myDylarama

Pick of Sheffield Doc Fest - Ali And His Miracle Sheep
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Pick-of-Sheffield-Doc-Fest-Ali-And-His-Miracle-Sheep

Maythem Ridha’s short film Ali And His Miracle Sheep won Best Film in the UK Competition of the Sheffield Doc Fest. I feel it’s very important before you begin to read this review that you know who I am. I am not an academic, nor a seasoned critic, I am a pizza delivery driver from Basingstoke who wrote something on the internet and was subsequently invited to pitch some reviews for Mydylarama during the Sheffdoc festival. No I’m not entirely sure how it happened either but here we all are… (...) #Festivals

Q&A with Zillah Bowes, director of STAYING
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Q-A-with-Zillah-Bowes-director-of-STAYING

Zillah Bowes is a Welsh/English writer, director and photographer. She trained at the NFTS and has made films as a director and cinematographer, which have been shown worldwide. She won a John Brabourne Award from the Film and TV Charity in 2020. Her debut SMALL PROTESTS was nominated for a Grierson Award and won the Current Short Cuts Vimeo Award and Best Short Documentary at the London Independent Film Festival. As a cinematographer, her feature films include ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS, which (...) #EFN

Interview with Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Charline-Bourgeois-Tacquet

In light of Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s participation at this year’s Semaine de la Critique in Cannes, we thought we’d publish this interview we conducted with her in collaboration with the Brasserie du Court at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, where her short Pauline Asservie was in competition. A quirky, touching yet highly amusing little film that encapsulated the skills Charline is now deploying fully in her most recent (...) #Clermont_FF

Short of the Week: Stones in Hand by Mo’min Swaitat
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Short-of-the-Week-Stones-in-Hand-by-Mo-min-Swaitat

This week, we thought we’d highlight this wonderfully engaging zero-budget short by Palestinian director Mo’min Swaitat free to watch on Youtube. Stones In Hand is an experimental docu-fiction based on the director’s experiences and memories of growing up in Jenin City in the West Bank. It’s an interesting and rough collage of archive footage, uprisings, scenes in London, music, and lengthier recollections based on the cast’s own memories of the homes they left behind, all combined to (...) #Shorts

Our Picks + Bubblegum Noir & Promising Young Woman
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-Bubblegum-Noir-A-Promising-Young-Woman

We’re skipping ep 23 given the relevance of ep 24 to this month’s releases - normal service will resume in 2 weeks! This week, our guest is Anna Smith, leading film critic and broadcaster and host of the popular #Podcast Girls On Film. Our focus is women as lead characters in sexually-charged noir films from the 90s to the present day - to the new spate of films that belong to what Anna calls Bubblegum Noir, using Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman Subscribe for offers at: (...) Podcast

▻https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620292
▻https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11469196
▻https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10692788
▻https://gazafightsforfreedom.com

Our Picks + We Work: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-We-Work-Or-the-Making-and-Breaking-of-a-47-Billion-Unicorn

This week, we discuss the documentary charting the rise and fall of co-working space/real estate scam We Work and its eccentric co-founder Adam Neumann. We cover the ethics of co-working spaces and their implications and the cultish elements of the We Work “experience”. We flag John Carpenter’s prescient classic They Live and the Line Of Duty finale. Support us: 💷 ko-fi.com/mydy Subscribe for offers at: mydy.link/subscribe 🎧 (...) #Podcast

I Am An Island, dir. by Damian Draven
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/I-Am-An-Island-dir-by-Damian-Draven

Johnny drives home late one evening to spend time with his wife. He runs her a bath and goes to the kitchen to pour them both a glass of wine. We hear the disembodied voice of the wife shouting from the bathroom about a call from a producer whilst Johnny’s mobile is being constantly called by a woman driving and begging to speak to him. Thus begins the film’s opening sequence before things start to get confusing... Damian Draven is a production designer and director, beginning his career on (...) #Shorts

▻https://www.facebook.com/DamianDraven

Our Picks + One Night In Miami
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-One-Night-In-Miami

Regina King’s directorial debut starring Kingsley Ben-Adir Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. Sam Cooke, is a fictionalised account of the four icons’ meeting in Miami, Fl after Clay’s first heavyweight title about with Sonny Liston. The film is based on the Kemp Powers play which imagines their one night at the Hampton House, located in Brownsville, outside of Liberty City, due to segregation laws in Miami, which was the base for Miami’s black (...) #Podcast

Our Picks + Crip Camp
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-Crip-Camp

This week we are joined by psychotherapist Antonella Mercurio to talk about Crip Camp and the issues around activism, aspirational and revolutionary movements and disability rights sparked by the documentary. Crip Camp (Netflix) sheds light on summer camp for teenagers with disabilities and the rights movement borne out of its pioneering set up. Top picks include horror film The Empty Man, a creepy, hugely entertaining feature released to mostly so-so reviews in 2020 but has built a bit (...) #Podcast

