Exclusive articles:
Bé Omid é Didar (Good Bye) | Review
Banned Iranian Filmmaker Rasoulof Resists the Law, and Narrative Conventions, in his Feminist Allegory
25 Alternative 2011 TIFF Picks: James Benning’s Twenty Cigarettes
Benning - long ago a math student and currently a professor at Cal Arts - is presently the grandaddy of active avant-garde filmmakers. Churning out almost one feature-length project each year, his rigorous and austere landscape films have defied their minimal descriptions to provide brave viewers unrivalled, transcendent experiences.
25 Alternative 2011 TIFF Picks: Philippe Garrel’s That Summer
First showing in competition in Venice, this newest work from the provocative French filmmaker has already divided riled up audiences on the Lido. Prompting boos and catcalls at the Cannes press screening of his most recent feature Frontier of Dawn, he never the less as a sturdy following of cinephiles who consider him just about the best thing since cherry cheesecake.
25 Alternative 2011 TIFF Picks: Santiago Mitre’s The Student
Coming in from BAFICI, and preceding its big center stage NYFF unveiling, The Student is one of the year's most promising unknowns. As the writer for Cannes-competing Lion's Den, it's no surprise that Mitre's got big-name potential. This is his second feature, and his first to play anywhere in North America. If it does well, look for huge things in this guy's future.
25 Alternative 2011 TIFF Picks: Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: An Odyssey
That long movie that TIFF likes to program every once in a while. Dauntingly time-consuming, programmers decided to give it away with free admission to all interested parties. One of the most prolific Irish thinkers, writers, critics, whatevers... the guy's obsessive if nothing else, and this might be his grandest work of all.
