I first came into contact with Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever a few years ago, when a course I was doing used a famous scene from the film as an example of contemporary discourses surrounding identity, and I was immediately transfixed, even by only this one moment from the film. I have never hidden the fact…

Who doesn’t love a good period film? The splendid combination of the magnificent costumes, often scandalously entertaining plots and timely stories, they can often be guilty pleasures, films that may be superficial and not entirely representative of the period of time in which they are set – but I’ll be damned if I said I…

Cinema has the unquenchable power to convey beautiful, human stories through the most simplistic means, and independent cinema, as has already been well-established by yours truly, has been at the forefront of this kind of filmmaking, telling stories that would otherwise be forgotten or disregarded in a more mainstream context. One of the most brilliant…

This year has been a great cinematic year for me because it finally allowed me the opportunity to explore the work of some filmmakers that I have had a long-standing interest in based on their reputations and the general consensus about their work, but didn’t actually take the chance to explore for myself yet, due…

Regarding European cinema, there are few contemporary filmmakers that interest me as much as Pedro Costa, the great Portuguese filmmaker who has a reputation for meaningful, complex films that show a different side of his country. Not only do I feel a patriotic connection to him based on our shared cultural background, I consider him…

The coming-of-age story is certainly not one that is lacking in terms of literature, particularly cinema. There are few stories quite as resonant as those about growing up, due to the fact that most of us, regardless of our upbringings, can relate to the insecurity, uncertainty, and anxiety of getting older. These kinds of stories…

Over the course of a very prolific career, Steven Soderbergh has made a remarkably diverse set of films, ranging in genre and subject matter, bounding from convention to convention in a filmography that many filmmakers cannot attest to. Personally, I have a contentious relationship with Soderbergh, insofar as I oscillate between considering a true genius…

I’ve recently decided to broaden my horizons slightly and move out of my comfort zone (even if, based on my diverse taste in a wide-range of genres, I don’t have a well-defined comfort zone). One of my resolutions was to explore some unheralded cinema, such as films made in Africa, which have remained shockingly under-represented…

Recently, in celebration of his victory of winning the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, I chose to watch a film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, a filmmaker I have been very aware of but had not had the opportunity to explore for myself yet. The film I opted to watch was Still Walking (Japanese:…

In a contemporary independent cinematic landscape, there are few filmmakers as consistently reliable as Kelly Reichardt, who has gone relatively underpraised throughout her career, despite the fact that she has made some astonishing films that push the boundary of independent storytelling. Films such as Meek’s Cutoff and Wendy and Lucy are exceptional examples of minimalist…