There are many issues with keeping pornography in the historical record. Was anything of value lost in Pornhub’s recent massive video purge?
Author Archives: Justine Smith
Justine Smith is a freelance film writer based in Montreal, Quebec.
The Spotless, Uncanny World of Cleaning YouTube
The “Clean with Me” video genre pits our deep need to connect against the pressures that come with sharing the intimacies of one’s life.
Who Should Get the Credit for Citizen Kane? The Great Debate Continues
The new Hollywood period piece Mank revives an old controversy over the acclaimed film.
What Does it Mean to Make a “Postcapitalist” Film?
Isiah Medina’s Inventing the Future and Mike Hoolboom’s Judy Versus Capitalism posit different ways for movies to work outside traditional aesthetics and structures.
Nudity in the US Film Industry, and How it Has (and Hasn’t) Evolved
The documentary Skin spurs the viewer to think about what kind of bodies are usually naked in movies.
The Strange Reign of Raccoons Online
The raccoon is one of the most popular animals on social media. But the human obsession with the scavengers predates the internet by thousands of years.
As Local Media Dies, Community Meme Pages Keep the Spirits of Cities Alive
Online spaces embody Aldo Rossi’s view of the city as “the collective memory of its people.”
Acclaimed Documentary Shakedown Has Made Its Streaming Debut on Pornhub
The site is hosting Leilah Weinraub’s film about underground Black-owned lesbian clubs, as part of its venture into artistic legitimacy.
Why Have There Been No Great Women Cinematographers (According to Hollywood)?
As the Cinémathèque Québécoise pays homage to some of the notable women who have stepped behind the camera and “painted with light,” critic Justine Smith considers why their work is often underrecognized.
Erotic Imagination and Sensual Realities Meet in the Films of Jane Campion
In an era where women still represent the minority of filmmakers and sex on the big screen has continued to diminish, Campion’s films — most of which are now streaming online — explore new depths of desire.
The Crowded, Lonely World of Live Streaming
A wave of documentaries from China, including Present.Perfect and People’s Republic of Desire, follow the lives of popular streamers.
Deconstructing Colonial Cinema with Ethnographic Fiction
Experimental filmmaker Laura Huertas Millán talks to Hyperallergic about challenging the standard modes of exoticism, ethnography, and anthropology.