The Film Comment Podcast

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon’s lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel’s Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo’s Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror’s Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar’s The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we’re excited to share this week on the Podcast. On today’s episode, Film Comment editor Devika Girish welcomes Adam as well as Maysles executive director Kazembe Balagun and scholar and writer Brent Hayes Edwards to talk about the entanglements of race and class, and history and Hollywood in Pontecorvo’s period epic Burn!, which stars Marlon Brando as a British agent provocateur who overthrows a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean by fomenting a slave revolt.

Last April, Film Comment invited writer Adam Shatz on the Podcast to talk about The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon, his new biography of the Martinican writer, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial revolutionary. The Podcast explored Fanon’s lasting impression on the world of cinema since his untimely death in 1961—and it became the basis for a four-day series of screenings and talks we presented last weekend, called The Rebel’s Cinema—Frantz Fanon on Screen. The series took place at four cinemas across New York City, beginning at Film at Lincoln Center with Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (1975), moving to Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem for Gillo Pontecorvo’s Burn!, (1969), winding down to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Ivan Dixon’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973), and finishing up at Anthology Film Archives with Sarah Maldoror’s Monangambeee (1969) and Assia Djebar’s The Zerda and the Songs of Forgetting (1982). Each screening was followed by a Q&A with special guests, which we’re excited to share this week on the Podcast. On today’s episode, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute welcome Adam as well as critic and film editor Blair McClendon to discuss the Fanonian themes of alienation and objectivity in The Passenger, Antonioni’s 1975 epic that stars Jack Nicholson as an American journalist who assumes the identity of a dead gunrunner caught up in a revolutionary conflict in Chad

As part of this year's Locarno Film Festival, scholars at the Università della Svizzera italiana organized a conference called Cinema Audiovisual Futures, with a series of panels and workshops exploring cinema's importance in constructing a new and alternative futures. As part of the conference, Film Comment editor Devika Girish moderated a panel with filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri and writer and programmer Greg de Cuir called Digital Migrations. Their conversation delved into the ways in which digital media allows us to represent and respond to colonialism, diaspora, and violence, touching on Sanzgiri’s films At Home But Not At Home (2019) and Golden Jubilee (2021), among others.

The Locarno Film Festival takes place every August in the Swiss town of Locarno, at the base of the Alps, with a robust mix of discovery titles, repertory selections, and premieres of films by major auteurs. Film Comment was on the ground this year, combing through the lineup for highlights, and this episode—featuring critics and curators Inney Prakash and Cici Peng in conversation with FC Editor Devika Girish—covers some of the notable titles: Kouté vwa (Listen to the Voices) by Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Fogo do vento (Fire of Wind) by Marta Mateus, Invention by Courtney Stephens, By the Stream by Hong Sangsoo, The Sparrow in the Chimney by Ramon Zürcher, and Youth (Hard Times) by Wang Bing.

For the third and final installment of our Summer Rep Report series, Sam Fleischner and Courtney Muller, the founding programmers of the Rockaway Film Festival, join Film Comment editor Devika Girish to discuss this year’s edition, which runs from August 17 to 25. Launched in 2018 in the Queens, New York oceanside neighborhood, the festival draws upon the cultural history and environmental features of its location to offer a uniquely eclectic program that emphasizes the relationship between cinema and place. Courtney and Sam discuss the history of the festival and point out a few of this year’s repertory highlights, including Edward Lachman’s Report from Hollywood (1984), playing in a sparkling restoration at the festival; a wonderful retrospective program marking the centennial of pathbreaking animator Faith Hubley; the festival’s closing night selection, Gabriel (1976), the only film completed by painter Agnes Martin; and more.

For Part 2 of our Summer Rep Report, film programmer Jessica Green joins to discuss Passing You By: Impostorism on Film, a new series she’s programmed titled at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The series opens today and runs through August 15 and focuses on movies that all explore the act of passing—be it for another race, gender, class, or nationality.  Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish spoke with Jessica about some of the highlights from the lineup, including Rebecca Hall’s Passing (2021), which adapts Nella Larsen’s 1920s novel of the same name; Oscar Micheaux’s silent-cinema classic, The Symbol of the Unconquered (1920), which was made in response to The Birth of a Nation (1915) and now features a score recorded by Max Roach; Omar (2013), a Palestinian film by director Hany-Abu Assad; as well as some lighter, yet thematically rich fare, like White Chicks (2004) and Coming to America (1988).

