FREE CINEMA NOW

  Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)  In its earliest days, the superimposed image was used mainly as a special effect, most notably in Victor Sjöström 's 1921 film The Phantom Carriage , where it created the illusion of ghosts in the afterlife. These days, the superimposed image is almost everywhere, from an editing dissolve that suggests a continuation in mood (e.g. the transition from a saddened Don Corleone in bed to his home country of Italy where his son Michael has sought refuge in The Godfather ) to a literal visualization of a character's inner psychology (e.g. the face of death on Norman Bates in Psycho ). For me, I find the superimposed image to be one of the most powerful visual strategies for conveying an idea or a feeling. In fact, last year I created a video essay on the works of Wong Kar-Wai that heavily relied on the use of superimposition to demonstrate the filmmaker's trademark visual fervor. Below, I've curated some standout superimposed images from ov...

Pawel Pawlikowski 's Ida tells the quietly haunting story of a young nun named Anna ( Agata Trzebuchowska ) who sets out to find her family origins in 1960s Poland. At the beginning of the film, the once-orphaned Anna learns that she still has one living relative: her aunt Wanda Gruz ( Agata Kulesza ), a revered court judge in the city. As Anna sets out on her journey of self-discovery, Pawlikowski, and cinematographers Ryszard Lenczewski and Lukasz Zal , announce their visual strategy for conveying their protagonist's hopeless and essentially powerless role in the world: by dwarfing the screen figure of Anna with a maximum amount of screen headroom. Look at how the following shot makes Anna look insignificant against the towering institution of the convent. In the city, Anna meets her aunt Wanda and there Anna learns that her real name is Ida Lebenstein. After Wanda tells Ida of her parents' horrific death during WWII, the pair set off to find out what exact...

Steven Soderbergh , the Oscar-winning Director ( Traffic ) and recently-retired-from-theatrically-released-studio-films visual artist, has just released his Psychos , a mashup and appropriated retelling of Alfred Hitchcock 's Psycho (1960) which uses a desaturated version of Gus Van Sant 's Psycho from 1998 and intercuts between the two films. Currently streaming on his Extension 765 website, Soderbergh claims to have created Psychos with "total affection, openness, and honey bought directly from a beekeeper.” Psychos runs at a feature length time and cleverly jumps from the modern version clips to the older version clips, in chronological narrative order. The best aspect of Psychos is how Soderbergh handles the climatic moments: He superimposes both the black & white Hitchcock images over the colorized Van Sant images. The effect is hypnotic. And its power comes in our built-in knowledge that Van Sant's version is a supposed "shot for shot" ...

Anyone who tells you that 2013 wasn't a spectacular year for movies is either lying through their teeth or is someone who spent most of the year cooped up in their apartment watching episodic television on Netflix. Here go the 30 best films of the year. 30. Fruitvale Station - Directed by Ryan Coogler 29. Post Tenebras Lux - Directed by Carlos Reygadas 28. Side Effects - Directed by Steven Soderbergh 27. Room 237 - Directed by Rodney Ascher 26. Before Midnight - Directed by Richard Linklater 25. Lenny Cooke - Directed by Joshua and Ben Safdie 24. The Place Beyond The Pines - Directed by Derek Cianfrance 23. Blue Jasmine - Directed by Woody Allen 22. Nebraska - Directed by Alexander Payne 21. Mud - Directed by Jeff Nichols 20. Gravity - Directed Alfonso Cuarón 19. The End of Love - Directed by Mark Webber 18. American Hustle - Directed by David O. Russell 17. Inside Llewyn Davis - Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen 16. Her - Directed by Spike J...

August 24, 2013 - Oceanside, California  " Digital New Wave: Creating and Curating workshop by Nelson Carvajal & Amir George. This demonstrative, informational, and interactive workshop will highlight the new wave of digital filmmaking that has revolutionized both the online and offline world of independent cinema. The presenters will tell about new channels and unconventional ways of film exhibition (“alternative distribution”) for independent digital filmmakers to reach out to wider audiences in the industry, which is over-saturation of content. Through examining case studies and video illustrations, the workshop will offer an explanation of on marketing and gaining exposure for one’s film works specifically in the current digital age, in which advertisements printed on paper and physical DVDs may eventually be “things of the past”. It will explain the creative and practical ways to benefit from the digital age as well the problems associated with it....

My Press Play video essay for indieWIRE , titled Pacino: Full Roar , went viral and was even highlighted on television's ReelzChannel . Check out the clip below from the The Reelz Show program.