Laura Valenza

May 23, 2024 | brooklynrail.org | Laura Valenza

Film Nothing streaming? Check out a documentary to make you lament the loss of the video store. Ashley Sabin and David RedmonKim's Video(Drafthouse Films, 2024) Music has vinyl. Books abound in spite of their audio or e-book alter egos. Most of us think of prints and paintings and pottery as art before we think of NFTs. But what about the movies? Tapes and DVDs don’t possess the cool caché of vinyl, and film reels don’t have vinyl’s accessibility.

Oct 31, 2023 | brooklynrail.org | Laura Valenza

La ChimeraAlice Rohrwacher(Neon, 2023) The real and tangible impacts of myth and mirage concern the appropriately titled La Chimera (2023), which recently screened at the 61st New York Film Festival. The ethics of museum collecting and archaeological practices provide a territory rife for excavating the deeper ills of global power dynamics. Alice Rohrwacher's latest film digs into this ethical site with all the complex care required of the subject.

Oct 30, 2023 | sva.edu | Laura Valenza

Georgina Campbell in Barbarian (2022), written and directed by Zach Cregger (BFA 2004 Computer Art).

Oct 23, 2023 | ithaca.edu | Laura Valenza

Allison Swenson ’07 shows opera and Omaha her love. Allison Swenson ’07 wants everyone to know that opera is not boring, expensive, or outdated. As a matter of fact, “opera is alive” with “new operas being written all the time.” And yes, there are English subtitles. As general director of Opera Omaha, Swenson is setting the scene for optimum community engagement: “We’re here. We matter. We’re fun.”But she admits she fell asleep during her first opera (Marriage of Figaro) at age 11.

Oct 2, 2023 | brooklynrail.org | Laura Valenza

Film Get ready to party crash this art scene. Watching Make Me Famous is like painting the town all the colors on the palette. Brian VincentMake Me Famous(Red Splat Productions, 2021) Make Me Famous (2021) pulsates with the urgent desire and passionate ambition that drives many artists to keep pushing out of the background and into the foreground of the art world.