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Johnny drives home late one evening to spend time with his wife. He runs her a bath and goes to the kitchen to pour them both a glass of wine. We hear the disembodied voice of the wife shouting from the bathroom about a call from a producer whilst Johnny’s mobile is being constantly called by a woman driving and begging to speak to him. Thus begins the film’s opening sequence before things start to get confusing...
Damian Draven is a production designer and director, beginning his career on (...) Continue Reading »
25 April 2021
Our Picks + One Night In Miami
by Abla Kandalaft, Coco Green
Regina King’s directorial debut starring Kingsley Ben-Adir Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. Sam Cooke, is a fictionalised account of the four icons’ meeting in Miami, Fl after Clay’s first heavyweight title about with Sonny Liston. The film is based on the Kemp Powers play which imagines their one night at the Hampton House, located in Brownsville, outside of Liberty City, due to segregation laws in Miami, which was the base for Miami’s black (...) Continue Reading »
25 April 2021
Our Picks + Crip Camp
by Abla Kandalaft, Antonella Mercurio, Coco Green
This week we are joined by psychotherapist Antonella Mercurio to talk about Crip Camp and the issues around activism, aspirational and revolutionary movements and disability rights sparked by the documentary.
Crip Camp (Netflix) sheds light on summer camp for teenagers with disabilities and the rights movement borne out of its pioneering set up.
Top picks include horror film The Empty Man, a creepy, hugely entertaining feature released to mostly so-so reviews in 2020 but has built a bit (...) Continue Reading »
19 April 2021
Interview with Denis Dobrovoda, director of Savage
by Abena Clarke, Mydylarama team
Denis is the director of short film Savage, a dramatised account of the abhorrent but sadly little-known concept of human zoos, a practice that was part and parcel of Britain’s colonial empire. With great attention to detail and historical accuracy, Savage is an original, moving take on a phenomenon that plays an integral part in the development of modern institutionalised racism. Lead Florence Nzenwefi gives a touching and dignified performance as man cruelly uprooted from his home and (...) Continue Reading »
12 April 2021
Interview with Audrey Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Jean-Baptiste, codirectors of Écoutez le battement de nos images
by Clotilde
Is your film mainly an account that you want handed down? How did you construct the voice-over?
The film is essentially tied to my desire to breathe life back into the things that disappeared when the Guiana Space Centre was set up in Kourou in the 60s. To script the voice-over, we dipped into our close networks. For example, our father’s , who’s from Guiana himself. So we were able to exchange ideas in a trusting atmosphere, which helped elicit memories. We also met people whose families’ (...) Continue Reading »
We caught up with actor Matt Houlihan to discuss his lockdown venture: the very successful YouTube "reaction" series A Brit Reacts To Bollywood. Matt, who was still working right up until last year’s first lockdown - playing Uncle Vanya on stage - talks about his discovery and growing love of Bollywood and Indian cinema, his foray into reaction videos and the impact on the pandemic on his work.
Matt’s top film pick for the week is White Tiger, on Netflix, about modern India and particularly (...) Continue Reading »
3 April 2021
Nomadland take 2: A reconfiguration of a terribly dysfunctional society.
by George Crosthwait
In 2011 the USG mine in Empire Nevada closed, effectively creating a ghost town. Caught in the wake of this collapse, Fern (Frances McDormand) has lost her job, her home and is reeling from her husband’s recent passing. Fern becomes part of the disparate and transient “nomad” community. The nomads are usually older, often solitary, Americans living on the road in cars, vans, and mobile homes, following seasonal work and forming short term convoys.
“What the nomads are doing is not that (...) Continue Reading »
23 March 2021
Our Picks + The Obituary Of Tunde Johnson
by Abla Kandalaft, Coco Green, Ryan Ormonde
This week, we are joined by poet and writer Ryan Ormonde to discuss Ali LeRoi’s feature film The Obituary Of Tunde Johnso and yet another Jack Black flick, Bernie.
As usual, comments and feedback welcome via Twitter @Mydylarama
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In Chloé Zhao’s 2020 docu-fiction, Frances McDormand plays a woman in her sixties whose financial circumstances force her out of her home and into a life on the road, roaming the country in a camper van in search of temporary work.
Nomadland (2020) is a romanticisation of misery. And for that reason, it is going to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. In an era where hopelessness is the norm and anxiety about our bleak future is prevalent among most of us, cultural productions such as (...) Continue Reading »
16 March 2021
Our Picks + Typical
by Abla Kandalaft, Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Coco Green
We’re stretching things a bit this week to include filmed theatre: our guest is director Anastasia Osei-Kuffour whose latest production is Typical at the Soho Theatre (available to stream online). The play stars Richard Blackwood as Christopher Alder, a Black man who died in police custody in 1998.
The play, a monologue that’s halfway between poetry and rap recounting Christopher’s last day and the acts of racism he experiences leading up to his death, highlights issues around racial (...) Continue Reading »
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