North Korea has continually baffled Americans for the duration of its existence. To help form a clearer understanding of the so-called “hermit kingdom,” Dr. Kirk Larsen gives a succinct overview of some of the myths we hear and offers a more complete picture of North Korea. After addressing these myths, viewers of Assassins (2020) can better form their own opinions based on the film’s evidence.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
Professor Brian Price speaks with IC co-director Doug Weatherford about the recent Mexican film Identifying Features (2020), winner of the Audience Award (World Dramatic) at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
Professors Heather Belnap, Julie Lefgren and Rebecca DeSchweinitz focus their remarks on Antigone (Sophie Deraspe, 2019), Leftover Women (Hilla Medalia & Shosh Shlam, 2019) and All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950).
Show Notes:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
In part one of this week’s podcast about Women’s Voices Aline Longstaff, Kif Augustine Adams, and Jacob Hickman discuss Yalda a Night for Forgiveness (Massoud Bakhshi, 2019), Identifying Features (Fernanda Valadez, 2020), and The Vertical Ray of the Sun (Tran Anh Hung, 2000)
Show Notes:
The International Cinema Studies class held a Q&A with Marianna Yarovskaya and Paul Gregory, director and producer, respectively, of Women of the Gulag (2018). In this Q&A they discuss the film’s placement on the Academy Awards shortlist and the lessons we can learn from the gulags’ history and erasure.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
IC co-director Marc Yamada and professor Greg Stallings discuss Amazing Grace, a concert film on the recording of an album of gospel music by Aretha Franklin in 1972 that is just now being released.
This conversation, a part of BYU Department of History’s celebration of Black History Month, between Dr. Matthew Mason and Dr. Richard Bell (University of Maryland) touches on Bell’s work on using microhistories to illustrate larger political forces in the world, especially in the case of what he calls the “reverse underground railroad.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
This week’s discussion centers on Yellow Earth (Chen Kaige, 1984). Professor in the ANEL department and former IC co-director Steve Riep talks about Yellow Earth in the context of the post Chinese Revolution. This podcast explores the changes that a new generation of Chinese filmmakers brought to the cinema of the 80s, the role of music and the lyrics used in the film, the status of peasants and women in Northern China, and the role of Communism in 1939 Chinese society.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More
IC co-director Doug Weatherford speaks with Ozan Mermer, director of Yib (2019), a documentary in Spanish and Chuj-Maya that follows a bi-national youth choir whose members belong to a community artificially divided by the Mexico-Guatemala border. The film’s title alludes to the idea of “roots”, and, in this podcast, the German-born director with a multi-national background discusses his personal connection to the story and his decision to attend film school in Mexico.
Dr. Daryl Lee outlines the history of French colonization and the aesthetics of orientalism that built to the war of independence recreated in The Battle of Algiers. This innovative film used a documentary style to depict recent events, even casting actual participants as themselves, and presents a visceral engagement with the goals and methods of both parties.