More Than A Magazine, A Movement
“CODA” marks an important step in the right direction for diversity and inclusion in film: a crowd-pleaser that faithfully and respectfully represents a marginalized community often lacking in representation.
“Marvelous and the Black Hole” manages to be both playful and meditative by turns, navigating Sammy’s deep and real grief while recognizing that sometimes the ways teenagers express themselves is simultaneously unproductive and wholly outside their control.
As with the book her film adapts, Rebecca Hall’s “Passing” chronicles a series of encounters between childhood friends Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga) who reunite after a chance encounter. Both women are light-skinned Black women. Clare has elected to pass as white, having married a white man who openly states how much he “hates Negros.” Irene can pass, but only does so occasionally, “for convenience,” she explains.
The documentary “My Name is Pauli Murray” does admirable work not only recounting the facts of Murray’s life, but also of reminding viewers how many of Murray’s resistances to the discriminatory status quo occurred years or even decades before the landmark civil rights cases we know from history books.
“Land,” “Mayday” and “The World to Come”:
On the surface, a film about leaving civilization, a feminist dystopia, and a lesbian period drama couldn’t be more different. But, familiar characters emerge from each: strong women who persevere in environments indifferent or even hostile to their desires and needs.
In both Cusp and At the Ready, the rapport filmmakers developed with their teenage subjects comes through starkly in the raw emotion and often difficult questions these youth confront.
The first in a series of reviews from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival focused on films directed by women.
This year, I was lucky to watch three biographical documentaries directed by women—Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It; Ailey; and Playing with Sharks that focus on the lives of cultural icons Rita Moreno, Alvin Ailey and Valerie Taylor, respectively.