Michael Apted, who died last Thursday at the age of 79, was an artisan filmmaker who started out in England and ended up in Hollywood. As documentary filmmaker, he's made films about Sting and the Tiananmen square protest. He later would go on to shoot fantasy sagas. He gravitated towards socially-aware subjects and strong female characters, especially during his television directing days, a ... more >
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PHOTOGRAPH: Alessandro Michele and Gus Van Sant
In this photo Gucci's artistic director Alessandro Michele stands with "My Own Private Idaho" director Gus Van Sant. Together they created "Ouverture of something that never ended," an online film festival that was shot in twenty days and that's made up of seven episodes of about twenty minutes, each. "Ouverture" launched November 16th and ends today on Gucci's YouTube channel and the GucciFest ... more >
FIRST LOOK: “Driving while black: race, space and mobility in America”
A new documentary offering from PBS
“Driving while black: race, space and mobility in America” is a two-hour documentary film by historian Dr. Gretchen Sorin and Emmy–winning director Ric Burns that will air on PBS this Tuesday. Recounting the history and personal experiences—at once liberating and challenging—of black people on the road from the advent of the automobile through the seismic changes of the sixties and beyond ... more >
MICHAEL LONSDALE’S DEATH | France’s gentleman thespian passes on
He had 145 acting credits to his name
Screen Comment being not just a cinephile media but also a French-American publication, we would be twice remiss not to mention persons and events from across the pond, at least some of the time. The death of Michael Lonsdale, a formidable actor, himself bi-national (his French mother conceived him with the help of a British officer in 1930—Lonsdale was born in May of the following year), was ... more >
KINO LORBER’s “In case of emergency” highlights the plight of the nation’s saturated emergency room nurses
Kino Lorber will release the documentary feature "In Case of Emergency" by award-winning director and photographer Carolyn Jones ("The American Nurse," "Defining Hope") with a live virtual premiere on Eventive on Wednesday, October 14th followed by a week of free streaming on its Kino Now service ahead of a wider on-demand roll-out. This is a documentary that paints a troubling portrait of our ... more >
Alan Parker left an indelible mark on me
"So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud" ("The Commitments")
British filmmaker Alan Parker, who left us on July 31st, 2020, was not a prolific filmmaker. He made just shy of twenty movies but what a heavy footprint these movies left on me. Films like "Angel Heart," starring Mickey Rourke, and Robert De Niro as the devil, "Mississippi Burning" or that terrific film "The Commitments," which came out in 1991, they all made their mark on me, each one for a ... more >
BRIEFLY – RZA-directed “Cut throat city” comes out July 31st
132 minutes | USA | English
"The ninth ward isn't covered," or so goes the voiceover in RZA's new film "Cut throat city," which comes out at the end of the month. It's the story of four boyhood friends in New Orleans's Lower Ninth ward who return after Hurricane Katrina to find their homes destroyed, no employment, and no assistance available from Uncle Sam. Out of options, they turn to a local hood who offers them a shot at ... more >