film

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• SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
  9/9/2021
  

  In Slasher Film ‘Candyman,’ the Horror Is U.S. Housing Policy

  by Brentin Mock

  “Candyman isn't the only ghost in this show,” says Stanford Carpenter, a cultural anthropologist based in Chicago. “The other ghost is Cabrini-Green. In both cases, the thing that makes them scary is that they were made that way by white systemic racism.”

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/27/2021
  

  The "Candyman" Reboot Subverts Cinematic Tropes of Black Suffering

  Director Nia DaCosta, with co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, has turned the problematic racial framing of its predecessor on its head, and casts critical light on the treatment of Black characters throughout the history of film. 

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• 9/5/2021
  

  Nationalist Nostalgia in Russian Film Mirrors Putin's Political Bending of History

  by Walter G. Moss

  Director Nikita Mikhalkov expresses through film much of the same nostalgic nationalism that anchors Vladimir Putin's authoritiarian leadership in Russia. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/23/2021
  

  What Connects 2021's "Stillwater" and 1979's "Norma Rae"?

  by Aimee Loiselle

  Both Amanda Knox, an American student accused of murder in Italy, and Crystal Lee Sutton, the southern labor organizer portrayed in "Norma Rae," have challenged the way that Hollywood films have reinterpreted their stories for commercial gain. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  8/9/2021
  

  Blue Collar Is a Dark Masterpiece of Working-Class Cinema

  The 1978 film "Blue Collar" is an important but overlooked document of a moment of crisis for the American working class. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  8/3/2021
  

  ‘The Green Knight’ Adopts a Medieval Approach to ‘Modern’ Problems

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  Modern psychological dramas in the Arthurian film aren't foreign to the Middle Ages; they're there in the original text. Viewers should reconsider what they "know" about the medieval period. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  6/20/2021
  

  "Burn This Letter Please": A Drag Queen's Letters to Hollywood Agent are a Key Source For LGBTQ History

  "Collectively, the letters painted a vivid portrait of an intimate existence among a tight group of friends in the late 1950s and early ’60s in New York."

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• SOURCE: Vanity Fair
  10/29/2020
  

  Presidential Historian Jeffrey Engel Reviews Film Portrayals from "Lincoln" to "Nixon"

  Being the POTUS is hard. Playing one on screen isn't easy either. Jeffrey Engle of SMU rates some presidential portrayals. 

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• 6/6/2021
  

  Two Films Show the Historical Toll and Present Danger of Ethnic Violence

  by Walter G. Moss

  Two films show the dire consequences of ethnic antagonism during and after the second world war, and the potential for ideology to incite and justify violence.

• 
• SOURCE: UChicago News
  5/25/2021
  

  The Hidden History Of “Guerrilla Television”: UChicago Scholars Preserve Decades-Old Videos

  Technological innovation in the 1960s allowed more people to shoot video and push for community-based television. University of Chicago scholars are working to digitize and preserve "guerrilla television." 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  4/29/2021
  

  Why a Black Captain America changes everything

  by Peniel E. Joseph

  "As both a scholar of Black history and a lover of superheroes, I see Sam Wilson as the perfect embodiment of a Captain America for our current age."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/28/2021
  

  ‘Citizen Kane’ Is No ‘Paddington 2,’ Says Rotten Tomatoes

  A recently unearthed negative review of "Citizen Kane" bumped the film classic out of Rotten Tomatoes' "100% Club" of films, and placing it behind some unlikely competitors, including "Paddington 2" and "Toy Story." 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  4/22/2021
  

  The Black Panther Party Has Never Been More Popular. But Actual Black Panthers Have Been Forgotten

  "What do veteran Panthers—some of whom are now at an advanced age and fighting to make ends meet after spending more than half their lives in prison—think of this recent boom in artistic and commercial interest?"

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/25/2021
  

  Women Dominate One Academy Award Category. Here’s Why

  by David Resha

  Women have dominated the Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards, and have indeed shaped the genre from the beginning. But this reflects the fact that the film industry has been more willing to entrust leadership to women in the low-cost, low-stakes environment of documentaries than in feature film. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  4/7/2021
  

  How a New Kung Fu TV Series Is Reclaiming Much More Than Just the Martial Arts

  The reboot of the 1970s series reflects a history of activism by Asian Americans for greater representation and control of their image in popular culture. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/2/2021
  

  Her Crazy Driving is a Key Element of Cruella DeVil’s Evil. Here’s Why

  by Genevieve Carpio

  The depiction of Cruella DeVil as a dangerous and deranged driver in the new prequel to "101 Dalmatians" draws on deep-seated sexist tropes that recognize driving and mobility as aspects of women's social freedom. 

• 
• SOURCE: WGBH
  3/29/2021
  

  ‘Atomic Cover-Up’ Reveals A Previously Unseen Story Of Human Devastation

  The new documentary "Atomic Cover-Up"  reminds that "people of goodwill can differ over whether we did the right thing in order to bring a terrible war to its conclusion or if, instead, we committed unforgivable crimes against humanity. What none of us can do is look away."

• 
• SOURCE: Letters and Politics
  3/22/2021
  

  Working for a Living: The Depiction of Asian American Women in Film & Theater

  Cinema scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu discusses the ways that film has contributed to social perceptions of Asian and Asian American women. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  3/17/2021
  

  John Singleton Saw a Tenderness in Black L.A. that the World Refused to Look At

  John Singleton's films showed the fullness of life in South Central Los Angeles during the tumultuous 1990s that the news media didn't always portray.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  3/11/2021
  

  How to Think About Classic Hollywood’s “Problematic” Movies

  by Richard Brody

  Critic Richard Brody asks whether efforts to put problematic Hollywood movies into context is adequate; there is a systematic lack of attention to characters of color in classic Hollywood that is much tougher to fix.