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Dìdi : Review / Sean Wang’s Tender and Charming Coming-of-Age Story / Sundance Film Festival

Sundance has paved the way for Asian American cinema in recent years. As a result, films like “The Farewell,” “Minari” and this year’s “Past Lives” have all garnered Oscar nominations. Now at the just-ended 2024 edition, director Sean Wang won the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival for his debut feature “Dìdi.”…

Sundance Review / Suncoast: Nico Parker Shines in Poignant Tale

There are certain key events that people from a particular generation will remember. One of them for Americans who were alive in the early 2000s is the case of Terri Schiavo, who was in a vegetative state and whose husband’s request to remove her feeding tube attracted national controversy and attention. Her story played a…

Sundance Review / Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Flies High with Emotion

Just like Superman, the most indelible superheros are those who repeatedly defy self-pity, even in the most difficult circumstances. They instead rise up to become a passionate advocate to improve not their own lives, but also others who find themselves in the same situation. Christopher Reeve is one such superhero, whose successful career was marred…

Sundance Review / Love Me: Romance at the End of Time

What does it mean to be alive? That’s the central question posed in the sci-fi drama Love Me, which is set thousands of years in the future long after Earth is no longer inhabited. A satellite launched by NASA to scan for lifeforms to welcome them to what used to be the planet locates a…

Sundance Review / Rob Peace: A Story of Incredible Perseverance 

What people achieve is often defined by what others expect of them. Growing up in a poor neighborhood that few leave doesn’t typically lead to success, and the chance to follow a different path can be equally appealing and unattainable. For one young man, the need to change things as he saw them around him…

Sundance Review / Desire Lines: A Transformational Journey

There are many components to gender and sexuality that much of the world’s population likely assumed didn’t exist until they heard others talking about them. This isn’t exclusive to those who identify as cisgender and heterosexual who have had their expressions of self broadly accepted by society. Desire Lines spotlights a particular population – transgender…

Sundance Review / Kidnapping Inc.: A Haitian Action-Comedy Blast

Kidnappings are quite common in Haiti, enough so that, during the making of director Bruno Mourral’s film Kidnapping Inc., several crew members were taken and ransomed. Yet Mourral and his cast have marvelously found a sense of humor about the subject, crafting an action-packed comedy that makes light of the subject while still managing to…

“Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World” : A Story of How Non-Verbal Does Not Mean Unintelligent / SlamDance Film Review

@Makayla’s Voice In a world with people who talk, many see those who are non-verbal as unintelligent. This short documentary breaks that notion to pieces. “Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World” tells Makayla’s story through her mind. She is a young black girl with a rare form of Autism that renders her non-verbal. Around 8…

New York Jewish Film Festival : Fioretta Traces the Ancestral Roots of a Jewish Family in Europe

© 2023 Rubber Ring Films LLC While looking into a yellowing book owned by his great-grandfather, the Jewish American poet Hyam Plutzik wrote what is perhaps the best summary of Matthew Mishory’s touching film, Fioretta. After perusing the faded pages of the century-old book, Plutzik wrote: “I am troubled by the blank fields, the speechless graves./Since…

Sundance Review / The Mother of All Lies: Reconstructing Memory

Documentary filmmakers very often focus on exposing the truth, telling stories that haven’t been sufficiently told and striving to broadcast them to a wide audience. This can take a variety of forms, and, in many cases, is inspired by something in their own lives that provokes curiosity. In the case of Asmae El Moudir, she…

Sundance Review / Eternal You: The Fears and Possibilities of AI

One of the critical sticking points of the 2023 dual strike by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA was how AI would be used in the future. Artificial intelligence is evolving at an incredible pace, ready to substitute for human interaction in a number of different spheres. While that offers an endless realm of…