I’m not a religious person but I do get a little tired of the cliched representations of people of faith in films and TV. If you’re Muslim, you’re a terrorist; if you’re Jewish, you’re the weedy, perpetual victim and if you’re Christian…
The Ballad of Des and Mo
11 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
One of the great things about attending Raindance this year has been the opportunity to interact with a number of film-makers. Interviews and Q&A sessions with directors offer new perspectives on the films and help to create a deeper understanding of the effort that went into making the movies…
Face to Face
10 October 2011 by 1 Comment
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned on a fellow blog that I hadn’t really seen much Australian cinema. There’s Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert but apart from that I can’t recall much else…
Bonsai
10 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
And so after 12 days, 94 feature films, 137 shorts and more than a couple of milkshakes at MADD, the 19th Raindance Film Festival has come to an end. Over the next few days I’ll be posting more reviews and listing my ten favourite films …
Leaving Baghdad
9 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
Leaving Baghdad is the debut feature of London-based Iraqi, Koutaiba Al-Janabi and is a deeply personal and emotive examination of one individual’s complicity in the worst excesses of the Hussein period…
Victims
8 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
Imagine that all the people who believe everything they read in the Daily Mail got together and decided to sort out the injustices they see all around them. The country would descend into chaos and people would face punishment dished out by the mob rather than the courts …
The Box
8 October 2011 by 1 Comment
The war in the early 1990s and the break-up of the former Yugoslavia casts a long shadow over the culture of the Balkans. It’s no surprise that film-makers in the region are creating work which reflect the time…
By Day and By Night (De Dia y De Noche)
7 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
The world’s population is getting bigger and bigger every day. Our resources are threatened and in some towns and cities there are simply too many people for the local infrastructure to manage …
Mesocafe
6 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
The war in Iraq and the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) have been a source of inspiration for a number of films including In The Valley of Elah, The Hurt Locker and the hugely disappointing Green Zone. All of these come from a Western (American) perspective…
How To Start A Revolution
6 October 2011 by Leave a Comment
It always feels strange going to the cinema to see a documentary feature. When I think of factual films I tend to look towards Channel 4 or BBC 2 rather than a night out at the movies…