Editorial the editors August 2024 Editorial Issue 110 Welcome to Issue 110 of the serious and eclectic discussion of cinema, packed as always with incisive contributions on moving images historical and contemporary, popular and underrecognized. At its cinephilic centre, the issue features an extensive tributary dossier on the Argentine filmmaking collective El Pampero Cine, guest edited by critic and translator Hamed Sarrafi. As Sarrafi puts it in his introduction, 2024 (the 22nd anniversary of El Pampero’s founding) “feels like a fitting moment to pay tribute to El Pampero and its rich history. I see this as a responsibility of every critic — to not only analyse the strengths and weaknesses of any cinematic works but also to celebrate when a truly visionary project is on the horizon. A critic’s role extends beyond mere evaluation; it’s about sharing one’s genuine admiration and igniting the audience’s curiosity to explore the films, fostering a space for critical dialogue and engagement, where the works will continue to thrive and inspire in future projects.” The dossier’s six articles and seven interviews make clear that unbridled passion, humorous exploration, and inventive navigation of formal institutional structures sustain El Pampero productions, just as they fuelled Sarrafi in the making of this important project. Our journey continues with feature articles on artists as diverse as Elizabeth Price, Alex Garland, and Jenni Olson, examined powerfully by Catherine Fowler, Wheeler Winston Dixon, and Amin Heidari respectively. Meanwhile, Senses editor Fiona Villella composed a poignant piece on Saidin Salkic’s My Heart Bled like Niagara Falls, while Rebecca Chew and Emily Rytmeister complete our Features section with texts on cinema’s ever-evolving technological substrate and documentary ethnography in its overlaps with the work of mourning. The Interviews section likewise straddles the past and the present, with Sally Shafto’s intimate interview with Florence Delay, most well-known for her performance as Joan of Arc in Bresson’s Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc, 1962), sitting alongside regular contributor Gary M. Kramer’s interviews with present-day filmmakers whose works screened at Cannes 2024 (Jonás Trueba, Antoine Chevrollier, Federico Luis) and Tribeca 2024 (Celina Murga). Indian-based film writer Aditya Shrikrishna interviews Haobam Paban Kumar, whose films closely reflect the social and political climate of Northeast India. Finally, Joshua Bogatin interviews American independent filmmaker Graham Swon, providing insight into his unique processes and influences. Elsewhere in the Issue, we have our usual big Spring/Summer festivals covered from Cannes to Karlovy Vary, with insights from writers new and old to the Senses’ readership. Elena Lazic reflects on the gendered programming and American cultural homogenisation of auteur cinema at Cannes; Cerise Howard considers the impact and legacy of Karlovy Vary Festival President Jiří Bartoška’s 30 years in the role. Cinema’s past and the increasing role of classic and repertory cinema is covered in great detail by regular contributors Joshua Bogatin, Jonathan Mackris and Senses’ Managing Editor Nace Zavrl in their reports on The Nitrate Picture Show, San Francisco Silent Film Festival and Il Cinema Ritrovato respectively, while Maja Korbecka looks at the archival experiences at Taiwan International Documentary Festival. Finally, in a first for the journal, Zifei Wang reports on the entirely online Film For Mother Festival, a celebration of and community for film culture beyond physical and ideological boundaries. We also have three new entries in our Great Directors series that exemplify the breadth and depth of global cinema cultures: the Chilean director Patricio Guzmán, the prolific British filmmaker Muriel Box and the Soviet director Grigori Aleksandrov, who experimented with popular genres such as the musical during Stalin’s regime. In our Great Actors series Jaimey Fisher explores the career of Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson, while Henri de Corinth’s book review of Khadijeh Habashneh’s Knights of Cinema: The Story of the Palestinian Film Unit is a compelling intervention into discourses of revolutionary and liberationist cinema in the Middle East. As always, we hope these spirited reflections on film in all its aesthetic and political valences offer plenty of fine reading.
