Honestly, no. If anything, people will probably end up thinking that's how I look at art.
That said, I don't let myself pass judgment on works of art that haven't been seen, read, or heard yet—something a lot of people seem all too eager to do.
That's fair. I just mean that, to me, the opinion of someone who walks out of a theater after 15 or 20 minutes because they hated the movie is just as valid as the opinion of someone who loved it. As long as they can back up their stance with some kind of reasoning, I'll listen.
P.S. I wasn't actually judging the film itself. I was just jumping in because I was looking for some context regarding the scale of the production. Still waiting, though... 😉
Dennis Hall41 said:I think artists deserve a certain level of basic respect: approaching their work—whether reading, watching, or listening—with good intentions rather than jumping to rushed or hysterical judgments.
Why would anyone need to sit through an entire movie just to realize it’s bad? You talk about "basic respect" and having "good intentions"... but where is the director's basic respect for the audience? Are we just some unwashed masses who are supposed to bow down the second some self-important director decides to grace us lowly commoners with a tiny crumb of their infinite wisdom? Yeah, right.
What can I even say to you? If you consider movies like "Law & Order" or "Saving Private Ryan" to be the absolute pinnacle of cinematic art, then Reygadas definitely isn't for you.
What am I supposed to say to you other than that your post is pretty much nonsense? Where did you get the idea that I think "Law & Order" or "Saving Private Ryan" are the heights of filmmaking? Is it because you couldn't find a real argument, so you're trying to force this narrative that I'm just "unrefined" (or worse, trying to claim your taste is objectively better than everyone else's)?
And, BTW, the opinion of someone the movie didn't move at all (or left such a bad first impression that they walked out of the theater) is just as valid as yours. It's purely a matter of taste. One person loves it, another hates it. There’s really no deep philosophy behind it.
Dennis Hall41 said:Fifty people showed up simply because they lack any sense of nuance or personality; all they care about is mindless action and fast pacing...
Cut out the pseudo-intellectual act. You could have put it much more accurately, like: fifty people turned out because the movie was just bad. And that "excellent" attitude of yours... anyone who doesn't see the film exactly the way you do is just some "fake indie kid" or whatever. I guess you're the only true one, right?
Sorry, I'm not trying to start a flame war, but I honestly don't get why nobody can give a coherent explanation for the scale of this film... It shouldn't be that hard.
I generally agree with most of what’s been said—there absolutely needs to be some form of oversight. But this idea that the Human Rights Film Festival could somehow function on a fraction of $10... it just shows we're missing some fundamental realities here. It's no wonder when journalists start pumping out completely uninformed nonsense in the media.
Also, if anyone has a link to a breakdown of who's getting paid how much and for what, please share it. I'm genuinely curious.
Wolfman, just two things here: 1. Is it possible the festival received a version without subtitles, and someone just grabbed a subtitled copy from NBC (or somewhere else) to fix it? I'm honestly just guessing. 2. Orlando—since you saw him at our local theater with American subtitles, wouldn't that mean the organizers can easily get their hands on a copy? I assume the same goes for Chantal.
It would be a huge stretch for me to claim: a) that the movie was played from a DVD b) or that it was shown illegally without me verifying those facts beforehand.
Honestly, I just assumed CBS had owned a copy with American subtitles for ages and, wouldn't you know it, they just handed it over to the organizers for the screening. It was likely all above board, too; I can't imagine anyone involved would risk breaking the law when everyone in the industry knows exactly how messy copyright issues can get if things aren't handled properly.
Is it just me, or did a massive crowd turn out for that movie they aired on CBS? I don't see anything controversial about it unless someone can actually point out where a scandal might be hiding, but it’s weird—does nobody else remember the title? I’d love to ask the people in charge what happened there, but I can't exactly go asking questions out of nowhere without a real reason. And if they showed one specific film on CBS, then it's "one film," not "a bunch of them." Did I miss a whole slew of other titles or something?
Plus, the entire main program is subtitled in American.
