Books
How Surrealism’s Playful Aesthetic Was Deeply Political
The Surrealists’ insistence on irrationality was not a sport, but an attempt to engage in the political debates of their time.
Ela Bittencourt
Film
A 14-Hour Documentary on Female Filmmakers Illuminates and Frustrates
Seeking to upend the male-dominated canon but directed by a man, Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema defies some hierarchies while reinforcing others.
Film
The Best Experimental Shorts at the Toronto International Film Festival
The festival's vaunted Wavelengths section features films about different concepts of performance.
Film
A Stylish Crime Drama's Moral Ambivalence
Neither a political thriller nor entirely a noir, Benjamin Naishtat's Rojo is an eerie film in which the stakes feel painfully high.
Film
Barbara Hammer: Superdyke Surveys Her Iconic Role in Queer Experimental Film
Originally presented at UCLA’s Film & Television Archive, a film series brings rare 16mm prints by the legendary filmmaker to the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
Film
Youssef Chahine, the “Last Arab Optimist”
Hailed for his exuberance and fluid style, the Egyptian filmmaker graces big screens again at Il Cinema Ritrovato.
Film
Lis Rhodes's Films Are an Active Outcry Against Exploitation
Rhodes’s diverse collection of feminist films show an obsessive concentration on language as a system of signs that reveals but also reinforces the oppressive structures faced by the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Film
When Classic Hollywood Attempted to Deal with Sexual Violence
In a Lonely Place isn’t so much a straightforward thriller as it is a poignant psychological study of a person and a milieu, veiled as an atmospheric noir.
Film
A B-Movie that Inspired Generations of Filmmakers, Including the French New Wave
A precursor and inspiration for filmmakers from the French New Wave to Arthur Penn, Gun Crazy plays in New York on April 14 and 19.
Books
An Uncompromising Look at Photography and Gender
In Photography after Photography Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s overarching goal is to offer a feminist critique of the art world.
Books
A New Biography Paints a Colorful Portrait of Bauhaus Founder Walter Gropius
In Walter Gropius: Visionary Founder of the Bauhaus, author Fiona MacCarthy attempts to debunk the myth that the German pioneer of modernist architecture is somehow an unsexy subject for biographical study.
Film
Films that Explore How Resentment Shapes Us
On Resentment, a film series opening at BAM on March 20, probes the question: "How does resentment channel our attentions and efforts, and to what ends?"