Why do we pick up some refugees in our own cars, while allowing others to drown in the seas around Europe? In the short documentary Kitten or Refugee? visual artist Tina Farifteh dissects the mechanisms behind empathy and the dangers of empathy erosion, and submits the viewer to an experiment: who gets our empathy in life-or-death situations?
I understood post-memory as passing down stories and images of one’s experiences that are not your own. For decades, rape has been depicted in cinema through a third-person perspective, leaving the viewer to observe rape; not to experience it.
Another story focuses on the bond between a young man and a shelter dog in this Netflix drama film.
What happens to an inseparable bond when love for competing morphs into competing for love?
White audiences saw Peola’s mixed-race passing as a Black woman’s struggle to be white. Black audiences saw it as the rebellion of a Black woman trying to gain privileges only given to white people.
This modern update of the beloved classic swaps Cyrano's signature pronounced nose for achondroplasia, for a different vision that still retains the original's essence.
Dramatic Horror!!! Wait, what?? Did you say "dramatic horror"?? IS there such a thing?? I mean, TRULY. Well, if San Francisco-based, Pakistani-born independent filmmaker Dr. Hassan Zee and this film critic have anything to say about it, there IS such a beast as experienced through the director's newest feature film set to officially debut October 4th in the City by the Bay. Folks, indie film will always be a bastion of experimentation and originality, and this film for me fits that bill.
