Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- “Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination…think twice before you think.” — E.E. Cummings
- September 2025 Snapshots
- Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Getting unstuck
- “Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.” — Ciarán Carson
- Frankenstein coming to life …
- “I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless.” — Thom Yorke
- Frankenstein and Tiffany, part deux
- “I want to live, not pose!” — Carole Lombard
- “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
Recent Comments
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Daniel V. on Getting unstuck
- sheila on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- joe franco on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Kristen Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Walter Biggins on Getting unstuck
- Amir Lauber on All That Jazz: Remembering and Loving Erzebet Foldi
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Krsten Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- Sheila Welch on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on “I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
-
Tag Archives: Iran
Film Forum: Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film
Imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film opens at the New York’s Film Forum today and runs through March 13. I put it on my Top 10 list for the year. There is nothing happening in the … Continue reading
“Because creation, you know, it means that you don’t have any salary, you don’t have any retirement, all of that. So if you don’t have the security, at least have the freedom. I go for the freedom.”
Really inspiring interview with Marjane Satrapi, best-selling author of the graphic novel Persepolis. I think if somebody has to make an artistic work, he will finish it no matter what. It has nothing to do with the money, with the … Continue reading
Eyes on Iran
Iranian documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb has been released from Evin Prison after three months in jail. He was arrested with five other documentary filmmakers, all of whom have been released as well. Jafar Panahi still sits in jail. Here is … Continue reading
NYFF 2011: This Is Not a Film. Hyperbole Is Inadequate.
Imprisoned Iranian director Jafar Panahi (whom I have written about ad nauseum on my site, and hosted the Iranian Film Blogathon in his honor last year) and his colleague Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (imprisoned on September 17 of this year) shot This … Continue reading
NYFF 2011: This Is Not a Film (d. Jafar Panahi)
Originally published on Capital New York. Context is required for This Is Not a Film. Award-winning Iranian director Jafar Panahi was arrested on March 10, 2010, on suspicion of making a film critical of the current regime. International outcry was … Continue reading
NYFF 2011: A Separation: Separation? More Like a Giant Abyss
From director Asghar Farhadi (I was in love with his Fireworks Wednesday from 2007) comes another tense devastating drama. Not to be missed. I was a wreck by the end of it. Definitely one of the best films of the … Continue reading
NYFF 2011: Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation
Originally published at Capital New York, for my coverage of the 2011 New York Film Festival The events in Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, unfold with chaos and yet inevitability, … Continue reading
The Hunt For the Mashad Ripper: The Forbidden Chapter (2006)
A serial killer is murdering prostitutes in Mashad, Iran. Habib, a detective, unsuccessfully trying to detox from drug addiction, returns to Mashad, his hometown (his whispering voiceover recurs through the film, mournful, haunting, “City of memories … city of happiness … Continue reading
Blackboards (2000); Dir. Samira Makhmalbaf
In the wild borderlands between Iran and Iraq, people are on the move. Kurds, who suffered under persecution on both sides of the border, still live a nomadic life, often out of necessity. There is no food, no place to … Continue reading
Tribeca Film Festival 2011: Flowers of Evil, A Film of Love and Protest (With Lots of Tweets)
This review originally appeared on Capital New York, as part of my coverage of the Tribeca Film Festival. Much of the current conversation about social media and technology, in the world at large and in cinema, focuses on how it … Continue reading