Michael Twitty was leading a conversation on African diasporic food when the woman he was speaking to broke into tears. Twitty, a food writer, historian, and historical interpreter, had just explained that the word for “eat” in Wolof, a West African language, is nyam. The woman, a Massachusetts resident from an African-American and Puerto Rican…

Boxing and piano go together like… wait, they don’t go together at all. Well, now they do! Let’s get ready to inspireeee. Last Round is a fantastic animated short film made by a group of five student filmmakers at the Ecole Georges Méliès animation school outside of Paris. The story follows a promising young boxer…

Twice in the history of the James Bond film series, director Martin Campbell has found himself charged with the daunting responsibility of toppling 007 over the precipice of modernity into a brave new world. In 2006, he left an indelible stylistic bloodstain on the spy genre when he gave violent birth to the Daniel Craig…

This museum resides inside an 18th-century mansion in Dublin City Centre next to the Garden of Remembrance. The Dublin Writers Museum first opened in 1991, and is dedicated to the lives and works of some of the most renowned Irish authors. The various exhibits include books, letters, and portraits from well-known writers such as James Joyce,…

Hollywood can multitask as well as any industry. Stars, producers and screenwriters spent the last four years castigating anyone, and anything, associated with President Donald Trump. That didn’t stop them from proselytizing about open border policies, gun control and other progressive issues.  Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonShowtime is no different. The…

Thanks to her powerful screen presence, transformative acting ability, and timeless beauty, Margot Robbie is the rare 21st-century actor who can show up in a film set during pretty much any time period without seeming out-of-place. In Dreamland, which Robbie also produced through her LuckyChap Entertainment shingle, she’s dropped into the middle of 1930s Texas…

Constructed on land granted to John Boelson (or Jan Boelsen in some documents) in 1677 by the colonial Swedish authorities, the cottage is one of the oldest surviving residences and buildings in Philadelphia. It’s believed to have been constructed between 1678-1684 Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonComposed of wood and fieldstone in Dutch and Swedish-style,…

When Captain Alexander Ovchinnikov took over command of the ship Gobustan in Istanbul, the term “COVID-19” hadn’t been coined yet, “quarantine” was the stuff of apocalyptic science fiction, and few people outside of China knew where Wuhan was. It was December 25, 2019. Ovchinnikov, 39, was still on that ship through the summer, along with…

Commissioned as part of the 2016 Edinburgh Art Festival, “A Drama in Time” is a set of five neon artworks by Scottish artist Graham Fagen. They depict two seascapes, two sailboats, and a skeleton in the middle. Its title comes from a quote by Patrick Geddes, a city planner noted for his improvements to the…

Why did I write “The Low End Kid?” I started with a simple idea. What if the heroes we worship today end up vilified in a future society blinded by utopian morals? And to really turn things around, what if thugs become the champions who hunt the fallen heroes for money and glory? Read moreA Guide…

Exiting Marrakesh (Marrakech), the view seems to empty out like sand in an hourglass and becomes all sky. The highway to the south runs along a line of futuristic-looking lights and eventually arrives at the Jarjeer Mule And Donkey Refuge. Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonTerracotta cubist buildings mirror the minimalist logo…

Fans of the group Swans will know exactly what I’m driving at because if you ask someone, “do you like Swans?” and the reply is never the simple reaction you get when you talk about other bands. A Swans fan will never say, “well, the early stuff is cool..” or ” yeah they had some…

Records show that this area was originally inhabited around 1793, but Badbea is most famous for the remains of the clearance village. Here lie the ruins of former homes perched on the steep slopes above the cliff tops of Berriedale.  Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonBadbea village was settled during the 18th…

A little over 3,000 years ago, a roughly 40-year-old man was laid to rest in a cemetery in what is now the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. He was wearing fancy pants. Possibly the oldest trousers in the world, they had an enlarged crotch area, indicating he spent a lot of time on…

Morgan Crisp listened in horror as members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians lambasted her newly launched craft beer brand, 7 Clans. Around 650 out of 14,000 active members had petitioned the tribal council to force the company to change its name and that of its flagship brew, MotherTown Blonde Ale. Both allude to…

Beyond the Horizon (Le milieu de l’horizon) is the kind of film in which nothing major happens but everything is happening in plain sight. Also, the script observes the characters instead of dictating their moves. It’s laid back, from the setting to the filmmaking technique, nothing is extrinsic. Neither does it try to adhere to…

Welcome to How’d They Do That?, a bi-monthly column that unpacks moments of movie magic and celebrates the technical wizards who pulled them off. This entry looks into the feature-length continuous shot in Russian Ark. In more ways than one, Russian Ark is a singular film. Created under uniquely restrictive circumstances and committing to a…

“This Christmas, give something only you can give.” Nothing like a big warm holiday hug. Coca Cola Great Britain has unveiled their annual holiday commercial and this one is special – primarily because it’s made by Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi. The “Coca-Cola Christmas Commercial 2020” is a 2-1/2 min adventure about a hard-working…

Queerly Ever After is a bi-monthly column where I take a look at LGBT+ films that gave their characters a romantic happily-ever-after. There will be spoilers. Also, don’t forget to buy your Queerly Ever After merch right here. In Nils Bökamp’s You & I, Jonas (Eric Klotzsch), a German twenty-something photographer who has recently broken up…

Wisconsin’s Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa made history when tribal members Curtis and Linda Basina launched Copper Crow Distillery in 2018. The husband-and-wife team became the first Native Americans to make distilled spirits on a reservation in nearly 200 years.  Read moreA Guide to The Perfect Bong Joon-ho MarathonTo do it, they first…

On September 20, the sun began to rise at the South Pole. It took 30 hours for the sun’s disk to clear the horizon, and weeks later, it is still climbing toward noon. And for the first time in a decade, Robert Schwarz, a.k.a. The Iceman, was not there to see it. “When the sun…