The third film in my analysis of the films of Celine Sciamma is the complicatedly intersectional film, Girlhood. The confluence of race, class, gender and sexuality are palpable in Sciamma’s final coming-of-age story that rounds out her disconnected trilogy. Yet, throughout the film, Sciamma seems to disingenuously vacillate between vigorously engaging in these ideas, to only finding interest in them as a performative aesthetic garnish. This brief paper engages in Sciamma’s attempt, success, an ..read more

                               The second film in my analysis of the films of Celine Sciamma is the genderbending film, Tomboy. The sophomore film in Sciamma’s coming-of-age trilogy encompasses the ideas of gender nonconformity and the fluidity of gender expression during a time when neither were embraced by the mainstream as acceptable identities, or even concepts. This paper is a brief look at the film’s place in the cultural conversation and undo criticism of nonbinary gender ..read more

  The first film in my analysis of the films of Celine Sciamma, is the coming-of-age drama, Water Lilies. In this debut, Sciamma’s shot composition weaves a cinematic tapestry that heralds her as an up-and-coming auteur. Inter-stitched with a gender and sexually fluid color palette, Sciamma constructs a female gaze that captures the tumultuously turbulent acrimony of adolescence, where bourgeoning desire threatens to unravel fragile friendships. Water Lilies is the first in a loose trilogy about the slow transition out of childhood (along with Tomboy, and Girlhood). The production of th ..read more

  INTRODUCTION              Director Celine Sciamma is a modern cinematic vanguard of Feminist French filmmaking. Her inspiring work consistently challenges the parameters of the patriarchal mechanism of masculine moviemaking. This boundary pushing has given us a coming-of-age trilogy, a film centered around motherhood, and another that epitomizes the phrase “love lies longing”. In this, albeit still short filmography, Sciamma not only challenges the audience with what they should be looking at, but why they should care. In the ..read more

  The culture of the United States does not abide nor reckon with its history. The US cultural mindset is one of future facing fanaticism, to the point that there is little desire or regard for what has come before. This perspective, coupled with the stark individualism that is birthed from the chrysalis of capitalism, has allowed for “progress” and “prosperity” to advance, though not for everyone, and certainly not in equal measure or based upon need. These gains are usually economic in focus and technological in tangibility. Through this lens, history then becomes the ends that just ..read more

  The third film in my analysis of the Films of Ana Lily Amirpour is the minimalist neon-soaked psychedelic Sci-Fi film, Mona Lisa and the Red Moon. The final film in the unofficial “Apocalyptic Anomie” Trilogy, Amirpour displays her mastery of subversion; circumventing many of the usual tropes at every turn. From shot composition and storytelling, to gender role expectations of characters and the micro level consequences of Disaster Capitalism in post Katrina New Orleans, the film subtlety nods to genre conventions and a maddening socio-political backdrop, while not directly engaging i ..read more

              The second film in my analysis of the films of Ana lily Amirpour, is the desert denizen dystopia, The Bad Batch; the next film in what I have dubbed Amirpour’s “Apocalyptic Anomie” trilogy. For this sophomore outing, Amirpour trades Tehran for Texas, and vampires for cannibals in this amalgamated homage to the work of George Miller and John Carpenter. Through Amirpour’s deft hand and critical eye, she weaves a story of brutal survival in a wasteland manufactured by a draconian criminal justice system, while intimating ..read more

                  The first film in my analysis of The Films of Ana Lily Amirpour is the goth vampiric German expressionist spaghetti western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. This debut film is an artistic accomplishment in the amalgamation of genre, tone, and theme. The composition of this film, its pace, and subversive subject matter was to become an eventual calling card for future films with Amirpour at the helm. This freshman film in what I like to call Amirpour’s “Apocalyptic Anomie” Trilogy (Girl, B ..read more

              The twelfth film in my continuing analysis of The Films of Hayao Miyazaki is the melancholic meditative masterpiece, The Boy and the Heron. A blistering elevation of the artform, Miyazaki’s latest visual tapestry is a generationally expansive collaboration that is contemplative of death, (social and self) destruction and the human dynasty. While Miyazaki retreads some narratively foundational elements found in his other semi-autobiographical work, he comes at the material from the opposite direction, making the prepub ..read more

  INTRODUCTION  Ana lily Amirpour is an eclectic marvel. Her films are a beautifully amalgamated blend of genres, styles, and aesthetics. As a director, Amirpour is consistently unconventional. Her filmography views like a tasting menu of the filmmaking process: traditional television, music videos, an iphone excavation turned soon-to-be published scrap book, and of course movies.  Amirpour embodies what one interviewer called “gnostic”: esoteric knowledge (typically) of the mystical variety. Amirpour embraces “the other” and pushes against the structures and systems in which ..read more