Diane Carson

1 week ago | awfj.org | Diane Carson

0 Flares 0 Flares × Killer of Sheep captures a working class Watts family circa 1977. For decades, director Charles Burnett has seldom received the widespread attention he deserves for his unique fiction and nonfiction work. The relative unfamiliarity persists despite Burnett receiving a 1988 MacArthur fellowship, the so-called “genius award” for which no one can apply, apt recognition of Burnett as a national treasure.

1 week ago | awfj.org | Diane Carson

0 Flares 0 Flares × Blind observes students at the 1986 Alabama School for the Blind. The Frederick Wiseman restoration series includes his 1986 documentary Blind. In it, the legendary director employs, as always, his signature style: captured footage presented without narration, no interpretative music, subjects interacting with no direct address to the camera, and immediate immersion into the subject matter.

3 weeks ago | awfj.org | Diane Carson

0 Flares 0 Flares × Directed by Somali-Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe in his feature film debut, The Village Next to Paradise focuses on fraught family dynamics through individuals embroiled in contemporary crises. The brief opening begins with an actual news report of a senior Al-Shabaab commander killed in American drone attacks in southern Somalia near the coastal town Barawe. The narrative then follows an extended local family coping with their stressful situation.

3 weeks ago | awfj.org | Diane Carson

0 Flares 0 Flares × The Friend poignantly explores death through a superb Great Dane. Within the last ten days, two films have successfully, entertainingly focused on appealing animals while tangentially tackling serious subjects. In The Penguin Lessons, director Peter Cattaneo sets his delightful comedy against the backdrop of the late 1970s Argentinean military coup that illegally imprisoned and brutally murdered thousands.

1 month ago | awfj.org | Diane Carson

0 Flares 0 Flares × Celebrating its 19th year, Washington University’s African Film Festival excels at introducing “contemporary artistic production by African artists to American audiences, combating stereotypes.” Over the March 28 to 30 weekend, it will present seven short films and three narrative features, all less than two years old. From Senegal, Somalia, Nigeria, South Africa, Reunion, and Cameroon, they offer a diversity of cultures and issues, landscapes and languages.