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A still from Downstream to Kinhasa, one of the films from Africa which plays at international festivals in 2020

by :Ela Bittencourt
12-21-2020
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2020 Highlights: Films from Lesotho, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo

This month The Criterion Channel has unveiled an ambitious slate of Afro-Futurist Cinema, curated by Ashley Clark, which includes both films by directors from various countries in Africa and by African-American directors. It seems like a good moment to also...

Women directors as seen in the still from Jessie Barr's Sophie Jones

by :Ela Bittencourt
12-16-2020
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Mar del Plata International Film Festival: A Good Year for Indie Women Directors

Mar del Plata International Film Festival is the culmination of what I think we can say has been a good year for indie women directors, despite it being overall an impossibly difficult year, with so many films not getting wider...

by :Ela Bittencourt
11-23-2020
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Dream of Women’s Collectivity: ODORIKO by Yoichiro Okutani

Watching Odoriko, the splendid immersive documentary by the Japanese director Yoichiro Okutani, I kept asking myself what was being left out of the picture. Okutani's compassionate camera observes the women who work at a Japanese striptease theater, performing at times elaborate,...

FICValdivia: Still from Toda La Luz Que Podamos Ver by Pablo Escoto Luna

by :Ela Bittencourt
10-15-2020
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Altered States: Latin American Highlights from the FICValdivia International Competition

FICValdivia's International Competition has stood out in the past few years that I've been following it for jettisoning in the main slate the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. Also for championing bold cinematic language and storytelling that don't rush to...

Still from the archive-based film, THE PINK INDIAN AGAINST THE INVISIBLE BEAST: NOEL NUTELS’ BATTLE

by :Ela Bittencourt
10-13-2020
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Olhar de Cinema / Curitiba International Film Festival: Unveiling the Archives

This year, the international film festival Olhar de Cinema, based in Curitiba, Brazil, presents a number of fascinating archive-based films. Among them, there is Fakir, by Helena Ignez, The Pink Indian Against the Invisible Beast: Noel Nutels' Battle, by Tiago Carvalho,...

Still from Márta Mészáro's DON'T CRY, PRETTY GIRLS!, part of Berwick Film Festival

by :Ela Bittencourt
10-6-2020
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Essential Cinema: Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival has followed most film festivals this year in moving its edition online. Barring some geo-blocking, about which one can never be entirely sure, it's a great opportunity for viewers who may not have been...

Latin American Cinema