We’re always saying you don’t need the most complicated equipment to create great videos. Case in point, Apple hired Japanese director Takashi Miike to create a short film, using the new iPhone 15. Of course since it’s Miike, there’s a talking hand puppet that shoots to kill. Check out the results on Youtube. Your mileage […]
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Upcoming DC Environmental Film Festival!
As we come into spring, it’s delightful to see the growing green and budding blossoms that begin to reappear throughout the DC area. If nature intrigues you or you just want to spend a little more time out of the house while the weather gets warm, look no further than DCEFF’s 32nd annual environmental film […]
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Kanopy Cinema Series and Upcoming Event!
One of the many resources available to faculty and students through the American University library is Kanopy, a streaming video platform primarily for educational and academic content. Kanopy offers a rotating collection of media with access to over 10,000 titles and it’s completely free to use with your AU library account! One of Kanopy’s newest […]
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Celebrating Agnès Varda
Today’s Google Doodle for December 13, 2023 is of Agnès Varda, a Belgian-born French filmmaker who is known as a pioneer of French New Wave Cinema. Her style was influenced by her experience with still photography and her method of “cinécriture” (“cinematic writing” or “writing on film”) filmmaking. If you’re interested in learning more about […]
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2021 Made in Hong Kong Festival
One of the great things about living in DC is that so many of our cultural institutions are free to the public. This includes some of the Smithsonian’s special events, like the annual Made in Hong Kong film festival hosted by the National Museum of Asian Art. The festival is virtual this year due to […]
Continue readingNew Acquisition!
Media Services’ first new acquisition of 2020 is…. The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang! This movie (BLU 16732) was snubbed by the Academy, but Awkwafina made history at the Golden Globes when she became the first woman of Asian descent to win in a leading actress film category. Yes, it took until 2020 for that […]
Continue readingRemembering Agnès Varda
On March 29th, the world lost Agnès Varda, one of the most quietly influential filmmakers of the 20th (and 21st) century. Varda, who released her first film in 1954, is considered by many to be the ‘godmother’ of French new Wave cinema, if not the first New Wave filmmaker. Her first film, La Pointe-Courte, predated […]
Continue readingBlack History Month: Contemporary Black Directors Part 1
Part of working at a university library is accumulating and highlighting diverse creators in our collections. For Black History Month, I didn’t just want to just slap a list of Black Films up on our blog and call it a day. Instead, this will be the first of two posts featuring contemporary Black Directors, and […]
Continue readingBernardo Bertolucci and Stephen Hillenburg
This week saw the death of two artists, giants in their respective fields. On Monday, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci died at age 77. Bertolucci rose to fame with the 1973 release of Last Tango in Paris, a controversial film that was earned an X rating after extensive cuts. One of these scenes depicted a middle […]
Continue readingBlade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049 comes out tomorrow, October 6th, playing basically everywhere.It’s supposed to be a not-awful sequel, which is easy to believe after watching the trailer: Naturally, the library has Blade Runner (HU DVD 1064), as well as Villeneuve’s Incendies (HU DVD 3563), Prisoners (HU DVD 11188), and Sicario (DVD 12919). Oh, and Arrival (HU […]
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