AFI FEST-AFM: The Perils of Online Bérénice Reynaud January 2022 Festival Reports The Perils November 2021: as I prepare, confident in my virtual screening accreditation, to make my film selection for the AFI Fest, a bad surprise is in store for me: virtual screenings represent only a fract...
Some Winners and Then Some: Sundance 2021 Bérénice Reynaud May 2021 Festival Reports I From the comfort of my home, and the peace of my computer, I didn’t miss the long lines in the cold, or my shoes soaked in dirty snow, nor did I miss the crowded trips in the shuttles fighting week-end traff...
Forgotten Wars: The AFI FEST/AFM 2020 (Virtual Events) Bérénice Reynaud May 2021 Festival Reports AFI FEST Presented by Audi Two Invisible Wars Ensconced in the mountains of the Southern Caucasus, a disputed breakaway enclave within Azerbaijan, the small republic of Artsakh (formerly Nagorno-Karabakh) is...
Your Daughters Come Back to You: The 28th Pan African Film and Arts Festival Bérénice Reynaud July 2020 Festival Reports The label of “auteur cinema”, whether poetic or political, is often the cloak under which African cinema is “discovered” and appreciated. We know the canon: Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cissé, Med Hondo, Djibril...
AFI/AFM 2010 – Places to Fly Away From Bérénice Reynaud April 2020 Festival Reports I believe in ghosts, vampires and public employees That a certain morning fly away from their houses. Because I am a man in love. — Luis Caicedo Places of Anger and Desire Female directors provided rewardi...
Sundance 2020 Bérénice Reynaud April 2020 Festival Reports What are you looking at when you’re looking at me? As Sundance may be one of the last film festivals I will cover for a while, maybe it is a good time to probe what a festivalgoer’s pleasure is made of. 1. Do...
The Grain of the Real, The Grain of the Surreal, and the Grain of Light: Vancouver International Film Festival 2019 Bérénice Reynaud January 2020 Festival Reports The Grain of the Real Always the champion of the most cutting-edge documentaries from Asia, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) presented two remarkable films by young Chinese women, which, albeit...
Recovering Hidden Histories: The 27th PanAfrican Art and Film Festival Bérénice Reynaud July 2019 Festival Reports The Voice in the Church For the opening night of its 27th edition at the Directors Guild of America, the PanAfrican Art and Film Festival (PAFF), landed quite a coup by organising, a week before its internatio...
Questions of Agency: Sundance 2019 Bérénice Reynaud March 2019 Festival Reports The Warden and the Young Man In 2012, Ava DuVernay made history by becoming the first black woman filmmaker to get a major award at Sundance. Since then, she has continued to change the way African American wo...
Rendez-vous in Autumn: China-US Summit/American Film Market/AFI FEST Bérénice Reynaud March 2019 Festival Reports On Oct 30, the day before the American Film Market opened in Santa Monica, the Asian Society of Southern California had organised the US-China Entertainment Summit at the Skirball Center, allowing the speakers ...
Vancouver 2018 – Not-so-strange Bedfellows Bérénice Reynaud December 2018 Festival Reports Beyond the Great (Digital) Divide Posited at both ends of the aesthetic spectrum (French auteur cinema versus Sundance alum), Doubles Vies (Non-Fiction) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? engage in a conversation ab...
AFM/AFI FEST 2017: Magic Women, Haptic Men Bérénice Reynaud March 2018 Festival Reports – Are you going to sleep with the Chinese? – Yes, I think so. – When? – Maybe later on today. Barbara Two events made the trip worthy to the American Film Market (AFM). First was the screening of Mathieu A...