Barbara Hammer Gets Her Due
A tribute for the late queer artist, 15 years of BlackStar Film Festival in Philly, and what two American doctors learned in Gaza.
A Barbara Hammer biopic, the heart-wrenching journey of two American doctors in Gaza, and the unflinching activism of photographer Misan Harriman are some of this newsletter's highlights. Make sure you also check out our special coverage of the 15th edition of the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia. And in a new movie, Olivia Wilde is a power-hungry artist with an unhealthy relationship to sex. The film is fiction, but could very well be a documentary.
“American Doctor” Is an Indictment of US Leadership and Media
The new documentary follows three humanitarian physicians as they grapple with the horrors of the US-funded genocide in Gaza. | Rhea Nayyar
Read MoreBlackStar Film Festival
Maori Karmael Holmes Looks Back on 15 Years of BlackStar
The Philadelphia film festival’s founder reflects on its evolution into a hub for experimental, polyphonic storytelling amid a rapidly changing country and world. | Chenoa Baker
Read MoreSix Films on Art and Resistance at BlackStar Film Festival
The Philadelphia festival platformed films on Anishinaabe repatriation, the spirited life of art historian Dr. Leslie King Hammond, the Puerto Rican history of the Upper West Side, and more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin and Elodie Saint-Louis
Read MoreFrom Our Critics
The Thorny Politics of Protest Photography
A new documentary follows the work of activist and photographer Misan Harriman, but risks overly aestheticizing the movements he captures. | Eileen G’Sell
Read MoreA Portrait of an Artist as a Dominatrix
“I Want Your Sex” is a caricature of the art world more than an actually incisive critique, but it’s funner that way. | Lisa Yin Zhang
Read MoreBarbara Hammer Through Her Own Lens
“Barbara Forever” is both a biography and a conversation the late filmmaker has with herself. | Dan Schindel
Read MoreFrom the Archive
Running Is Resistance in “Remaining Native”
The documentary follows a Paiute teenager as he navigates his passion for running and the story of his great-grandfather, who escaped from an Indigenous residential school. | Rhea Nayyar
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