‘Kathak: Dancing With Taboos’ Film Festival Review: A Story of Passion and Perseverance
Eloquent and informative, Hajera Sheikh’s documentary Kathak: Dancing With Taboos tells a story of love for one’s culture and perseverance through adversity.

On November 27, 2000, Blaine began a stunt called "Frozen in Time", which was covered on a TV special. Blaine stood encased in a massive block of ice located in Times Square, New York City. He was lightly dressed and seen to be shivering even before the blocks of ice were sealed around him. A tube supplied him with air and water while his urine was removed with another tube. He was encased in the box of ice for 63 hours, 42 minutes and 15 seconds before being removed with chain saws. The ice was transparent and resting on an elevated platform to show that he was actually inside the ice the entire time.
Eloquent and informative, Hajera Sheikh’s documentary Kathak: Dancing With Taboos tells a story of love for one’s culture and perseverance through adversity.
Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.
It’s been five months since Wayward premiered on Netflix and it still has some of us in a choke-hold.
‘Better Than Chocolate’ isn’t perfect, but it sure has charm! The characters are great. Some took longer to grow on me than others, but ultimately they’re all compelling! I appreciate how a select few help those around them to grow.
The more biting satire is reserved for those on top of the power structure, such as the police, while those occupying lower levels are given more nuance and likability, even if they operate on the wrong side of the law. This principle gives Deep Cover its heart.
Not every film can make a shopping mall feel both magical and menacing, but Forbidden Fruits challenges that.