Art
Watch the UK's Oldest Known Erotic Film, a Victorian-Era Striptease
The British Film Institute's newly digitized "The Pleasure Principle" collection gathers examples of erotic cinema from the 19th to 21st centuries.
Film
Film
A Documentary About China's Coal Mining Industry Fuels Western Biases
Zhao Liang's Behemoth is another instance of viewing China from a Western perspective — one that is quick to demean and infantilize Chinese citizens as incapable of governing themselves.
Film
A Search for Love and Safety in LGBTQ Nightclubs
When Adomako Aman decided to make Dancing in the Dark, he was seeking solidarity with “other gay men, especially gay men of color” who could share in his experience.
Film
An Insider's View of the Life and Death of a Brooklyn DIY Venue
A new documentary about Death By Audio, a beloved music venue in Williamsburg that was forced to shutter in 2014, over-relies on the reminiscences of the people involved with the space.
Film
Invitation to the Party: Jan Nemec's 1966 Satire of Czech Communism
Long seen as the “enfant terrible” of Czech cinema, Němec constantly found himself in trouble with Czech government authorities, and was almost arrested for making this film.
Film
A Documentary Envisions a Book James Baldwin Never Finished
Directed by Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro is montage and meditation, a dialogue between the archive and the present.
Film
Documentarian Adam Curtis Dissects the World that Gave Rise to Trump
In Hypernormalisation (2016), Adam Curtis not only anticipates Trump’s victory, but also zeroes in on the abject disbelief and shock that followed in its wake.
Film
At MoMA, Restored Bruce Lee Masterpieces Leap Back onto the Big Screen
Eternal Bruce Lee will share the purest portrayal of Lee’s style by using the closest possible reproduction of the crisp, colorful, large images audiences saw in cinemas in the 1970s.
Film
A 1969 Film Offers Lessons in Resistance
Robert Kramer's 1969 film Ice, about a group of revolutionaries in New York City, is part of a series of dystopian movies screening at Anthology Film Archives to coincide with Donald Trump's inauguration.
Film
Elizabeth Murray's and Carmen Herrera's Diverging Routes to Artistic Success
Recent documentaries about two well-known female painters make for a potent double bill at Film Forum.
Film
A Film Shows How Important It Is to Name One's Desire
Moonlight is largely about the violence done to Chiron that enmeshes him in silence, against the grain of moments of inexplicable kindness that break through to nurture him towards trust.
Books
The Underappreciated Art of the Hollywood Backdrop
A new book highlights the unheralded contributions of backdrop artists to the history of film.