The new documentary Belly of the Beast is an investigation into modern-day eugenics in the US.
Author Archives: Bedatri D. Choudhury
Bedatri studied Literature and Cinema in New Delhi and New York, and loves writing on gender, popular culture, films, and most other things. She lives in New York, where she eats cake, binge watches reruns of old TV shows, and makes notes about strangers she meets on the subway. You can give her a holler on Twitter @Bedatri.
The Boldly Feminine Gaze of Hiba Schahbaz
Schahbaz’s large-scale paintings, on view in her latest exhibition Dreaming, assert the right to claim and occupy space as a woman.
Did You Know Helen Keller Was a Socialist?
The documentary Her Socialist Smile reconstructs Keller from an icon of vague, feel-good platitudes to the fiercely political woman she truly was.
A Celebration of Black, Brown, and Indigenous Stories
The BlackStar Film Festival consistently resists forces that try to define culture in majoritarian terms.
Exposing Rodrigo Duterte’s War on the Free Press
Director Ramona Diaz and journalist Maria Ressa discuss their struggles to make A Thousand Cuts, a film about the autocratic president of the Philippines.
Reclaiming the Legend of Bruce Lee
The new ESPN documentary Be Water seeks to both reassert Lee’s legacy and humanize him.
A Queer, South Asian Utopia Comes to Life in This Graphic Novel
Bishakh Som’s Apsara Engine imagines what happens when femmes, as Donna Haraway writes, “make kin, not babies.”
The Body Is Both Vulnerable and Powerful for One of India’s Most Prominent Printmakers
The Soul (Un)Gendered: Anupam Sud, A Retrospective at DAG gallery is the first retrospective of Sud’s work in the USA, and is good introduction to her intense and existentialist art.
Approaches to Feminism by Way of Shirley Jackson and a Black Beauty Pageant
At Sundance, Shirley and Miss Juneteenth explored ways women claim control of their own narratives.
At Sundance, Examining the Relationships Between People and Their Governments
Documentaries at the festival looked at ordinary people in Cuba, journalists in the Philippines, and lawyers for the ACLU.
Kahlil Joseph Imagines a News Channel Foregrounded in Black Excellence
With BLKNWS, Joseph combats the racist and one-dimensional gaze of the news media.
The Bittersweet Nostalgia of Watching Basquiat in Downtown 81
A time capsule that holds the legendary artist in immortal youth, the cult classic also preserves a certain New York, which has now changed beyond recognition.