Mid-Century Melancholia
Abby & Nancy Dish on Mid-Season Mad Men The Abby and Nancy Show (the one in my head) is back, this time for some high level analysis of the sixth season of Mad Men, or at least some low level analysis of the ketchup campaign, Joan’s undergarments and Peggy’s fashion/men/work problems. I had planned to [...]
The Best & Only Palestinian Film Fest in the South
According to the Arab American Institute, Harris County has one of the fastest growing Arab-American populations in the country, with a healthy dose of Palestinian émigrés and second-generation Palestinian Americans. Houston also has the second-oldest Palestinian Film Festival — the only one in Texas and the entire South. “The first Houston [...]
Review: Quiver
Dance and film are joined by movement as camera and body come together. Frame Dance Productions’ newest offering, Quiver, makes the most of that fact. Frame Dance artistic director Lydia Hance navigates a dual career track, exploring both film and live performance, and the intersection of both. Quiver opens with an oscillating pulse of a [...]
Girls Talk Girls
The Mystery of the Lena Dunham Hoopla Revealed or Not It’s public knowledge that I’m a pop culture illiterate. There’s no point name-dropping with me about your fancy friends because, chances are, I have never heard of them. I was so curious why every move of writer/producer/Lena Dunham was covered to death that I decided [...]
Review: Cocksucker Blues
Robert Frank’s Cocksucker Blues is anything but a traditional rock and roll documentary. Frank’s work has been archived and distributed by the MFAH since 1986. In 1972, The Rolling Stones commissioned Frank to document their tour, but the Stones didn’t approve the final cut. It never saw a commercial release, but a few showings a [...]
Cinema Circuit: 9th Annual Houston Jewish Film Festival
Defining “Jewish” is not terribly complicated; however, articulating Jewish identity (or any identity) can leave you running in circles. Thank God for the times when art, especially cinema, can guide and entertain us through the process of learning what it all means. Nine years ago, Doreen Joffe and Sharon Kagan, then volunteers at the Evelyn [...]
Review: Houston Cinema Arts Festival
November 8-12, 2012 Film festivals are overwhelming. I always think I’m going to pick the good ones, but doesn’t always work out that way. This year, for the Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF), I took a few chances. Here are the highlights. In an effort dubbed “Project Shirley,” Milestone Films — headed by husband and [...]
Review: Houston Cinema Arts Festival 2012
Another Houston Cinema Arts Festival (HCAF) has come and gone, which for me meant another five days in the dark. As with all festivals, you see a lot and you miss a lot. Three things stood out for me: Andrew Garrison’s charming Trash Dance, Phil Solomon’s epic American Falls [...]
Battle Lessons
War on Film at MFAH In conjunction with its exhibit, WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY: Images of Armed Conflict and Its Aftermath, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents War on Film, a series of five films chronicling armed conflict in the 20th century. Given the extensive catalog [...]
The Society of Cinema
Houston Cinema Arts Festival Brings It All Together The art of film is a major focus this month as the Houston Cinema Arts Society presents its fourth annual Houston [...]
Review: The Artist Is Present
Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, the new HBO documentary by Matthew Akers and Jeff Dupre, chronicles Serbian performance [...]
Beyond Last Tango
MFAH’s Bertolucci Retrospective Best known for Last Tango in Paris, his 1972 psychosexual drama starring Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider, Bernardo Bertolucci [...]
