The Clash’s visceral punk anthem is an apt title for this passionate tribute to the grassroots movement Rock Against Racism, which countered the surge of the British neo-Nazi National Front in the 1970s. In a turbulent time of social unrest and unemployment, easy scapegoats were the fading Empire’s immigrant communities – Afro-Caribbean, Asian – with […]
Continue readingAir Conditioner
On the hazy, humid streets of Angola’s capital Luanda, air conditioning units are falling from the sky. In the rupture of this surreal plot detail, director Fradique’s first narrative feature details the lives of characters wandering amid vibrant ruins, their memories and cityscape marked by the wounds of civil war. Traversing streets and corridors, Matacedo […]
Continue readingLe regard de Charles (Aznavour by Charles)
Beloved as a singer and composer, Charles Aznavour is one of the great lyricists of the modern era, observing the currents of the last century, writing more than 1,200 songs across 70 years. He was also a perpetual archivist. After receiving his first camera from Edith Piaf in 1948, he filmed continuously, capturing the places […]
Continue readingBetter Days
Acclaimed director Derek Tsang strikes a raw and delicate chord in a modern romance that draws on “Romeo and Juliet” with hints of “Bonnie and Clyde”, simmered together in the hothouse atmosphere of a Chinese high school. Tsang’s brutal portrayal of the psychological and physical violence of contemporary youth culture is cast with unbearable realism […]
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