In Through the Night, a lovely new documentary by first-time director Loira Limbal, daycare owner Nunu coaxes an anxious young boy to put aside his electronic tablet and be more present with the other kids. With a rueful laugh, she asks, "I'm down on my knees; are you going to...
In Coded Bias, a new documentary about Big Tech's infiltration into every corner of our lives, MIT Media Lab algorithms scholar and digital activist Joy Buolamwini makes a bold claim: "The progress of civil rights could be rolled back under the guise of machine neutrality." Buolamwini's prediction is then fleshed out...
In the powerful new documentary, Since I Been Down, a swastika-tattooed man named Chad Walton explains that Taking Education and Creating History (T.E.A.C.H.) -- an initiative of the Black Prisoners' Caucus -- is best described as "prisoners lifting up prisoners." Officially founded in 1972, the Black Prisoners' Caucus is an...
Welcome to Libra season! It is heralded, appropriately enough, by an Equinox, when the days are as long as they are short. Libra is cardinal air: it initiates, but it can be hard to pin down, and its realm, as with all air signs, is the conceptual. Ruled by Venus, the...
In the directorial debut of their feature film, Borrufa, Portland-based artist, performer, and filmmaker Roland Dahwen presents a quiet portrait of the trials and tribulations faced by immigrant families in the United States. Poetically and ambiguously named, Borrufa is shot on Super 16mm film stock and unconventional by most mainstream filmmaking...
It’s an unassuming video. Just 17 minutes in length and made up of exactly what it’s title promises, Stack Until it Falls Down is redundant, slow, and rather dull. It’s also hypnotic, soothing, and exactly the meditation we all need right now. Born out of the COVID-19 lockdown that fundamentally altered...
When Moroni Benally signs the paperwork to run for Navajo Nation president, he giggles. Moroni For President, a charming documentary profile of his 2014 campaign, captures the high stakes of the race to become the leader of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American territory by landmass and population. Moroni,...
Two months following the tragic and unexpected passing of independent filmmaker Lynn Shelton -- known for such films as Sword of Trust (2019), Laggies (2014), and Humpday (2009) -- Duplass Brothers Productions and Seattle's Northwest Film Forum announced the Lynn Shelton Of a Certain Age Grant in July 2020. In...
Welcome to Virgo season. It’s a time of transition, fraught with the frisson of both inevitable endings and fresh beginnings. There’s a pervasive undercurrent of things needing to be done. Virgo’s symbol, the maiden, is quite possibly one of the most misunderstood in the zodiac. After all, what exactly is the...
At The Atlantic Festival, a 2019 conference put on by The Atlantic, an interviewer asked Maria Ressa, CEO of the Filipino news site, Rappler, why Americans should care about the deteriorating political situation in the Philippines. Her response? "What happens in America happens in the rest of the world." Ressa...
In the cinematic music video for “Wine,” Canadian Chinese singer Carson Cheng — also known as KICCC (pronounced “kick”) — emerges from hot ashes like a phoenix and finds himself face-to-face with a white wolf in the woods. The dramatic result of a creative exchange between KICCC and director Brock...
Cinescopes is a monthly column about astrology and the movies. Ruled by the Sun itself, Leo is fixed fire. If cardinal energy (like Cancer's) is about initiation, fixed energy is about holding on, holding steady, and holding it down. If water signs (like Cancer) are the deep feelers, fire signs...