Month: April 2015

music video preview: MayFair Church Street stage

This year, for the first time, the programmers for the Sinclair have selected bands playing at MayFair, turning it into an astonishing window into great local bands.  To get you excited for Sunday’s festival, here’s a selection of music videos featuring each band that will be playing the Church Street Stage: The Church Street Parking… Continue reading music video preview: MayFair Church Street stage

Arts First: a weekend celebration at Harvard

Harvard’s annual showcase of student and faculty creativity begins this weekend.  The performance fair on Saturday afternoon is concentrated way to see amazing the amazing talent on campus, but events happen all weekend including theatre, dance, concerts, art installation, literary readings, crafting, and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with kazoos, cannons and bells. Also, be certain not… Continue reading Arts First: a weekend celebration at Harvard

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preview: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Opening in June, this Sundance favorite tells the story of a high school film maker who is told by his mother to befriend a classmate dying of leukemia. Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Cinematography: Chung-hoon Chung Starring: Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton

preview: I’ll See You in My Dreams

It’s rare that any film examines challenges of a person, past-midlife, searching for romance and meaning. It’s rarer still that the protagonist of such a film is a woman.  In this film, Carol, a widow, is drawn from a rut towards possible futures with two different men. Director: Brett Haley Cinematography: Rob Givens Starring: Blythe Danner, Martin Starr,… Continue reading preview: I’ll See You in My Dreams

preview: The Wolfpack

Seven homeschooled kids, isolated in their house by religious parents, learn about the broader world through film.

preview: Circus Without Borders

Examining the intersections of the circus performers from  Guinea and the Canadian arctic, this @IIFBoston world premiere gets a bonus screening at the Somerville Theater at 7:15.

retro review: Stories We Tell

In “Stories We Tell” the director, who comes from a clan of actors and artists, interviews and otherwise explores and interesting family mysteries.  While this is interesting, it’s the broader examination of the way we construct narratives for others and ourselves that is particularly fascinating.   (And, given the circumstances of the film making, very… Continue reading retro review: Stories We Tell

retro review: The Corporation

Based on Joe Balkin’s book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, this prescient film from 2003 explains how corporations have increasingly moved from being boring legal forms of organization, to being treated as if they are entities entitled to the same rights as actual people.  The filmmakers then amusingly point out that if… Continue reading retro review: The Corporation

preview: Slow West

A Scottish innocent abroad in the dangerous American west seeking to find his lost love,  joins a mysterious stranger while travelling the wild frontier.  Winner of the Sundance’s grand jury prize in the category: World Cinema: Dramatic. Director  John Maclean Cinematography: Robbie Ryan Starring: Michael Fassbender

retro review: Print the Legend

This documentary examines the two startups looking to bring 3D printing in the homes of ordinary people: formlabs and MakerBot.  Intriguingly, MakerBot, the larger company that turned it’s back on it’s open source roots before being acquired by a large patent holding corporation, just announced that it was closing its retail stores and and laying… Continue reading retro review: Print the Legend

preview: GTFO

While subculture of chronic misogyny within gaming metastasized in 2014, the fact remains that women both as gamers and as game developers have faced discrimination and harassment for ages.  They were seen as marginal intruders in a male domain.  But the fact of the matter is that half of all women, and nearly all teen-aged girls… Continue reading preview: GTFO

short films: The Gnomist, Last Pyramid, Tashi and the Monk

Friday and Saturday IFFBoston screens the short documentary program H (Hotel), featuring three films: The Gnomist Director: Sharon Liese Cinematography: Ty Jones The lives of women in Overland Park, Kansas, are touched by the mysterious appearance of gnome houses the local woods. Last Pyramid Director: David Schacter Director of Photography: Ben Powell Following her son’s death, a woman is suddenly… Continue reading short films: The Gnomist, Last Pyramid, Tashi and the Monk

retro review: Downloaded

We live in an era of astonishing change. Often, we attribute that change to simply to technology, but technology is most significant when it serves as a lens, collecting and focusing human effort. Two paradigm examples arose during the dot.com era: Google, which deftly traces the links that we make, and harness this collective intelligence… Continue reading retro review: Downloaded

retro review: Francis Ha

“Sometimes it’s good to do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.” asserts Greta Gerwig’s character in Francis Ha, pointing to the underlying dilemma the movie explores: being a 20 something who is out of college, but who hasn’t really started their life. This film can be compared to… Continue reading retro review: Francis Ha

preview: Eden

Loosely based on the life of the director’s brother, who co-wrote the script, this film examines the rise of the French electronic music scene in the 90s. Director: Mia Hansen-Love Staring: Pauline Etienne, Félix de Givry, Vincent Macaigne, Greta Gertwig Cinematography: Denis Lenoir

preview: The End of the Tour

The opening night film for IFFBoston is based on Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky’s 2010 book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself .  This, in turn, is based on recordings for an unpublished profile of David Foster Wallace, chronicling five days he spent with the novelist at the end of the book tour for Infinite… Continue reading preview: The End of the Tour