Amanda Nguyen5 said:1. Learn how to address people properly. It’s a good life skill to have. 2. Of course there's a difference. The whole conductor thing is secondary; I'm talking about her level of self-confidence and belief in herself. She didn't know how to bribe a conductor either, but she believed she could—that's my point. But honestly, it's not that deep. I explicitly mentioned that this is just one of those many "brilliant little details" that might seem trivial to the plot, but they all add their own flavor to the movie.
Have you ever heard of correction tape?
2. Of course there's a difference. Mentioning the conductor isn't the point; I'm talking about self-confidence and believing in oneself. Even this woman didn't know how to manipulate the conductor, yet she believed she could—that's what I'm getting at.
We could go back and forth on this all day, but I don't feel like getting philosophical when nobody's asking for it. Take care.
Amanda Nguyen5, I think you might have mixed up your wires a little bit here. The protagonist doesn't say she'll "sort everything out with the conductors without any issues" (and honestly, I'm not even sure what she'd be solving with them anyway); instead, her friend asks, "Can you pay? I don't even know how to bribe a conductor," and the protagonist just replies, "Don't worry, I'll handle it." There's a bit of a difference there, right?
Amanda Nguyen5 said:First off, I’m putting out an SOS to all you almighty moderators: please don't move this over to the "Announcements" section. This isn't just a quick heads-up. This thread covers the entire project from start to finish—it's meant for the announcements, the follow-up comments, the impressions, and eventually, the big debates. Let's keep it all in one place! And another thing—the stuff in the sticky threads is way harder to read than it is here. It's like half the size!
Whether people realize it or not—and honestly, sometimes even with the law backing them up—human rights get violated, ignored, or just completely overlooked all the time. We’ve been debating and redefining what these rights actually mean for centuries. That’s why the Human Rights Film Festival matters. It’s a chance to step back, rethink everything, and see the world through a totally different lens. We’re hitting the big five this year, which is pretty huge! This is easily the most inclusive festival in the city. We’ve lined up over thirty films—everything from heavy-hitting documentaries and features to short films, and yeah, we’re even throwing in a classic Hollywood musical just for fun. The HRFF is all about tackling those deep ideological debates and giving a voice to the marginalized, the silenced, and the perspectives that usually go unnoticed. Plus, we'll have some heavy-hitting guests, panel discussions, and a killer lineup of live music to keep things moving.
The festival is happening this year from February 8th through the 13th over at the Europe cinema!
The festival kicks off with Emilia Estevez’s “Bobby.” It’s an adaptation centered on the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and honestly, I have no clue why this movie skipped over our local theaters and festivals despite all the massive praise it got from critics and audiences alike. It’s a heavy-hitting critique of the social and political chaos gripping America in the late 60s, blending gritty archival footage with fictional portraits played by Hollywood legends. Looking at the rest of the lineup—which is a wild mix of genres, lengths, and origins—there are a few standouts you can't miss. First up is John Gianvit’s “Motive for Profit and the Whispering Wind.” It’s visually stunning, radical, and a total, uncompromising elegy for American political history. Critics are calling his style "anti-Michael Moore," which is a pretty bold claim. Then there’s “Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me It Would Be This Bad in Afghanistan?” by the contemporary Dutch enfant terrible Cyrus Frisch. It’s a deeply subjective psychological drama and actually holds the title of the first feature film shot entirely on a mobile phone. If you want something different, check out Alex Cox’s “Trackers 2.0.” It’s a minimalist social satire that plays with Western tropes and B-movies; the characters even dive into things like Charlton Heston’s role during the war in Iraq. Finally, we have “Landscape Production,” a documentary featuring the lens of the famous artist Edward Burtynski. He has this incredible way of capturing both the beauty and the sheer strangeness of landscapes shaped by massive, permanent industrialization.
The side program dives deep into "female authorship" through the lens of film history. We’re looking at twelve different directors who, from the 1920s all the way to today, have dared to treat women as actual subjects. It’s about seeing them as complex individuals—full of their own unique perspectives—instead of just being used as objects to fuel some big cinematic spectacle. It’s a quick, diverse journey through how bodies, emotions, desires, joy, drama, oppression, and pure logic are portrayed when seen through a woman's eyes.