Interview with Denis Dobrovoda, director of Savage
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Denis-Dobrovoda-director-of-Savage

Denis is the director of short film Savage, a dramatised account of the abhorrent but sadly little-known concept of human zoos, a practice that was part and parcel of Britain’s colonial empire. With great attention to detail and historical accuracy, Savage is an original, moving take on a phenomenon that plays an integral part in the development of modern institutionalised racism. Lead Florence Nzenwefi gives a touching and dignified performance as man cruelly uprooted from his home and (...) #Shorts

▻https://directorsnotes.com/2021/04/19/denis-dobrovoda-savage
▻https://www.savagefilm.co.uk

Interview with Audrey Jean-Baptiste and Maxime Jean-Baptiste, codirectors of Écoutez le battement de nos images
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Audrey-Jean-Baptiste-and-Maxime-Jean-Baptiste-codirect

Is your film mainly an account that you want handed down? How did you construct the voice-over? The film is essentially tied to my desire to breathe life back into the things that disappeared when the Guiana Space Centre was set up in Kourou in the 60s. To script the voice-over, we dipped into our close networks. For example, our father’s , who’s from Guiana himself. So we were able to exchange ideas in a trusting atmosphere, which helped elicit memories. We also met people whose families’ (...) #Clermont_FF

Q&A with Matt Houlihan: A Brit Reacts To Bollywood
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Q-A-with-Matt-Houlihan-A-Brit-Reacts-To-Bollywood

We caught up with actor Matt Houlihan to discuss his lockdown venture: the very successful YouTube “reaction” series A Brit Reacts To Bollywood. Matt, who was still working right up until last year’s first lockdown - playing Uncle Vanya on stage - talks about his discovery and growing love of Bollywood and Indian cinema, his foray into reaction videos and the impact on the pandemic on his work. Here’s one of Matt’s highly successful videos! You can subscribe to Matt’s YouTube channel and (...) #Screen_Extra

▻https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp7Sd8MWGQBPnBdqiFud8sA
▻https://twitter.com/houlihanactor?lang=en

Nomadland take 2: A reconfiguration of a terribly dysfunctional society.
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Nomadland-take-2-A-reconfiguration-of-a-terribly-dysfunctional-societ

In 2011 the USG mine in Empire Nevada closed, effectively creating a ghost town. Caught in the wake of this collapse, Fern (Frances McDormand) has lost her job, her home and is reeling from her husband’s recent passing. Fern becomes part of the disparate and transient “nomad” community. The nomads are usually older, often solitary, Americans living on the road in cars, vans, and mobile homes, following seasonal work and forming short term convoys. “What the nomads are doing is not that (...) #Features

/ #Drama

Our Picks + The Obituary Of Tunde Johnson
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-The-Obituary-Of-Tunde-Johnson

This week, we are joined by poet and writer Ryan Ormonde to discuss Ali LeRoi’s feature film The Obituary Of Tunde Johnso and yet another Jack Black flick, Bernie. As usual, comments and feedback welcome via Twitter @Mydylarama 🎙️ mydy.link/podcast Support us: 💷 ko-fi.com/mydy Subscribe for offers at: mydy.link/subscribe 🎧 mydy.link/apple #Features

▻https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8815382
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Polka_King
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_(2011_film)

Nomadland : A Romanticisation Of Misery ?
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Nomadland-A-Romanticisation-Of-Misery

In Chloé Zhao’s 2020 docu-fiction, Frances McDormand plays a woman in her sixties whose financial circumstances force her out of her home and into a life on the road, roaming the country in a camper van in search of temporary work. Nomadland (2020) is a romanticisation of misery. And for that reason, it is going to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. In an era where hopelessness is the norm and anxiety about our bleak future is prevalent among most of us, cultural productions such as (...) #Features

▻https://kavehabbasian.co.uk/home-1
▻https://www.instagram.com/kaveh_abbasian

Our Picks + Typical
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-Typical

We’re stretching things a bit this week to include filmed theatre: our guest is director Anastasia Osei-Kuffour whose latest production is Typical at the Soho Theatre (available to stream online). The play stars Richard Blackwood as Christopher Alder, a Black man who died in police custody in 1998. The play, a monologue that’s halfway between poetry and rap recounting Christopher’s last day and the acts of racism he experiences leading up to his death, highlights issues around racial (...) #Podcast

▻https://sohotheatreondemand.com/show/typical

Interview with Zachary Woods, director of David
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Zachary-Woods-director-of-David

Is David based on anyone you know? Nope. My co-writer Brandon Gardner and I talked about lots of people we care about when we were writing. But there wasn’t one person in particular. What gave you the idea of setting the story at a therapist’s? My dad is a therapist and would sometimes get calls from patients in crisis when we were on family vacations. He’d have to walk far away, into the woods or down the beach or whatever, to talk to them. I always thought that must’ve been intense for (...) #Clermont_FF

