14 May

SIFF 2015 (Seattle International Film Festival) really shows off its vitality as the longest film festival in North America this year. Operating a host of its own theatres this year, from the SIFF Cinema Uptown and SIFF Cinema to the newly acquired SIFF Egyptian, SIFF is going strong, and this...

28 Apr

K-Pop pundits love to predict who's going to be the one star to stick in America, and with the impending debut of 2NE1's CL, these predictions have reached a fever pitch. These lists never seem to change much: Girls Generation, 2NE1, G-Dragon, CL, BIGBANG, and so forth. Problem is, half...

15 Jun
There is an inherent danger with really diving full-force into a film festival that has a scope as large as the Seattle International Film Festival. Often, the movies are top notch, well-selected and well-curated, and fit perfectly within the framework of that section of the festival. Other times, after sitting through self-indulgent artsy dribble that someone, somewhere, found interesting enough to greenlight with millions of dollars, you realize sadly that two or more hours of your life will never return. Now that we're through SIFF 2013, we've decided to give the rundown of what we appreciate and what we will never need to watch again.

The African Cypher (South Africa)

Directed by Bryan Little * TOP PICK * Films like The African Cypher showcase what is so great about festivals like SIFF. This documentary takes a long, sweeping look at the different street dance styles across South Africa, where dancing isn't just something people to do for fun, but something people to do to live. Director Bryan Little takes a backseat and lets his story tell itself through captivating dance sequences and enlightening interviews, as his subjects go from the confines of their neighborhoods to compete with the best at the "Big Dance Competition". Although The African Cypher's run has already passed at SIFF, mark it down as a film to place on hold at the library in the near future -- if anything, for the jaw-dropping dance sequences Little captured forever on film. - Peter Woodburn
 
06 Jun

REDEFINE magazine and Holocene host FANTASTIC BABY: The Opulent Kingdom of Contemporary K-Pop, a K-Pop music videos gallery and discussion panel on the following topics: - Repeated motifs and common techniques in filming contemporary K-pop videos: a technical analysis - The rise of colossally sized K-pop idol groups with 10+ members - Eroding...

08 May
Due the unfortunate fact that we are merely human and Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) is just beginning its three-week film rampage, we've sifted through the Festival's gigantic catalog to come up with the best films of the bunch -- or so we suspect. SIFF is annually guaranteed to have a mixture of some of the best and worst films that one can see -- and these film recommendations come from the minds of three REDEFINE writers with good intentions. Yet at best, these selections are our most educated hypotheses, determined from a mixture of film industry knowledge and intuitions based on trailers. Below, we've grouped our selections for 2013 by world region. Stay tuned in the weeks to come, as we offer updates throughout the festival's progression, with general thumbs up and thumbs down summaries of the films we will painfully and enjoyably slog and float through, as well as one-off full-length reviews. Happy SIFFing!
03 Jan

With PSY having achieved billionaire/Bieber-destroyer status just in time for the holidays, here’s a mix of not-so-Gangnam s(e)oul jams to recap 2012 and usher in the new year. These aren’t quite for the club; they’re more for staying in — with your boo, or just you — and making it...

11 May
Multicultural Sounds travels the world for contemporary reinventions of cultural staples. This post is a miniature celebration of a couple of globe-trotting musician and producer Diplo's latest works.

 

Bonde do Rolê

Turning genre-mashing into a gun-slinging festivity of high delights are the theatrical Bonde do Rolê, who have a new album coming out later this summer on Mad Decent. Come June 26th, the world shall see Diplo's production chops at work on Tropicalbacanal, which will also be fucking bananas in terms of guest starrage: Caetano Veloso, Das Racist, The Death Set, and plenty of others help the band usher in what the press release describes as "the fresh wave of avalanche tropical (the bossa nova of modern Brazil)." Continued below, another Diplo special, in the form of beats on "Knock Out" featuring South Korea's G-Dragon and TOP, from the boy bad Big Bang.

 

17 Feb

Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) is upon us again, and we have whittled down their list of 100+ international shorts and full-length films to pick what we have determined to be the best and most interesting of the bunch. Portland International Film Festival 2012 runs from February 9th through the 25th,...

01 Feb

When looking at the work of South Korea's 최수앙 (Choi Xoo-Ang -- or Choi Soo-Ang, if you are to use a more typical romanization), one might envision creepily realistic human forms life-sized enough to hug and share sympathies with. It turns out that Choi's figures are actually tiny resin sculptures...

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