Screenwriter and director Justin Simien follows the lives of four African-American co-eds on an elite university campus to explore media representation, black authenticity and white privilege in 2014. As a UC Berkeley alum (go Bears!), this was somewhat relatable, and as someone interested in racism and racial politics I was delighted to see characters who, despite being groomed for a (…) Continue Reading »

Quoi de plus intime que le récit de sa « première fois » ? C’est le sujet auquel s’est frotté le réalisateur suédois Jonas Odell dans ce documentaire animé, genre hybride dans lequel il excelle. Ours d’or du meilleur court métrage en 2006. Lire la suite »

The theme was love but not the warm ’n’ fuzzy kind. Families are dysfunctional, grief is consuming, humour comes from pain. Lovely. Before the LFF reel came on screen, someone in the front row set the tone by abusing a very helpful usher and (…) Continue Reading »

This short film was screened at the London Raindance Film Festival’s 2014 edition. Umït runs one of the last shops in London that sells film reels. Umït comes across as a borderline obsessive film geek: his wife thinks he is mad, he surrounds himself with stacks of reels and excitedly witters about an original copy of King Kong. Umït’s words are not so much a plea-the battle is already (…) Continue Reading »

“Gone the way of the dodo” signifie qu’une chose est devenue anachronique, obsolète. Liam Saint-Pierre choisi ce titre en forme d’idiome et donne le ton : son émouvant documentaire de onze minutes est un hommage rendu à la pellicule, format qui (…) Lire la suite »

Plongée à la Courneuve dans la jeunesse du bac 1987 avec « Papa was not a Rolling Stone », un film autobiographique réalisé par Sylvie Ohayon, une autre "boum". Lire la suite »

Derrière sa ligne claire et ses couleurs douces, le court métrage de la semaine, film d’animation de Santiago ’Bou’ Grasso, jette un regard sombre sur notre société et dénonce nos servitudes volontaires. Un film de 2008 qui n’a rien perdu de sa force. Un petit réveil à l’effigie d’un bonhomme souriant égrène tranquillement les secondes. C’est un jour comme les autres dans la vie du (…) Lire la suite »

Vinil Verde (Green Vinyl) unfolds like a modern day Struwwelpeter, but in the place of didactic morals the film creeps along with a strange silence, literally and in its authorial voice, leaving you not entirely sure what to make of it. The (…) Continue Reading »

Anton Saunders directed and starred in Fourever, screened at the Raindance Film Festival (2014). Anton’s character Johnny, a man struggling to move on from his past, organises a fancy dress soirée with friends he hasn’t seen in ten years. But it is soon apparent that the three friends that turn up had been drawn there under false pretences. As the film progresses, Anton’s real intentions (…) Continue Reading »

The Encounters Festival presents the viewing public with more than the darkened, flickering embrace of countless feature length screening events, in which back-to-back short film and animation programmes douse one’s mind with such wit and (…) Continue Reading »