Nikki Fowler – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SUGARCANE – Review by Nikki Fowler

July 29, 2024August 11, 2024 Nikki Fowler canadian films., Charlene Belleau, CHILD ABUSE, documentary, Emilie Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat, motw, National Geographic, St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School, sugarcane, williams lake

Directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat chronicle an investigation into a Canadian, Catholic run, Indigenous boarding school of ‘horror’ and those affected by the suffering, murder and abuse inflicted on young innocent children who were being held there against their will under racist conditions. Taken from their homes in an attempt to convert them to a white ideology, the young children were stripped from their cultural identity. The filmmakers follow the investigation specifically into the lives lost at St Joseph’s Residential Mission School in Williams Lake, British Columbia from 1891 to 1991 as they search to uncover burial sites where the victims of infanticide were disposed of.

Festivals

Cannes Film Festival 2024: Yes, Women Cannes – Nikki Fowler reports

May 30, 2024May 29, 2024 Nikki Fowler Adriana Paz, Agathe Riedinger, Anasuya Sengupta, andrea arnold, Camille Cottin, Cannes Film Festival 2024, cate blanchett, Coralie Fargeat, demi moore, Elizabeth Chisela, emma stone, greta gerwig, justine triet, Karla Sofía Gascón, Kelly Rowland, Lily Gladstone, margaret qualley, meryl streep, Omarra Shetty, palme d'or, Payal Kapadia, Rungano Nyoni, Selena Gomez, Trine Dyrholm, victoria carmen sonne, Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin, zoe saldana

This year, the Cannes Film Festival spotlighted a rich diversity within its Official Selection Jury, including prominent women like Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) and the Jury President, Oscar-winning director Greta Gerwig (Barbie). The festival celebrated the achievements of many female filmmakers and actresses, who not only appeared on screens in the South of France but also took home prestigious awards. The festival was a powerful celebration of women’s contributions to cinema, setting a high standard for future events.

Reviews

WE GROWN NOW – Review by Nikki Fowler

April 9, 2024April 15, 2024 Nikki Fowler Blake Cameron James, Cabrini-Green, Gian Knight Ramirez), Jurnee Smollett, Lil Rel Howry, minhal baig, S. Epatha Merkerson, We Grown Now

The most striking element of We Grown Now outside of the outstanding actors including the young Blake Cameron James (Malik) and Gian Knight Ramirez (Eric) starring as two young friends growing up in the Cabrini Green public housing projects in 1990’s Chicago, is the extreme care and poetic take that director and writer Minhal Baig delivers. Despite growing up in Chicago she didn’t have first hand knowledge of the Cabrini Green community but knew enough of the racist, classist and oppressive history and the fear many had of going near the government housing project riddled with violence, including the story of real life Dantrell Davis, a young child who was shot on his way to school which rocked the community in 1992.

Reviews

PASANG: IN THE SHADOW OF EVEREST – Review by Nikki Fowler

January 2, 2024January 7, 2024 Nikki Fowler documentary, mountain climbing, Nancy Svendsen, nepal, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest

Pasang: In the Shadow of Everest is a fascinating and inspirational documentary about the power of one woman to challenge racism and sexism and achieve the status of becoming the first Nepalese woman to climb Mt. Everest. In a sea of privilege, foreigners are financially sponsored to make attempt after attempt and fail. with massive casualties to Sherpas, local climbing guides from Nepal who risk it all to help mostly foreign men make the climb year after year.

Reviews

THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE – Review by Nikki Fowler

December 26, 2023February 23, 2024 Nikki Fowler german films, Ilker Catak, Johannes Duncker, Leonard Stettnisch, Leonie Benesch, The Teachers’ Lounge

İlker Çatak’s German thriller The Teachers’ Lounge is a raw donut into the classroom/teacher dynamic where what is usually defined as a safe space in which students are nurtured and educated, is truly at times a petri dish of real-world antics, including racism, crime, cheating, violence, stereotypes, bias and social chaos at some of the most important developmental years of one’s life and it’s not always coming from the students.

Reviews

SUBJECT – Review by Nikki Fowler

October 24, 2023October 29, 2023 Nikki Fowler Camilla Hall, Capturing the Friedmans, documentary filmmaking, Hoop Dreams, Jennifer Tiexiera, Subject, The Staircase, the wolfpack, true crime

Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall shed light on a subject that could easily slip by our radar: the impact of documentaries and their ability to trend. With sensational voyeuristic fascination, the masses consume this fly on the wall world of real life through docuseries and films, But viewers are not aware that the documentary subjects are sometimes unsuspecting victims to exploitation — whether it’s whether unintentional or calculated.

Reviews

ANATOMY OF A FALL – Review by Nikki Fowler

October 2, 2023October 8, 2023 Nikki Fowler

Justine Triet brings a compelling thought provoking thriller about a married couple, both of whom are authors. Anatomy of the Fall is intricate as viewers navigate the relationship complexities of a couple whose most intimate details are put on center stage, Sandra Hüller gives an extraordinary performance as a successful author whose art many times imitates life.

Reviews

MIRANDA’S VICTIM – Review by Nikki Fowler

September 25, 2023October 1, 2023 Nikki Fowler Abigail Breslin, J. Craig Stiles, Luke Wilson, Michelle Danner, Miranda's Victim, Mireille Enos

Miranda’s Victim is a riveting drama about the real-life rape victim Trish Weir, played by the wonderfully talented Abigail Breslin, who gave an inspiring performance through waves of sexism at a time in the 60’s when most women stayed silent on abuse, and most men saw rape victims as a disgrace or as fabricators.

Reviews

INVISIBLE BEAUTY – Review by Nikki Fowler

September 4, 2023September 9, 2023 Nikki Fowler Bethann Hardison, Bethann Management, documentary, fashion industry, Frédéric Tcheng, Iman, Invisible Beauty, Kadeem Hardison, motw, Movie of the Week, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford

Invisible Beauty is a love letter to Black women and to the icon who is model, fashion industry veteran and activist Bethann Hardison. For anyone who knows the legacy and evolution of Black women in fashion and runway casting into the 90s. knows of the trials and tribulations that went into creating and sustaining legendary names such as Naomi Campbell, Tyson Beckford, Tyra Banks, Cynthia Bailey and Iman in a racially hostile industry, and will easily understand the importance of this documentary written and directed by Hardison herself.

Reviews

JOYCE CAROL OATES: A BODY IN SERVICE OF MIND – Review by Nikki Fowler

August 29, 2023October 25, 2023 Nikki Fowler biodoc, documentaries, greenwich entertainment, Joyce Carol Oates, Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in Service of Mind, Laura Dern, motw, Stig Bjorkman

Greenwich Entertainment’s documentary Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind is a beautiful and informative look into the life and work of the beloved and award-winning novelist by the same name, who not only wrote a series of novels drenched immensely in gender, race, socioeconomics, and politics but who wrote dramatic novels sans politics under pseudonyms which she described as getting to “start over” and “to write as if she were “writing for the first time.”

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