Our Picks + Judas And The Black Messiah
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Our-Picks-Judas-And-The-Black-Messiah

Highlights this week include the Glasgow Film Festival, entirely online, with its usual strong selection and carefully curated programmes, running from 24 February to 7 March and MLK/FBI is a 2020 American documentary directed by Sam Pollard who co-directed the 1987 doc Eyes on the Prize, which traces the FBI’s investigation of Martin Luther King. Obviously Eyes on the Prize comes up as we discuss our main film of the evening: Judas And The Black Messiah Subscribe for offers at: (...) #Podcast

▻https://glasgowfilm.org/glasgow-film-festival/latest/news/glasgow-film-festival-announces-2021-programme
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyes_on_the_Prize
▻https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9784798

Interview with Ibrahim Handal, director of Bethlehem 2001
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Ibrahim-Handal-director-of-Bethlehem-2001

Why did you choose to revisit this – I presume traumatic – event as a short film? Actually, I am still trying to understand what I have done and why. However, I have held in these memories and feelings throughout these years with the purpose of sharing them in a short film. Other filmmakers might have already told this story differently, but I tried to use my own memories to show events that have happened. These events might not even feel as traumatic anymore, because I shared them with the (...) #Clermont_FF

Interview with Sami Tlili, director of Hors-jeu flagrant [Obvious Offside]
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Sami-Tlili-director-of-Hors-jeu-flagrant-Obvious-Offsi

Do you have a particular interest in football? In your opinion, what place does football have in Tunisia? I am both a big fan of football as well as a critic of its excesses (the business of football, the political exploitation of football, the fanaticism of both the fans and the major actors in this sport, to cite a few examples). I often go to the stadium to watch my favorite team play but I don’t like to talk about football, and it annoys me when debates over football are put front and (...) #Clermont_FF

Pick of IFFR: Sexual Drive, directed by Yoshida Kota
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Pick-of-IFFR-Sexual-Drive-directed-by-Yoshida-Kota

International Film Festival Rotterdam had some dazzling pieces in its programme this year, but Sexual Drive seriously stands out in its ambition and creative execution. Japanese director Yoshida Kota’s odd but undeniably endearing film is triumphant in illustrating the intimate link between food and sex, at the sweaty intersection of lust and repressed desires. Sexual Drive is a striking piece in that the plot is three separate vignettes, all involving a seemingly sudden and dramatic (...) #Features

Interview with Wissam Charaf, Director of Pas de Panique [Don’t Panic]
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Wissam-Charaf-Director-of-Pas-de-Panique-Don-t-Panic

How did your film come about? In the beginning, there was the desire to talk about what had happened to Lebanon since October 2019, precisely, a catastrophic economic crisis and the protest movement that ensued. What happened in Lebanon in the space of a year is of such tremendous violence and vulgarity, namely the loss of all the people’s savings due to the regime’s vile kleptocracy, that I wanted to make a film that would do justice to this brutal and vulgar violence. Last year in (...) #Clermont_FF

FESTIVAL SUBMISSION - EARLY BIRD DEADLINE
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/FESTIVAL-SUBMISSION-EARLY-BIRD-DEADLINE

The EARLY BIRD DEADLINE to submit your short to the @efnfilmfestival - Spring Edition is in less than a week! Submit at efnfestival.org via @filmfreeway to: Win 2 awards on the night, the CRITICS’ CHOICE and the AUDIENCE FAVOURITE Get feedback from a panel of highly accredited critics (@leedsfilmfest , BBC, @genesiscinema) Win an expensive package of industry rewards by our sponsors: @finaldraftscreenwriting , @official_inktip , @shootingpeople , @genesiscinema , (...) #Promos

LOCKDOWN SHORT CITADEL NOW ON MUBI
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/LOCKDOWN-SHORT-CITADEL-NOW-ON-MUBI

The Radical Film Network’s Elizabeth Mizon reviews John Smith’s new short Citadel, released on MUBI. "Avant-garde filmmaker John Smith premieres a new short, ‘Citadel’, on MUBI this week. Shots from the first lockdown of the glass spires and busy cranes of London’s financial district are paired with those of people encased in the urban glass-and-brick sprawl below, alongside excerpts of Boris Johnson’s speeches recorded before and after the pandemic crashed into reality. As it develops, the (...) #Promos

▻https://vimeo.com/459066331

Interview with Ramzi Bashour, director of The Trees
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/Interview-with-Ramzi-Bashour-director-of-The-Trees

How much are you aware of the severity of the droughts in Lebanon? Is this what sparked your interest in this subject matter? A lot of the environmental science concerned in the film derived from discussions with my father who is a soil-chemist and professor of agriculture in Lebanon. Droughts were not specifically what sparked my interest. It was more about sustainable agriculture and climate change on the whole. We don’t only have dry years, we also flood sometimes – but this is because (...) #Clermont_FF