Popular Articles
Articles featured in ‘The Conversation’ and other news outlets.
Flee: animation is a powerful medium for documentaries about conflict and refugees
The Danish animated documentary Flee directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen is a powerful feat of storytelling. So much so it has earned several awards and nominations.
Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi, a gay Danish citizen and former Afghan refugee who has become a successful academic.
Six films that are better than their English-language remakes
From new episodes of the never-ending saga of Star Wars to Disney’s desire to remake every classic cartoon as a live action film, Hollywood has a penchant for recycling existing material. An aspect of this rinse-and-repeat approach that has irritated some cinephiles is the remaking of successful films from world cinema in the English-language.
The most recent example of this is Downhill, the Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus American reinvention of the 2014 Swedish hit Force Majeure.
Becoming Frida Kahlo: new BBC documentary paints a compelling portrait of the Mexican artist
Nearly 70 years after her death the brilliant Mexican artist Frida Kahlo continues to fascinate for her unique artistic language that interprets her physical and emotional pain, her unconventional relationships with men and women, and her complex marriage to the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.
Anglo-centric film culture and the continuing resistance to subtitles
On accepting the award for best motion picture – foreign language for his movie Parasite at the 2020 Golden Globe awards, the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho challenged Anglophone audiences with his acceptance speech in Korean.
Translated by young filmmaker and Bong’s interpreter, Sharon Choi, he said: “Once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
Can cinema survive in a golden age of serial TV?
There are many reasons you might think cinema is going the way of the dinosaurs. With the popularity of long-play TV series booming, are films “too short” now to allow the kind of plot and character development that we have become used to? In our changing world of media, does the distinction between “TV series” and “film” even make sense?
In a recent class, when I asked my film studies students who had watched the set film for the week only a few hands went up – and my heart sank. Searching for an explanation, I asked who had watched the latest episode of the popular Netflix show Stranger Things. Nearly every hand went up.
MeToo in Mexico: women finding their voice as campaign gathers force
The global #MeToo campaign seemed to have largely bypassed Mexico – until recently. There had been some activity through hashtags such as #MiPrimerAcoso (“My First Assault”), and individual cases such as actress Karla Souza’s accusations of rape against an unnamed Mexican director. But this created cultural ripples rather than waves – and did not reach the scale of #MeToo and its transnational offshoots, such as the French #BalanceTonPorc, the Italian #QuellaVoltaChe, the Arab world’s #AnaKaman, and #MeTooIndia.
That is not to say that harassment, abuse and violence against women is any less serious in Mexico. Sexual harassment at work is widespread throughout the country, as a recent poll released by the group Periodistas Unidas Mexicanas (Mexican Women Journalists United) demonstrated. The poll revealed that of 392 women journalists, 73% had experienced sexual harassment, with 63% of incidents carried out by male colleagues.
Alfonso Cuarón’s Venice Golden Lion triumph for Roma highlights innovative new Netflix approach
Alfonso Cuarón has won the Golden Lion at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival for Roma, his most personal film. The win highlights the importance of Mexican film-makers in a film culture that is usually dominated by Americans.
Cuarón and his colleagues, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu – or the “Three Amigos” as they are known – have become popular fixtures at the Venice festival. Jury president del Toro was the winner of the 2017 Golden Lion for The Shape of Water, while Iñárritu’s Birdman opened the festival in 2014 – an honour shared by Cuarón’s Gravity in 2013.
Hundreds of Mexican politicians have died in the run up to the election – but cultural leaders are fighting back
Mexican presidential elections are to be held on July 1. Congress members will also be elected. The front runner for president is the seasoned left-wing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador who, with his MORENA national regeneration movement, is looking to overturn the political dominance of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party).
Many have faith that AMLO, as he is known, will tackle corruption and bring increased social justice to Mexico. Others fear that he will be autocratic and his policies could damage the Mexican economy.
Oscars 2018: another Mexican triumph as awards move towards diversity
Guillermo del Toro’s triumph at the 2018 Academy Awards, winning Best Director – as he was widely expected to do – marks the fourth time in five years that a Mexican director has won the most coveted of all the gold statuettes at this most prestigious of industry award ceremonies. Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for Gravity in 2014. Alejandro G. Iñárritu won the Oscar in the following two years for Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) in 2015 and The Revenant in 2016. This year Del Toro’s movie, The Shape of Water, was also recognised as Best Picture.
This twin success for Del Toro – and that of his fellow Mexican directors in previous years – while extraordinary in terms of the directors’ origins, can be linked to both historical and more recent patterns in Oscar winners.
Why it’s so important that Hollywood’s powerful women are standing up for all female workers
It appears that 2018 is already shaping up to be the year of women working together across race and class divides to fight back against sexism and sexual harassment. On the very first day of January, new movement Time’s Up was announced via an open letter from women working in the entertainment industry. While it could have just been a statement against the alleged sexual assault and harassment of those working in Hollywood, this was a message of solidarity to all “sisters”.
