Magic Lantern

Kim Ki-Duk: Bin-jip (2004)

Jun 30

Kim Ki-Duk‘s “Bin-Jip” (‘Empty House’ also titled ‘3 Iron’) is a quaint cinematic experience, a love story of sorts hovering between spirit-reality-fantasy. Nothing is articulated entirely, nor is there a need for it. Relationships are discovered in profound silence. Watch.

Jan Švankmajer – Něco z Alenky aka “Something from Alice” (1988)

Jun 25

Švankmajer is probably one of the worlds best kept creative secrets, unfortunately. Hardly heard and known outside the initiated follower groups, Jan comes up with the most striking and thoughtful, or should I say stirring film narratives. Working in his native city of Prague throughout, his background in puppetry, sculpture and performance gives him a unique voice in animation-live action film making. Inimitable. See for yourself.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)

Jun 19

Kurt Kuenne, a friend of Dr. Andrew Bagby made this devastating documentary, crafted to be a letter to Dr. Bagby’s son, Zachary. Deploys all the cinematic weaponry to tell a tragic tale. If truth is, at times, stranger than fiction – this is it. Watch.

Exit Through the Gift Shop – Banksy (2010)

Jun 17

Banksy made this exhilarating piece centering around Frenchman Thierry Guetta, himself (in his usual hooded brilliance), and the curious, and lamentable question of ‘What is Art?’. Watch! Read More…

Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel (The Story of the Weeping Camel) – 2003

Jun 15

With a backdrop of the cold, desolate Gobi Desert in Southern Mongolia, co-directors Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni weave a warm tale of the affirmative and healing spirit of love. A documentary texture is evident in this tale of a nomadic family of shepherds and their camels – quiet, reflective, observational, and one might add, meditative. Watch.

Salinui chueok: Joon-ho Bong. South Korea. 2003

Jun 13

A ‘whodunit’ unlike any other, this one stayed with me for a while. Stunning mise-en-scene orchestrations coupled with a denial of the narrative pleasure of ‘closure’, an atmospheric story well told, in so many ways. South Korean filmmaker Joon-ho Bong could not better this one IMHO. Watch. Read More…