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Film and the Arts
Chronicling Black Panthers, Award-Winning Director Knows Where Night Catches Us
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:55
- Written by Brad Balfour
![Tanya Hamilton [Photo by Brad Balfour]](/images/stories/2011/02/tanya-hamilton.jpg "Tanya Hamilton [Photo by Brad Balfour]")
It's Black History Month. And before that, in between January blizzards, the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's inauguration had its moment (after all, he was the president who ushered in civil rights legislation), as did Martin Luther King Day. These events flagged the struggle to eliminate segregation of and discrimination against African-Americans.
And now first-time feature filmmaker Tanya Hamilton brings up another chapter of African-American strife -- a darkly controversial one concerning the remnants of a Black Panther cell based in Philadelphia in the mid '70s.
A fine film, Night Catches Us made it to Sundance in 2010, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for a Drama, continued on to 2010's New Directors/New Films, and has had both a theatrical run and soon a DVD release.
Mighty Movie Podcast: Iciar Bollain and Paul Laverty on Even the Rain
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Monday, 21 February 2011 19:18
- Written by Daniel Persons
Columbus did not land in Bolivia. But a Spanish film crew has chosen that country to shoot their historic recreation of that event — and how some priests fought against the subsequent enslavement of the natives — because, well, it’s cheaper. That initial bit of convenient exploitation is only the start of the parallels in Even the Rain, a film in which the 2000 Bolivian “Water War” — in which the citizenry fought against the privatization of their water supplies — coincides with the filming of an historical epic, forcing everyone involved, including the driven director played by Gael Garcia Bernal and a cynical producer played by Luis Tosar, to confront how far a dedication to one’s art applies in the face of genuine, human turmoil.
The complex scenario mixes reenactments of 15th century conquest, behind-the-scenes drama of the film’s cast and crew, and a gritty envisioning of the battle over a prime element of life. It was written by Scottish author Paul Laverty (Ken Loach’s Bread and Roses and The Wind that Shakes the Barley), and directed by Spanish director Iciar Bollain (Take My Eyes, Mataharis). I was lucky enough to speak to both of them for this episode — click on the player to hear the interviews.
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Director Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" Lives and Reveals His Dreams and Nightmares
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Saturday, 19 February 2011 20:21
- Written by Brad Balfour
![Darren Aronofsky [Photo by Brad Balfour]](/images/stories/2011/02/darren-aronofsky_bb.jpg "Darren Aronofsky [Photo by Brad Balfour]")
While there are many great films targeted for awards this season, the buzz film that stirs the most emotional reaction, of shock or a cringe has been Black Swan -- Darren Aronofsky's psychological horror suspense thriller -- a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane for ballet fans.
Aronofsky is remarkably skilled at ratcheting up the psych-out qualities of story ever since he made Requiem for a Dream -- his horrific film of middle-class drug addiction based on the late Hubert Selby's book of the same name. In Black Swan, the finely tuned and sculpted actress Natalie Portman plays Nina, a ballerina so tightly wound and dance obsessed -- with a helicopter-hovering stage mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) -- that the pressure to be the best is literally driving her crazy.
Actor Jesse Eisenberg Creates A Zuckerberg Profile For The Social Network
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Interviews
- Published on Wednesday, 09 February 2011 22:22
- Written by Brad Balfour
![Jesse Eisenberg [Photo by Brad Balfour]](/images/stories/2011/02/jesse-eisenberg_bb.jpg "Jesse Eisenberg [Photo by Brad Balfour]")
The hit film The Social Network, may not have as profound an effect as the social network, Facebook, itself. But the cinematic version has lots of important things to say about the kind of people who make game-changing ideas into a reality and how it impacts on those around them.
When an idea like FB becomes worth, at least on paper, about 50 billion dollars, exceeds Google as the most viewed site with billions of click-throughs and has over 500 million members, it necessitates getting a handle on its implications. And there has been about a billion words written about it.
