All the beauty and the bloodshed (2022) is a biographical film (biopic) about the photographer and activist Nan Goldin (US). In this film, the politically engaged director Laura Poitras shows the multilayered, traumatic, activistic and famous life of Goldin, now 69. The adage ‘The personal is the political’ characterizes both Poitras and Goldin, neither of whom ever hesitates to show the raw reality of existence as it is. Continue reading All the beauty and the bloodshed
Category Archives: Movies
Joker; When Tragedy becomes Comedy
Joker (2019) is not an ordinary superhero film. Rather than reinforcing the familiar dualism of the previous Batman films, Joker breaks down the hero/villain paradigm and replaces it with something more multifaceted and uncomfortable.
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Worth: Sovereignty and the Irony of Caring for Legal Needs
The film Worth (2020) tells the story of the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund with a focus on the emotionally stunted lawyer in charge of calculating the pay out, Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton). Continue reading Worth: Sovereignty and the Irony of Caring for Legal Needs
Reflections on ‘Sorry we missed you’
Film director Ken Loach builds a strong case against the human cost of the gig-economy in his latest movie Sorry we missed you. It is also a thoroughly political film, about things we regard as ordinary, not seeing what is just in front of our eyes. It shows the essential vulnerability of human experience. The political nature of care ethics is paramount.
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Girl, The everyday struggle of a transgender
The Belgian film Girl (Lukas Dhont, 2018) shares the intimate life of a fifteen year old girl named Lara. She dances at a renowned ballet academy in Belgium, and she hopes to fulfil her dream of becoming a professional ballerina. The film opens with her admission interview, wherein it is explained that she will be granted a trial period – because Lara isn’t just any girl, she is a transgender girl, born male.
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‘A place gets a face’ – Agnes Varda’s attentive compassion with the social
The French movie Faces, Places (‘Visages, villages’ – 2017) by Agnes Varda, well known for her films co-setting the trend for the Nouvelle Vague, and by JR, a young and enigmatic photographer and street artist, is a many layered documentary that makes you wake up with a smile in the morning. Continue reading ‘A place gets a face’ – Agnes Varda’s attentive compassion with the social