Annemarie Jacir on reclamation and telling hidden histories in Palestine 36
All the details of how to control and occupy a people are placed from that (British colonial) moment. The British were experts at it by the time they came to Palestine.…
history
13 posts
Joaquin Phoenix’s Tired Napoleon Stretches the Idea of Common Knowledge into Fiction
There’s a comic by the artist Bestie which I saw as a kid, and it’s stuck with me ever since I first read it in Sunday morning cartoons. On the left is Napoleon laying on a bed, legs spread while José…
Sydney II: Lost and Found Review - An Emotional Story that Contextualises Australia’s Maritime Involvement in WW2
When history was made in 2008 with the discovery of the wreckage of HMAS Sydney (II), I’m ashamed to say that my collective response was ‘ok, so what?’. Newspapers tried to distill decades of mystery,…
The Furnace Review - A Long Subdued Journey into the Golden Unknown
This review contains mild spoilers. For some reason, as I walked out of my screening of Roderick MacKay’s feature debut, The Furnace, the imagery of a white-gowned choir of kids across the landscape…
Misbehaviour Review – A Clever Reminder of the Role of Women’s Liberation Pioneers
Powered by JustWatch The year is 1970 and early stirrings of the Women’s Liberation Movement are coming to life in Britain. Women from different classes and backgrounds are starting to form orga…
Welcome to Awards Don't Matter!
Welcome to... Follow along with hosts Andrew F Peirce and David Giannini as they travel through the history of the Academy Awards by looking at each of the Best Picture winners and discussing thei…
Longest Day in Chang'an Review - An Inventive Imagining of Tang China that Deserves a Wide Audience
In 8th century China, ex-Sleuthhound captain Zhang Xiaojing (Lei Jiayin) is given a 24 hour reprieve from his death-row prison cell to aid the newly formed Peacekeeper Corps foil an imminent terrorist…
Ugly Delicious Season 2 Review - An Essential Show About the Conversation Between Food Culture and Us
I am addicted to David Chang’s presence on screen. I’ve long enjoyed his addiction, affection, admiration, and respect for the food process. The first season of Ugly Delicious embraced the history and…
2020: The Future of Australian Arts Needs Your Help Right Now
Another year, another doom and gloom report for the state of Australian arts. I’m writing this before the box office wrap up reports have been written, but at a glance, it’s obvious that Australian f…
Weary, Stale, Flat and Unprofitable? The State of Shakespeare Onscreen
Three feature films inspired by Shakespeare and his work - Kenneth Branagh’s All is True, Claire McCarthy’s Ophelia, and David Michôd’s The King - made fleeting theatrical appearances in Australian ar…
The Irishman Review - Andrew Has a Blatantly Obvious Lightbulb Moment
I’d long wondered what Martin Scorsese’s fascination with Italian-American gangsters was. Why had he dedicated so much of his career to telling the mostly true stories of some of the most violent, cor…
Ophelia Review - A Welcome Recontextualisation of Shakespeare's Hamlet
The power of enduring stories is that they can be reshaped, remoulded, transmogrified, and morphed throughout time to become echoes of what they once were. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such story, havi…