Some very powerful women in the entertainment industry created Time’s Up, but this is not about personal gain – they are using their status to help the disempowered. Time’s Up is all about high profile women using their privilege to highlight and counter sexual discrimination against all women in employment, whatever industry they are in.
How Frida Kahlo became a trinket for a Conservative leader
Theresa May’s party leader speech at the Conservative conference on October 4 was noteworthy for all the wrong reasons. As Kenzie Bryant noted in Vanity Fair, it became a speech about “a cough, a merry prankster, a bracelet”.
The fact that May was wearing a bracelet made up of miniature portraits of Frida Kahlo has become one of the major talking points of the speech. Many Kahlo fans will be delighted that this important Mexican artist has gained more exposure from the storm generated by May’s fashion statement. Nonetheless, it raises some interesting issues about the transformation and co-opting of radical leftist artists who achieve a certain degree of success.
Return of ‘The L Word’: representing lesbian desire on screen in a new era
LGBT social media networks were recently buzzing with news that a reboot of The L Word, the lesbian drama that ran for six series between 2004-09, is in the works at Showtime.
A tweet from one of the original stars, Jennifer Beals, posted on July 11 2017: “It’s on. Think more rebel yell than reboot”, generated much excitement – as did postings confirming the news from other cast members and the series original showrunner, Ilene Chalken. Diva, the magazine for lesbians excitedly noted: “This is not a drill. Repeat this is not a drill”.
How Orange is the New Black raised the bar behind bars
The new season of Netflix hit Orange is the New Black has a lot to live up to. The exhilarating mix of comedy and drama set in a women’s prison was the first of Netflix’s original series to exhalt diversity in its cast and storylines, and has proven to be one of the streaming service’s most successful shows.
Now in its fifth series, OiTNB, as it is often referred to, offers a very different vision of US society to what has previously appeared on our screens. The cast features Latina, Asian, and black women, as well as white supremacists, and liberal white women, all of whom have fallen on hard times. The show demonstrates that a focus on marginalised communities can have broad appeal, and offers a vision of US society at odds with Hollywood whitewashing.
Sense8 and sensibility: how a TV series is transcending geographical and gender borders
Almost as soon as series two of Sense8 dropped on to Netflix on May 5, eager fans were posting speculation about when series three would be ready for viewing, such is the massive global appeal of this television phenomenon.
And a phenomenon it is proving to be – Sense8 represents something new in global televisual culture, both in terms of the platform it uses and in content. The global distribution enabled by Netflix is a perfect fit for the series’ message on transnational connections.
Films you should watch to counter American anti-migrant rhetoric
Anti-migrant rhetoric is not new in the United States; it has long been a staple of the Republican right and more recently the alt-right. It was a controversial focal point in the Donald Trump campaign of 2016, with Trump calling Mexicans drug dealers, criminals and rapists, and encouraging supporters to cheer his promise to build a wall – something that he has now signed an executive order on.
This migrant-baiting is increasing despite the fact that there has been a decline in migration from Mexico due to improvements in the Mexican economy, family reunifications, and the dangers of the migration journey.
Mexican Women Aren’t Just Fighting for Equality – But Survival
Many issues unite feminists around the world, such as the right to abortion, safe contraception, and equal opportunities and pay. In Mexico, however, the feminist cause has been galvanized by a more fundamental right: the right to live.
On March 8, on International Women’s Day, Mexican women took to the streets in record numbers. Over 80,000 women marched in the capital Mexico City dressed in purple or lavender to denounce a culture that allows femicides to reach proportions of mass murder, and to cry out for justice in a society where there is impunity for murderers and rapists. This was followed the next day by a 24-hour strike by Mexican women.
Patricio Guzmán: fierce filmmaker who chronicled 50 years of Chile’s history after Pinochet coup
This week marks half a century since the beginning of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal 17-year dictatorship – a dark and devastating period of Chile’s history that continues to leave scars on the South American country.
On September 11 1973, Pinochet led a right-wing military coup, ending the democratically-elected socialist Popular Unity coalition of President Salvador Allende.
Sex Education review: this ‘kind comedy’ climaxes with its most mature and progressive series yet
Netflix’s hit show Sex Education is back for its much-anticipated fourth and final series. The show follows Otis (Asa Butterfield) as he reluctantly becomes his school’s resident sex guru – despite having little experience himself – thanks to years of second-hand sex education from his mum, Jean (Gillian Anderson), a sex therapist.
Over the past three seasons, we’ve watched as Otis and his friends navigate their awkward teenage years as love, life and sex present them with all sorts of obstacles.
