Chick Strand will never be a household name. Sadly, she will most likely never even be recognized by the thousands of aspiring “independent” filmmakers and enthusiasts taking over the country. From the beginning, Strand’s work has posited itself at the junction of experimental and avant-garde filmmaking. Strand never offers much explanation of her work; her […]
Pablo de Ocampo
Posted inMovies & TV
Film
Inside the Ghost Elisabeth Subrin’s Haunting Feminism
As much as anything can, Elisabeth Subrin’s work has haunted me since I was first exposed to it three years ago. In her videos, there is something real, contrived, critical, and personal. They haunt me in their subject matter, their structure, their execution of ideas. Subrin’s videos, although intensely critical and academic, appear as many […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Teens, Kendo, and S&M
Sasayaki’s Perverse Sweetness
“I like it when you strike me on the head,” professes the young Hidaka. “In that case, you’re a pervert,” responds his classmate and love interest, Satsuki. Here, in the high school gym, director Akihiko Shiota offers up the raw ingredients (saccharin-sweet teen romance, kendo matches, and S&M) for Sasayaki–an entertaining and engrossing look at […]
Posted inMovies & TV
None of the Above
Quills Lacks a Point
EVERY TIME I think period films are going out of style, a film like Quills comes along to remind me that people will never get sick of them. Part biopic, part love-triangle romance, part morality play, Philip Kaufman’s film on the Marquis de Sade is all bullshit. Here we go: The Marquis (Geoffrey Rush) is […]