Roundup of essays by Ela Bittencourt published elsewhere

Still from Itonje Soimer Guttormsen’s Gritt, which played in the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), part of my festival roundup

January & February 2021

March & April 2021

A still from M. Woods's Bedford Cheese, in which we see a digitally manipulated image that looks like an abstract expressionist painting; the film was in the roundup of Flaherty NYC film program

My critical writing moves fluidly between the moving image, visual arts and literature. Lyssaria now also features a regular roundup of essays I’ve published beyond this site on these various art forms.

Here is the roundup of my critical essays published in March & April, 2021, and where to find them:

More Than Human: Flaherty NYC 2021, Reverse Shot

An essay in which I consider the writing of the African-American poet Fred Moten, particularly his essay, “To Feel, To Feel More, To Feel More Than” and the Flaherty NYC film program that borrows its title from Moten, to address what it means to be human in our postmodern world.

While the uncanny, technological pulsations of films such as Bedford Cheese, Kink Retrograde, or Core Dump make them seem far from the realm of mythical ghost stories, there is nevertheless a strong sense that even in these postmodernist films, within materialist junk, eco waste and technology-spawned psychoses, some human remainder nevertheless survives.

Ana Mazzei, Artforum, my review of the show by the Brazilian contemporary artist Ana Mazzei

While Mazzei borrows fluidly from multiple traditions—from Duchampian readymades and Russian Constructivism to Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Neo-Concretism—she imbues this lineage with a sense of theatricality and earthy sensuality that’s all her own.

A Mesmerizing Yet Frustrating Portrayal of Film Industry Exploitation, Hyperallergic, a review of Midi Z’s new film, Nina Wu

A topically urgent mea culpa, “Nina Wu” stops short of lifting the veil on the collective complacency that enables abuse against women in the film industry.

Beatriz Milhazes’ Lively Abstractions, Hyperallergic, a review of the major retrospective of the Brazilian contemporary artist Beatriz Milhazes

“‘Avenida Paulista,’ Milhazes’s largest survey to date, offers an engrossing overview of how the artist cross-pollinates painting and printmaking.”

Roundup of Berlinale 2021, MUBI Notebook:

Lê Bảo’s Taste

Lê Bảo’s debut feature, Taste, is a stark marvel of oblique storytelling and some pretty wondrous imagery.

Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

Radu Jude has such a wondrous appetite for political incorrectness, it’s no surprise that his latest film, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, is a scathing parodic caper.

Céline Sciamman’s Petite Maman

Magic, dream, time travel—whatever it might be, Sciamma seems to be interested in themes that are more elusive than her prior ardent explorations of burgeoning self-identity and sexuality.

Alice Diop’s We

A deep sense of tenderness, of here always being amplified to there—be it Senegal, or more abstractly, a hidden ache, a longing—permeates the entire film.

Manque La Banca’s Ski

La Banca’s film is notable for its willingness to challenge, and partly dismantle, its own construct.

Uldus Bakhtiozina’s Tzarevna Scaling

Tzarevna Scaling proves that fables are still a particularly rich material for women directors to mine: From Carlson Young’s The Blazing World, which recently premiered at Sundance, to Jessica Oreck’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga (2014), and reaching back to Ericka Beckman’s brilliant Cinderella (1986), the archetypical figures continue to haunt us.

Cynthia Beatt’s Fury Is a Feeling Too (1983, restoration)

Fury, which first showed at the Berlinale Forum in 1984, and which earlier this year was given a 2k restoration by Arsenal Berlin from the 16mm original, showed in this year’s Forum Expanded—the only film in the program that wasn’t a new production.

Avi Mograbi’s The First 54 Years–An Abbreviated Manual for a Military Occupation

Despite the wide circulation of images depicting political violence against Palestinians, the occupation continues. This continuation engenders a critical reflection for documentary cinema: Can images affect political change?

Print only:

Introduction to the Berlinale 2021 roundup, plusReview of Verdict, Sight & Sound, May 2021 issue