I very much enjoyed this film showing at Bradford’s Bite the Mango festival. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting and it raised questions about how it might be categorised. It’s officially a Pakistani film. Director Mehreen Jabbar left Pakistan for UCLA and returned to work in Pakistani television. This was her first feature with … Continue reading
BFI Southbank has a current season of films which places Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in context. Lee has come over to speak during the season and he popped up in the crowd at Arsenal’s home game against Wigan on Saturday. I know he is a big sports fan. He’s been to Arsenal before … Continue reading
This is the only Spike Lee fiction feature that has been denied a UK release. Why? I’m not sure. Possibly because it died at the US Box Office where it failed to reach $10 million against a $45 million budget. But then you would expect Disney (Touchstone) to attempt to get something back on a … Continue reading
I came across this by accident on TV and because I’d just lost the chance to screen a Charles Burnett picture (see Barbershop post) I made an effort to record it. Burnett is arguably the most celebrated of African-American directors because of Killer of Sheep and To Sleep With Anger. One critic has described him … Continue reading
I enjoyed the latest Almodóvar film, but I wasn’t excited by it – at least initially. It is more of an investigation of filmmaking than a melodrama, more a Bad Education noir thriller/romance than a Volver or an All About My Mother. Always ravishing to look at, the film seemed clever and intriguing rather than … Continue reading
I decided to screen this film on my evening class after I was forced to drop a proposed screening of Charles Burnett’s To Sleep With Anger after UK screening rights were withdrawn – such are the problems of running a course with public cinema screenings. Barbershop is a substitute on a course looking at ‘Representations … Continue reading
