This was the 8th edition! And I was so honored to be on the jury! —

We think the market is bouncing back. The streamers are no longer hogging the good films financed by international sales agents and distributors, international and national as well as regional film funds; they are now creating their own content, buying less. There are many new indie projects and new international sales agents. Now if only the theatrical venues would fill up again, all would be well. We wait word from the European Film Market itself to know more than anecdotally how the sales agents fared. But anecdotally, it went pretty well. You can read my Rights Roundup next up soon.

One of the smaller subsets of a subset of society: sex workers who are black trans women with dicks and the men who love them. — This is the ultimate of the street hos but the women on camera are elegant and eloquent. Able to have made small nests that seem safe, though life for such beings is always precarious, these women are further marginalized by the wives of the men who frequent their beds. …

Berlin-based One Two Films Revisited with ‘The Girl from Köln’ (aka ‘Köln 75’) I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and…

Though this blog platform is usually reserved for writing about movies, Howard Rodman’s novel is totally filmic and he himself has served as President of the Writers Guild of America, so that is close enough. Moreover after spending a total of two years in Berlin in the past three years and going into my next six months here, this ode to Berlin is particularly pleasing to me. — This novel is a fictional account of Fritz Lang’s last year in Berlin in 1933. Not a very good year. He is estranged from his wife Thea von Harbou — long time collaborator on his best films, M, Metropolis, Doctor Mabuse. …

The Sundance Film Festival, the pre-eminent gathering of original storytellers and audiences seeking new voices and fresh perspectives has wrapped. — The full slate of works included 115 feature-length films representing 23 countries. Thirty two of 115 (28%) feature film directors were first-time feature filmmakers, and 17 of the feature films and projects announced were supported by Sundance Institute in development through direct granting or residency labs. World premieres made up…

U.S. Documentary Competition The Hite Report, a groundbreaking study of female sexuality, remains one of the bestselling books of all time since its publication in 1976. The Hite Report brought the female orgasm out of unspoken shadows into the light of day by revealing the most private experiences of thousands of anonymous survey respondents. Shere Hite’s findings rocked the American establishment and presaged current conversations about gender and sex.

U.S. Documentary Competition Born in Macon, Georgia in 1937, Richard Wayne Penniman stood up loud and clear for who he was and what he deserved. The history of the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll, beginning with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, clearly the mother of rock ’n’ roll who gave Little Richard his first break when he was 14, may have been obliterated but for Little Richard’s vociferous objection to such an event.

Premieres How to write and how to make a film about one’s life is an ongoing discussion between Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng as Bethann’s life reveals itself. New to writing and filmmaking, she has the confidence to go forward without putting obstacles in front of herself. However procrastination for writing takes a role in the film as well. This immediately allies me to her. Don’t we all procrastinate about the most important things in our lives? But look at all she has accomplished! True beauty abides within her.