Early August is usually something of a lull in the film calendar, but this year, at least in New York City, it’s proved to be a goldmine—particularly for repertory programming. We had planned to record a single episode of our Rep Report series this week, but there was so much good stuff out there that we ended up recording three different conversations about three different programs, which we’ll be sharing over the next few days. Stay tuned!  On today’s episode, Jed Rapfogel, film programmer at Anthology Film Archives, joins Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute to discuss Verbatim, a new film series he’s put together at the famed New York City theater. Verbatim features an exciting and wide-ranging lineup of titles, spanning features, shorts, experimental films, and made-for-TV titles that are all united by one theme: each of them makes verbatim use of a real-life transcript—be it a court document, a journalistic interview, a letter, or something else. Jed, Clint, and Devika share some of the highlights of the series, including James N. Kienitz Wilkins’s Public Hearing (2012), which uses the transcript of a municipal town-hall about the expansion of a Walmart, James Benning’s Landscape Suicide (1986), which recreates interviews with a pair of killers, and Elisabeth Subrin’s short film, Maria Schneider, 1983 (2022), which offers three different riffs on an archival television interview with the titular actress. Verbatim runs at Anthology Film Archives through August 13. For interested viewers outside of New York City, check out filmcomment.com for streaming links to some of the featured films.

The guest on this week’s episode will need little introduction to anyone who reads film criticism or follows film culture. Jonathan Rosenbaum, one of the most prolific and respected critics of the last half-century, began his career at publications like Film Comment and Sight and Sound in the ’70s, and later became known for his writing at The Chicago Reader. More recently, he’s gained notice for his website, jonathanrosenbaum.net. He is known for his erudite yet accessible writing, and his championing of international cinema, among other things. No less a figure than Jean-Luc Godard once compared him to Andre Bazin. Jonathan is also the author of numerous books and collections of film writing, the latest of which, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, has just been published by Hat & Beard Press. He describes the career-spanning, chronologically arranged collection as an autobiography of sorts, opening with his earliest published film review from his college days at Bard, before diverging into his many non-film interests. The collection also includes his writings on jazz and literature, and emphasizes Jonathan’s uniquely syncretic approach to criticism. Jonathan joined FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute via Zoom from his home in Chicago to discuss this new book, his time as Film Comment’s Paris correspondent, his appearance as an extra in a Bresson film, and much, much more.

In April, Film Comment published an article by Phillip Vance Smith II, titled “Streaming Behind Bars.” Phillip is an incarcerated writer, and his piece delves into the ways in which people in prison watch movies—the technology they’re able to use, the programming they can access, and the exorbitant costs involved. That piece was facilitated by Empowerment Avenue, an organization that supports incarcerated artists and writers. Empowerment Ave was founded by Rahsaan Thomas, a journalist who launched the initiative while he was himself in prison. Rahsaan is also an award-winning filmmaker who started making movies while he was behind bars—and now works with other incarcerated and system-impacted filmmakers to help them tell their stories. On today’s episode, Film Comment Editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute are joined by Rahsaan and  fellow filmmaker and organizer Thanh Tran, who also started making films while incarcerated at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center in Northern California. The two of them share insights from their experience of directing films while imprisoned—the resources that made it possible, the unique challenges they faced, and why they felt it was important for them to take their narratives into their own hands. They also discuss Rahsaan’s short film Friendly Signs, currently making its way around the festival circuit, Thanh’s in-production documentary, Finding Ma, and the upcoming San Quentin Film Festival, which is being organized by Rahsaan and will take place at the prison.

In a recent essay, critic Isabel Stevens writes: “There is much discussion of childishness—popular cinema is often described as ‘infantilized’—but how often do we consider what children want and need from films, and what they are watching and where (outside the usual narrow, artificial controversies about the dangers film poses to their innocent minds)? How are their critical faculties and understanding of cinema being nurtured, or not…?”  For this week’s episode, Film Comment managing editor Clinton Krute invited Stevens, managing editor of Sight and Sound, and FC contributor Genevieve Yue—both parents as well as critics—to discuss what they watch with their own kids, and why they choose the films they do. Of course, the kids themselves also jump in, with Isabel’s 6-year-old son Rai offering his (very positive) assessment of Star Wars, and Genevieve’s daughter Harriet discussing her experience working with her mother on a program of experimental films for children at Light Industry in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, Clint’s daughter Agnes was tied up with summer camp, so we’ll all have to wait to hear why the dreamy visuals of Frozen II make it a better film than the original. Check out the show notes at filmcomment.com for links to the many articles and films discussed—recommended, of course, for all ages.