Author Holly Willis

A few days after the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini after her arrest by morality police for being in violation of Iran’s dress code on September 16, 2022, I began viewing horror films. Finger po...

You might think of French writer-director Céline Sciamma’s remarkable 2014 film Girlhood as a portrait, one that captures the likeness of a girl, not in stasis but unfolding in time and space to underscore the ...

“Expanded cinema” as a term is invitingly grandiose, connoting expansion, breadth, inclusivity, even possibility. Something bigger. Something better. Something, indeed, cinematic. The term resonates powerfully ...

Over a black screen, birds chirp in the near distance. The dulcet chords of a cello begin to sound, embellished by a woman’s voice moving joyfully through a sequence of notes before harmonizing with another voi...

In 1994, a 22-minute film appeared that at once announced a new, prodigious filmmaking talent and helped bring renewed attention to serious short-form filmmaking in the United States. The film was The Smell of ...

Marilyn Times Five (1973 USA 12 mins) Filmmaker: Bruce Conner Mus: “I’m Through with Love”, words and music by Matty Malneck, Gus Kahn, Jerry Livingston, sung by Marilyn Monroe Bruce Conner’s film car...

Dancers of the Sea/Les Danseuses de la mer (1956 France 20 mins) Source: ACMI Collections Filmmaker: Jean Painlevé Mus: Pierre Conte “You will not make documentaries if you do not feel the subject”, s...

Vagabond (1985 France 104 mins) Source: CNC Prod Co: Ciné Tamaris/Films A2/Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française/Channel Four Films Prod: Oury Milshtein Dir, Scr: Agnès Varda Phot: Patrick B...

Precise and insightful discussion of the films of this intuitive, perceptive and innovative filmmaker.