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The Art of Non-Fiction
Open City Docs provide year-round academic and practical courses to teach, explore and facilitate forms of non-fiction filmmaking from...


HER NAME IS... WADJDA
The first film to be shot entirely on location in Saudi Arabia and released for the attention of international audiences tells the story...


Born In Flames: Meditations on armed RE_volutions
“Wage Love.” — Charity Hicks “Hold on to love, let its light be your guide. My people, hold on.” - Eddie Kendricks The first time I...


Mustang (2015) and Girlhood as an act of Resistance
One day after school, a group of five orphan girls decide to go to the seaside with some boys. After they are seen playing with them in...


Interview: Sophia Hao
Sophia Hao is curator of the Cooper Gallery at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee. Her practice...


Mythical Puberty and the Discotheque: Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Lure
Premiered in Poland, and screened at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, The Lure is the story of two mermaid sisters exploring the human...


Of Lights and Houses: Maria Saakyan’s The Lighthouse
Home is the sailor, home from the sea And the hunter is home from the hill. — Robert Louis Stevenson, writer and lighthouse engineer....


RE-INVENTION, RE-INTRODUCTION, AND GIVING A CULTURAL FACE TO OLDER WOMEN
The previous essay looked at Fonda’s star image and feminism through her performances in three different films, playing three different...


Taking up space: The radical aesthetics of the women-made, DIY music vid ‘New Song’ by Warpaint (Dir
Following the success of the band’s 2014 album Warpaint, Heads Up surfaced following the solo ventures of each band member and represents...


INTERVIEW: IRENE LUSZTIG
Irene Lusztig is feminist filmmaker, archival researcher, and film professor at UC Santa Cruz. For the past four years Lusztig has been...


The London Short Film Festival: LSFF Preview
The London Short Film Festival (LSFF) returns for its 15th iteration on January 12th with an expansive programme of shorts from the UK...


WOMAN ALIVE: FEMINISM, SEX, AND TRUTH
The previous essay focussed on Jane Fonda’s two Oscar speeches, using them as frames to consider her political engagement with a view to...


SPEAKING OUT AND BEING HEARD: POLITICAL ACTIVISM, OSCAR SPEECHES, AND POLITICAL POLARISATION
Jane Fonda is a compelling and complex figure. She is 80 this year, on 21st December, and I am interested in looking at her life and...


Interpreting the Archive, Interpreting Oneself: The Host by Miranda Pennell
The Host is the latest film by Miranda Pennell in which she explores her family history and the history of the Anglo Iranian Oil Company,...


Interview: Laura Mulvey
To anyone with a basic understanding of film theory Laura Mulvey’s name will inspire myriad thoughts on feminism and the male gaze. For...
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