Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SPLIT AT THE ROOT – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

February 13, 2023February 19, 2023 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) documemtaies, Francisco Collazo, ICE, Immigrant Families Together (IFT), Julie Schwietert Collazo, linda goldstein knowlton, Split at the Root, U.S./Mexico border

Appalled by the separations imposed on families seeking asylum, New York-based social worker Julie Schwietert Collazo and her husband Francisco—himself an immigrant—decided to take action by raising money to pay the bond of one woman so that she could be released and reunited with her children. Their GoFundMe effort far exceeded expectations, and what was intended to help just one family turned into Immigrant Families Together (IFT), a nonprofit organization dedicated to reuniting and supporting immigrant families separated at the U.S./Mexico border.

Reviews

CINEMA SABAYA – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

January 30, 2023February 1, 2023 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) 2022 Academy Awards, Aseel Farhat, Cinema Sabaya, Dana Ivgy, israeli film, Joanna Said, Liora Levi, Orit Fouks Rotem

Israel’s official submission to the 2022 Academy Awards, director Orit Fouks Rotem’s Cinema Sabaya, is a deceptive film. Shot like a documentary, the film combines professional and first-time actors, improvisation and scripted dialogue, professional shots and amateur video to tell the story of eight Jewish and Arab women who attend a workshop at a community center in Hadera, near Haifa, Israel, to learn how to use a video camera to document aspects of their daily lives. The film’s name also takes on a double meaning: “sabaya,” Arabic for “woman,” is used by the militant Islamic group ISIS to denote the Kurdish women they kidnap to serve as sex slaves. During the course of the film, the second meaning of the word will assert itself.

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT February 2023: Yvonne Rainer, Experimental Filmmaker, Dancer and Choreographer

January 29, 2023January 30, 2023 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) Babette Mangolte, Feelings Are Facts, Hellzapoppin’: What about the bees?, Judson Dance Theater, lives of performers, MURDER and murder, Novella Nelson, Privilege, spotlight, Yvonne Reiner

Yvonne Rainer is an experimental filmmaker whose unique and challenging film collages are informed by her extensive knowledge of and interest in progressive politics, philosophy, social issues, avant garde art and dance, and Hollywood films. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including a MacArthur “genius” grant and the addition of Lives of Performers to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, demonstrating that living life on one’s own terms is not only possible, but also a key to success.

Reviews

BODY PARTS – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

January 23, 2023January 28, 2023 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor)

Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s documentary Body Parts zeroes in on how the sex that sells gets onto big and small screens, often at the expense of the actors who must depict it. Guevara-Flanagan takes us from the early days of cinema, when a large number of female screenwriters were able to create fully human women characters, through the repressive years of the Production Code and post-World War II workplace that kicked women out of the script room and turned them into sexual eunuchs and hausfraus on screen, and on into the sexually liberated ’60s and ’70s that forced female nudity to proliferate in the movies.

Reviews

BALLETS RUSSES – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) ballets russes, Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine, documentaries, George Balanchine, ovid, Serge Diaghilev

Although it was developed during the Italian Renaissance of the 15th century, ballet found its footing worldwide during the 20th century starting when the Ballets Russes premiered its first piece. Ballets Russes provides incredible detail and context to the historical dance footage that is jaw-droppingly gorgeous, not to mention wonderful interviews with so many iconic members of the company over the years. Many thanks to directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine for creating this invaluable record of an invaluable cultural organization.

Commentaries

In Memoriam: Julia Reichert (1946-2022)

December 9, 2022December 12, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) american factory, documentaries, in memoriam, Julia Reichert, Marilyn Ferdinand., new day films, oscars, steven bognar

Moviemakers, movie lovers social justice advocates are mourning the loss of the great Julia Reichert, known to those who admired and adored her as the “Godmother of American independent documentaries.” When she and In her partner Steven Bognar accepted the Robert and Anne Drew Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking at DOC NYC’s 2019 Visionaries Tribute, Julia Reichert, then fighting the disease that eventually took her life, tweaked the audience a bit with a teaser about “stumbling upon the secret to great documentary cinematography.” A full four minutes later, she finally revealed the answer: “Editing.”

Reviews

AS I OPEN MY EYES — Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

December 6, 2022December 11, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) As I Open My Eyes, Baya Medhaffar, Ghalia Benali, Leyla Bouzid, Montassar Ayari, ovid, tunisian films

I have occasionally observed that some people live up to their names, such as a man I met named Seaborn who was an oceanographer. It appears that Tunisian director/screenwriter Leyla Bouzid’s name also was her destiny. Her first feature film, As I Open My Eyes (2015), takes place in 2010, the year her country experienced the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, named for the city where protests began. By mid-January 2011, the repressive regime of longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was history, and revolts in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and Bahrain—collectively comprising the Arab Spring—soon commenced.

Reviews

AWFJ Presents: AMOUR FOU – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

November 11, 2022November 12, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) amour fou, awfj presents, Birte Schnoeink, Christian Friedel, Film Movement, Jessica hausner, Paraschiva Dragus, Sandra Hüller, Stephan Grossman

Austrian director/screenwriter Jessica Hausner is one of the most unique voices in European cinema today. Her particular concern with the intertwining dance of love and illness made her film Lourdes arguably the best film of 2009. Amour Fou (2014) forwards that concern and suggests by its title that Hausner will present a comedy about the folly of love. Indeed, Hausner’s film offers an amusing look at the petty passions of the haute bourgeoisie, but as she did with Lourdes, Hausner builds a sense of horror that mirrors the rising passions of a world in flux.

Reviews

AWFJ Presents KARL MARX CITY – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

October 28, 2022November 2, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) awfj presents, documentary, Film Movement, German Democratic Republic, Karl Marx City, Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein

As citizens in several parts of the world (among them, Italy, Sweden, and the United States) toy with the idea of authoritarianism as a way to bring order and stability to the frequent messiness of democracy, it’s instructive to take stock of what an authoritarian regime actually looks like in practice. In my estimation, viewing the 2016 documentary Karl Marx City is a good place to start.

Reviews

CARMEN – Review by Marilyn Ferdinand

September 16, 2022September 20, 2022 Marilyn Ferdinand (Archived Contributor) Carmen, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese films, Natascha McElhone, Valerie Buhagiar

Natascha McElhone plays Carmen, the put-upon sister of a priest who was forced to sacrifice her own life and happiness to meet his needs and the expectations of her family. Gray-haired, dressed in black, unsmiling, and silent, Carmen manages the rectory, cleans up in the church, and snaps to her brother’s commands like a dog. When he dies unexpectedly, she is unceremoniously thrown out of her home as the new sister to the new priest takes over. With no job, no home, no money, and nothing but the monsignor’s assurance that she will find paradise after she dies, Carmen must use her wits and divine providence in the form of a pigeon to remake her life.

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