BY ARTA BARZANJI The 15th Annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, the third-largest film festival of its kind in the country, took place from November 3-13. The festival was part virtual, part in-person, and the lineup included a variety of narrative and documentary features, panel discussions,...
BY ANDRE CHERRY PhillyCAM celebrated the sixth annual Community Media Day on October 20 with a day’s worth of special programming. PhillyCAM is the non-profit designated by the City of Philadelphia to operate its public access television network (Xfinity 66/966 and Verizon Fios 29/30). Public access...
BY KATHIA WOODS South by Southwest started as a music festival in 1987, and the music segment of the festival is still the largest attraction. However, the film festival presents an opportunity for filmmakers to network with brands, industry experts, and other technology innovators in addition...
BY AARON HUNT Every day before filming, director Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing and her cinematographer Thae Zar Chi Kang crossed a military checkpoint into a village in Rakhine State. Hlaing grew up here; her auntie even introduced her to the eponymous midwives, Hla and Nyo-Nyo. But...
BY AARON HUNT Sundance 2022 debuted some surprising films among otherwise conventional indie fare. But the festival’s better selections can feel out of place. Modern-day ethnographies like Jihad Rehab contradict correctives like Listen to the Beat of Our Images, which fills the lacuna of native historical...
BY HANNAH L CHINN Even outside of a pandemic, putting together a student film festival is no easy task. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought a range of new questions—when everything’s gone virtual, it isn’t just the films that require creativity and ingenuity, but the planning of...
BY BEDATRI D. CHOUDHURY Inney Prakash is the Founder-Director of Prismatic Ground, which is a new festival centered on experimental documentary running virtually from April 8-18 2021, hosted by New York’s Maysles Documentary Center and Screen Slate. Before I look at the 50+ film lineup, I...
BY KRISTAL SOTOMAYOR While Latinx stories and characters in cinema continue to be depicted through racist stereotypes, we take a deep dive into the films and filmmakers re-framing Latinidad through the column Cine alzando voz, meaning “Cinema raising its voice.” Through thoughtful critique and insightful interviews...
BY GABE CASTRO **This article contains spoilers** Frida Kempff’s debut feature Knocking gets under your skin the way an incessant noise that only you can hear does. Following a woman recently released from a mental health facility after experiencing a traumatic event, Kempff explores the vulnerability of...
BY KRISTAL SOTOMAYOR The 2021 Sundance Film Festival took place virtually over seven days from January 28 to February 3 with a full lineup of 141 films and projects available via the Sundance custom-designed online platform. This was the first year with the new Festival Director...