23 Oct 2019 Director: Matt Tyrnauer USA 2016 92 mins Legendary writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs fought aDavid-and-Goliath battle against New York City ‘master builder’Robert Moses. Her quest was to preserve the historicneighbourhoods of Greenwich Village, Soho and Little Italy againstMoses’ plans to divide and destroy them with expressways. Herbook, The Death and Life… Continue reading Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
Tag: USA
Capernaum
09 Oct 2019 Director: Nadine Labaki Lebanon, USA 2018 120 min This stunningly realised drama charts the journey of children on the edges of society who find hope despite the challenges of their everyday lives. Zain is a young boy living with his family in an impoverished Beirut neighbourhood. Street-wise beyond his years, Zain’s resentment… Continue reading Capernaum
The Sisters Brothers
22 Jan 2020 Director: Jacques Audiard USA 2018 121 min John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix star as squabbling siblings in Jacques Audiard’s subtle, darkly funny and offbeat modern take on the Western. Set in Oregon in the 1850’s, brothers Eli and Charlie are two disreputable guys working for a shadowy man nicknamed The Commodore,… Continue reading The Sisters Brothers
A Fantastic Woman
06 Mar 2019 Director: Sebastián Lelio Chile, Germany, Spain, USA 2017 104 min Chilean director Sebastián Lelio follows up his 2013 festival hit, Gloria, with another luminous and deeply involving portrait of an isolated woman. In A Fantastic Woman, Lelio has created an exquisitely compassionate portrait of the everyday obstacles of transgender existence. Marina is… Continue reading A Fantastic Woman
Letters from Baghdad
18 Oct 2017 Directors: Sabine Krayenbühl & Zeva Oelbaum USA, UK, France 2016 95 min Voiced by Tilda Swinton, this fascinating documentary explores the remarkable life of English writer, archaeologist, diplomat and spy, Gertrude Bell. As a young woman, Bell travelled extensively throughout the Middle East producing maps and scholarly works. Eventually, her extraordinary talents… Continue reading Letters from Baghdad
The Eagle Huntress
7 Feb 2018 Director: Otto Bell Mongolia, UK, USA 2016 84 min For two thousand years, the Kazakh people of Western Mongolia have practised a tradition of hunting with golden eagles. Rather than conform to traditional female roles, young Aisholpan is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps as an Eagle Hunter, providing for her… Continue reading The Eagle Huntress
I Am Not Your Negro
7 Mar 2018 Director: Raoul Peck USA, France, Belgium, Switzerland 2016 93 min Fifty years after the Civil Rights movement, race remains a defining issue in the United States of America. James Baldwin’s final book, Remember This House, was due to address the lives and assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin… Continue reading I Am Not Your Negro
Difret
2 Dec 2015 Director: Zeresenay Berhane Mehari Ethiopia, USA 2014 99 min Three hours outside Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In… Continue reading Difret
The Lunchbox
24 Sep 2014 Director: Ritesh Batra India, France, Germany, US 2013 104 min The Lunchbox combines vivid, bustling scenes of daily life in the teeming city of Mumbai with an unashamedly old-fashioned romantic story. Saajan is a soon-to-retire and world-weary office worker whose daily routine includes a lunchbox delivered to his desk by one of… Continue reading The Lunchbox
The General
17 Dec 2014 Directors: Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton USA 1926 80 min Buster Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a locomotive driver in the south during the civil war, who has the long hair, dreamy gaze and slight build of a romantic poet. When his engine, The General, is stolen by Northern saboteurs, Johnnie single-handedly journeys behind… Continue reading The General