We’ve got a special guest joining this part of the program: Hito Steyerl. She’s an incredible film and video artist, plus a brilliant theorist. Her essays and documentary works dive deep into post-colonial critique, tackling the heavy stuff like globalization, migration, racism, and nationalism within the cultural and political landscape of the US. It's going to be intense..
There isn't a whole lot on this site, honestly. But hey, at least you can grab the essentials—you can download the full program as a PDF.
There’s a ton of good stuff on the lineup—honestly, a few absolute gems that are totally worth your time.
I’d have to pick the older stuff, specifically those classics by Varda and Chytilová—you know, like "Happy Accidents" or "Fruit of Paradise." You’ve got your absolute classics in there—think Deren or Dulac—but then you’ve also got some fresh new stuff like Potter. It's a solid mix. Word on the street is that De Palma’s latest stuff is pretty easy to skip. Honestly? I'm fine with that. But if you were one of those people obsessed with "Passion of Joan of Arc"—which, let's face it, was such a masterpiece when we saw it back in the day during that local film series—you actually have something worth watching coming up. We’re talking about the new Ulrich Seidl flick, "Import/Export." It’s getting huge praise, and I think it's definitely worth the hype. Sokurov, the guy behind that modern classic "Russian Ark," is showing his new flick "Aleksandra." Honestly, it’d also be pretty cool to catch "Bobby"—you know, that Emilia Estevez project. For some weird reason, it completely skipped our theaters here (and video stores too, if I recall correctly). I haven't really followed Aaltonen’s work, unfortunately, but out of these recent picks, the new Alex Cox movie might actually be worth your time. People over at PBS got a taste of his style a few months back during his film night, where they showed the cult classic "Repo Man." His newest one, "Tracers 2.0," is basically a parody of Westerns and B-movies—the title pretty much gives it away. Also, Arzner and Sagan are definitely must-sees for any real cinephile.
The biggest pro is definitely these older films you don't get to see every day. Plus, getting a free ticket is a huge win, even if it does feel a little bit cheap sometimes. The massive downside to this whole festival, though, is that it clashes perfectly with the Antonioni series running over at the local independent cinema—specifically those last three films from his famous tetralogy (originally a trilogy). It's such a huge bummer because the entire month of January was totally empty for screenings (except for that winning cycle at Europe toward the end of the month). Now, suddenly, at the start of February, you've got Antonioni competing with an awesome Human Rights Film Festival. And we all know this is exactly when the heavy hitters hit the big screens right before awards season—this time it's "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men." And then there's February itself. It's cat month and finals season for students, who are exactly the people these festivals are supposed to target. That's another strike against it.
I guess we'll just have to find a way to squeeze it all in somehow.
I don't mean to start an argument here, but I wouldn't call that a "huge drawback" for the whole festival. No cultural event has an absolute monopoly on scheduling, and there's always going to be some overlap with other things happening.
As far as the programming goes, I think it's looking pretty interesting...
Monty Python: The Monster Box Set is out: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monty-Python.../dp/B000W8AB22 Does anyone know if this is available to grab here in the States, and if so, what's the damage? Come on, someone's got to have the scoop! 😉
Hallam Fo was shown on Saturday night, IIRC. As for the other movies, I honestly doubt they'll make the cut because: a) the screening slots at MUO are pretty limited, b) some of the film prints have already moved on to other locations.
On Tuesday, July 24th at 9:15 PM, the Barbacan theater will be screening the Japanese horror classic "Kurutta ippeiji" (stranica ludilo) from 1926. What makes this screening special is that benshi (a live narrator) is traveling all the way from Japan to perform. Since the film is silent, it’s definitely an experience for those who enjoy that style...
ruggedmarlin15
P.S. There's also a Tamara Obrovac concert on Monday night.
For anyone interested, the Sundance Film Festival reprise in Washington, D.C. is happening from July 28th through August 2nd. Location: Scena Amadeo at the MUO.