Shot in Florence, the film draws on Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks and Paul Valéry’s essay on da Vinci’s creative process to explore parallels between Renaissance space and the moving image. Beavers employs rapid pans and tilts along the city’s facades, interspersed with glimpses of his own face, linking camera movement to the filmmaker’s investigative gaze. The work marks a turning point in his practice, foregrounding presence and perception as central to his method. (Note: The film was re-edited and re-released in 1999.)
'Ms. Davis’ Close Friend' will make you think about the meaning of death and what it means to be alive, and if there’s really a race to be run with one's inevitable demise.
Have a Good Trip offers a rather balanced look at psychedelic use. While its main narrative is the stories of recreational use by celebrities, it does delve into the medical history of psychedelics and its use in psychotherapy.
'My Policeman' simultaneously delighted and disappointed audiences at TIFF, but everyone can agree that the performances and truth of the story will convince audiences that this film is worth the watch.
"Driveways" is a nuanced portrait of an Asian American family, touching on themes of loss, growth, and belonging.
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.
