23rd Udine Far East Film Festival Sets New Dates and Location

Among Asian film festivals that take place in Europe, the Udine Far East Film Festival is the cherry on the cake. Often filled with a superb film programme and unforgettable guests, the festival was defeated by the pandemic last year. Although it took place online, there were still great films to choose from, not many…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Rurangi” Review

No matter where you go in the world, rural areas are almost always more traditionally conservative than metropolitan ones. You’ve read the countless think pieces on behalf of the “forgotten America” that voted for Trump to the shock of the cities, and you’ve seen how the Conservative party has a stronghold on the British countryside,…

BlackStar Film Festival’s 10th edition to take place August 4-8, 2021.

BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and media artists, is proud to announce that the next edition of their annual festival will take place August 4-8, 2021. The festival will be held virtually again in light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. “So much has changed in the past decade, for…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Boy Meets Boy” Review

Much like how Pulp Fiction spawned an entire genre of poor imitators, Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film Weekend has a lot to answer for. The beautiful simplicity of that whirlwind gay romance seems effortless in the hands of such an accomplished filmmaker, to the extent that countless other filmmakers have seen it and assumed they too…

BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival: “Valentina” Review

In Brazil, 82% of trans kids will drop out of school at some point during their education. Among these children is Valentina (Thiessa Woinbackk) a 17-year-old girl who’s just moved across the country with her mother Márcia (Guta Stresser) to start afresh in a new town and retake her sophomore year. However, problems arise when…

Music for Healing: BTS MTV Unplugged Review

MTV Unplugged is a flagship MTV programme which was launched on 26th November 1989 with performances by Elliot Easton (The Cars), Syd Straw and Squeeze. With acoustic sets and stripped back, pared down. performances, Unplugged featured iconic sets by some of the most famous musicians of the time including Aerosmith, Elton John, Annie Lennox, George…

“You Have to Put Your Heart in the Project for Your Project to Have Heart.” – In Conversation with Kevin Derek, a Documentary Filmmaker and Producer

When your interview starts with lots of laughter, you know that the conversation is going to be a delightful experience. Kevin Derek is an interesting person; he is smart, humorous and self-critical. But, above all, he is a thoughtful and very passionate, award-winning documentary filmmaker whose latest production More Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story…