“NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind)” Review 

Lindsay McIntyre’s NIGIQTUQ ᓂᒋᖅᑐᖅ (The South Wind) is a heartfelt exploration of identity, cultural displacement, and survival. Based on the director’s grandmother’s story, this moving short film brings viewers to 1938, where young Marguerite and her mother Kumaa’naaq (koo-MAT-na) leave their Inuit homeland in Nunavut to build a new life in the South. This transition…

38th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival – “Nobody Knows” Review

Despite significant progress in recent years, the LGBTQIA+ community continues to face discrimination and marginalisation in Asia and around the world. While some countries have made strides towards equality, many from the community still live in fear of persecution, violence, and rejection by society due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In Asia, cultural…

“Ivalu” Short Film Review

Writer-director Anders Walter’s Ivalu is a somber story about childhood trauma. Having made his mark with Helium, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 2014, the 45-year-old Danish filmmaker is now competing for the award once again with his latest short film. The Greenlandic-language film is adapted from an award-winning graphic…

Santi Review

Santi (Jon Gutierrez) sits wedged on a sofa at a dinner party with his girlfriend Violet (Zulekha Chaka). He’s politely listening as two of Violet’s friends bicker about the ongoings of a night out – a night out Santi clearly wasn’t invited to. Squished on-screen between their two out-of-focus side profiles, Santi can’t get a…

“The Long Goodbye” Review

What makes one British? A birth certificate, an accent or a passport? There is no denial that the UK has always been resistant to the idea that immigrants could become a permanent part of British society. However, when Brexit hit the ground, no one could have predicted how much hate would resurface. To be clear,…

“David” Review

Therapists are often seen as omniscient emblems of level-headedness, reassurance, and wisdom. Enigmatic individuals who soak up your life story and provide answers to all your burning existential problems; all while you barely know anything about their own lives. It’s almost easy to believe that they have no problems at all – but this is…

“The Present” Review

The directorial debut of British-Palestinian writer and director Farah Nabulsi, The Present follows the story of Palestinian father Yusef (Saleh Bakri) and his young daughter Yasmine (Mariam Kanj) as they set off across the West Bank to pick up groceries and find an anniversary present for Yusef’s wife. Facing relentless roadblocks, checkpoints, and apathetic IDF…

Moloka’i Bound Review

Winner of the Oscar-qualifying Cynthia Lickers-Sage Award for Best Short Work at this year’s ImagineNATIVE festival, Moloka’i Bound is the story of Kainoa (Holden Mandrial-Santos), a formerly incarcerated man who is trying to reconnect with his preteen son, Jonathan (Austin Tucker).  Showing up out of the blue one day outside Jonathan’s school whilst Jonathan is…

Gets Good Light Review

Coming out of the growing ‘Abolish ICE’ movement – Gets Good Light is a compassionate and powerful protest against the growing powers of the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement Agency in the United States. Since the start of Trump’s administration, the number of individuals apprehended by ICE has only grown – approximately 4,143 undocumented immigrants without…