It’s unfortunate that Artur Aristakisyan’s 1993 documentary, Palms (Ladoni), has been a film cited more than seen; it’s an intensely poetic, provocative–even inspiring–account of the poor and destitute in Chisinau (formerly Kishinev), the capital of Moldova. Despite winning a slew of awards, it all but disappeared from sight, in no small part [...]
Entries from September 2007
Palms
September 30th, 2007 by Doug Cummings · No Comments
Categories: DVD review
The Violin
September 26th, 2007 by Doug Cummings · No Comments
Shortly before leaving town for the Toronto film festival, I had the pleasure of taking in a preview of Francisco Vargas’ debut feature, The Violin (2006), at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Latin American Cinema Weekend. I was impressed by the series’ line-up (Alea, BuÒuel, Ripstein, etc.), but what I didn’t realize [...]
Categories: Film review
Chris Marker: Staring Back
September 25th, 2007 by Doug Cummings · No Comments
“Back to that balcony at the place de la RÈpublique where all huge demonstrations have always started or ended. I manage to frame again the top portion of my old photograph. In between I have been in Japan, Korea, Bolivia, Chile. I have filmed students in Guinea-Bissau, medics in Kosovo, Bosnian refugees, [...]
Categories: Texts
TIFF 2007
September 21st, 2007 by Doug Cummings · No Comments
I’ve finally got a chance to post highlights from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which ended last weekend. Now in my fourth year attending the Festival, I’ve grown a bit weary of the shopping and eating along the Festival’s primary (and highly commercialized) Yonge and Queen streets, so I opted to stay in Kensington [...]
Categories: Film festival