listened to this early-twenty-something man share, with tears in his eyes, how Bill…

Nearly 35 years ago, an 18-year-old Laura Dern broke through in a big way with her striking starring role in the coming-of-age drama Smooth Talk. Directed by Joyce Chopra from a script by Tom Cole, the film is a loose adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”,…

The Old and New Town districts of Edinburgh are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. As of 2020, they are two of 27 cultural areas in Great Britain to be given this honor. The city was bestowed with this significant distinction in 1995. It’s not surprising that millions of visitors flock here every year to…

In 1895, the Collinsworth family of Plano, Texas hosted a traveling salesman in their home. He left the next morning after mentioning he felt unwell. Unfortunately, the salesman was ill with smallpox and infected the family with the disease. First, one of the daughters fell ill and died, then more family members succumb to the…

The first Roman emperor, Augustus, began construction on his mausoleum soon after returning from Egypt in 28 BCE. The tomb was crafted with a circular plan that may have been inspired by Hellenistic mausoleums such as the tomb of Alexander the Great. The structure, located in the center of Rome near the Tiber river, consists…

Kevin and Leslie Alejandro’s Adult Night begins with a marriage in crisis; in a bold attempt to “live colorfully”, a couple’s (Lucifer co-stars Kevin Alejandro and Lesley-Ann Brandt) decision to attend a swinger’s party leads them to locking themselves in a bathroom, struggling to understand how they got to this position in life – and…