Film
At New Directors/New Films, Stories About People Struggling to Heal
This year's online edition of the venerable festival features movies about mourning rituals, reenactments of family history, cult survivors, and more.
Ela Bittencourt
Ela Bittencourt is a critic and cultural journalist, currently based in Berlin. She writes on art, film and literature, often in the context of social issues and politics.
Interview
A Film Unravels a Cover-up in the Aftermath of a Bucharest Nightclub Fire
Director Alexander Nanau tells Hyperallergic how he got such incredible access to journalists and government officials for Collective.
Art
Lucia Nogueira’s Sensuous, Smoky Visions of Hell
Featuring a stunning series of watercolors based on Dante’s Inferno, Nogueira’s latest exhibition sheds new light on her gift for haunting evocations of the female body.
Film
What Not to Miss at the 2020 New York Film Festival
Get your popcorn ready. This year’s program includes highlights like Steve McQueen’s Small Axe films, ruminative queer romances, and incisive documentaries about US politics and Helen Keller’s activism.
Film
Lucrecia Martel's Feminine Monsters
Three of the Argentine director's films are now on the Criterion Channel, and they demonstrate how she complicates ideas of female agency and power.
News
In Sonia Gomes’s Hands, Textiles Evoke Resilience
With her New York debut on the horizon, the Afro-Brazilian artist, known for her seductive, textile-based sculptures, is finally, and rightfully, receiving international recognition.
Film
The Stark Elegance of Song Without a Name, a Portrait of Inequality in Peru
Inspired by true events, Melina León’s debut drama is a captivating vision of unredeemed humanity.
Art
Dorothea Lange's Humanist Vision
In Lange's photography, human ingenuity and grace triumph over the unspeakable blows of the Great Depression and other social oppression, even when hope is in short supply.
Books
Ana Mendieta, a Feminist Pioneer, in a New Light
In Radical Virtuosity, Genevieve Hyacinthe brilliantly reframes Mendieta’s celebrated works, yet for a book so rooted in race, the final analysis feels only half-full.
Books
The Radical, Playful, and Primal Perspectives of Michael Snow
Edited by the late, great Anette Michelson and Kenneth White, the essays in Michael Snow refresh our notions of experimentation.
Film
At Sundance, Tracing the Potential of Visual Art as an Agent of Change
Rounding out our Sundance coverage, here’s a look at some of the most exciting visual arts-focused films that debuted at the festival.
Film
Mining Indigenous Myths and Languages to Contemplate Life's Meaning
Sky Hopinka’s rapturous feature-length debut, małni—towards the ocean, towards the shore, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, elaborates on his previous explorations of Chinuk Wawa while hewing to a more linear structure.