I have not read the book, nor do I know Yoder herself, so I was truly watching the film with fresh, unbiased eyes. I remember watching a sneak preview of the film a few months back, with it having a large focus on what the title implies, a mother turning into a dog, the beastliness surrounding motherhood, and a lot of imagery of raw meat. What I was actually met with when watching the film was more of a banal stream of thought, with dog imagery intermittently sprinkled in. There are a few shots of something close to body horror: Amy Adams growing fur, a tail, fangs – but rarely does the film actually delve into the idea or character of Nightbitch.

Instead, the movie is dragged along by monologues about motherhood, more so about how a capitalist society treats mothers as a whole or comparing them to goddesses than truly delving into any ideas of motherhood being animalistic. The film also introduced characters that never fully develop, such as a group of young moms who turn from stereotypes used for satire to Mother’s best friends. Father, Mother’s husband, is disdained by Mother for most of the film for his unequal role in parenting and lack of support he shows Mother, only to have a sudden realization at the end of the film that he needs to be a better parent and partner, where then Mother and Father act like nothing ever happened.

Overall, the film gives us a little bit of everything, and a whole lot of nothing. It lightly taps into the dog and goddess metaphors, marriage dynamics, the idea that raising a child takes a village, and the importance of art, but never sticks to a plot point long enough to be meaningful. It is tonally a mess. You’re never going to replicate an entire book in a 1 hour and 38 minute film, so the filmmakers should have either gravitated to a singular plot idea and produced a film around that, or leaned more into adopting abstraction and made this an art film, rather than trying to be Hollywood friendly.

Embracing the idea that motherhood is a violently transformative experience requires more than a few brief moments of body horror and a handful of dialogue lines, constantly interrupted with platitudes on feminism and quips taken right from a late night sitcom. All of the pieces were there, Yoder is a great storyteller and Amy Adams is a fantastic actress, but when put together, there is no bark and no bite.

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The winner of the 2024 Refocus Film Festival Audience Award was The Count of Monte-Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo), a new film out of France based on Alexandre Dumas’ literary classic. I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t actually read The Count of Monte-Cristo, but this film made me want to read the book. Pierre Niney does an amazing job embodying Edmond Dantès and the sets of the film are breathtakingly gorgeous.

The Storm is a 2024 release out of China by highly acclaimed animator Busifan. The film uses 2D animation to mimic traditional Chinese ink paintings, resulting in gorgeous pastel backgrounds which make the film worth a watch all on their own. It follows Mantou (translated as Bun in English) and his father Daguzi (Grain) as they search for magical silk in a haunted ship which Daguzi believes will free them from poverty.

Along the way, Mantou and Daguzi find themselves in the center of a longstanding feud between Lumin guardians trying to preserve nature, and members of an opera troupe haunting the ship. Both groups are united in that they blame the greed of humanity for their fates. The film explores themes of change, grief, and letting go, and is appropriate for all ages, but is better suited for older children or young adults who have a solid understanding of death and grief.

The Falling Sky (A Queda do Céu) is a film about Brazil’s indigenous Yanomami people, loosely based on Davi Kopenawa’s book The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman. Though classified as a documentary, the film is moreso a video essay, and features a combination of artistic shots of the sky and trees, a black screen with narration, and documentation of Yanomami rituals and daily life. The film is heavy and thought provoking, focusing on environmental destruction and the disturbance of indigenous daily life by capitalist society.

Ghost Cat Anzu is an adorable rotoscoped Japanese film focusing on a schoolgirl named Karin, her grandfather, and a giant ghost cat named Anzu, as they navigate life together after Karin’s father abruptly leaves her at her grandfather’s temple, trying to escape debt collectors. Karin, with the help of Anzu and other local forest spirits, processes her grief surrounding her mother’s death and father’s disappearance. The film does have a lot of cheap and childish humor like bad puns, but when I saw the film, the theater contained only young adults. There were multiple times where they all erupted in laughter. I think the film can be enjoyable for all audiences, but it is definitely a children’s film. Ghost Cat Anzu has a theatrical release starting November 15th.

I had the privilege of seeing the U.S. premier of Savanna and the Mountain (A Savana e a Montanha), a film focused on Covas do Barroso, Portugal and the towns prolonged battle with a British mining firm. The film has quite a surprise at the end, or at least it was a surprise to me, and includes fantastic original music composed by a member of the town. I loved the filmmaking and musical score of Savanna, and the film had me thinking about the impact my personal consumerism has on towns like Covas do Barroso long after the film was over. If I had to recommend seeing just one film that was played at Refocus, it would be this.

The post Refocus Roundup appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Both emerging artists are known for their fashion design. Carlson created Written Apparel and Wright owns Born Leaders United.

The brands are known for their attempt at empowering the wearers, and both owners are passionate in their craft.

The odd pair decided to collaborate on a brand called New Perspective created to debut during New York Fashion Week.

Little Village got wind of the pair’s brand and decided to send a videographer of their own to document the week. Iowa was clearly the anchor that propelled their collaboration. 

Wright’s side of the video was talkative while on Carlson’s side there was more action. During the New York Fashion Week it seemed through the video made by Jason Smith that Carlson had planned thoroughly what moves she was going to make, and when.

She had the professionally and efficiency that New York begs of young artists.

Wright however seemed to have a different vision.

He spoke about professional connecting as an unimportant side note while feeling out situations as much more beneficial on knowing if you want to collaborate with someone. While he waited for his clothes to arrive in New York, Carlson was busy in meetings.

The documentary itself lacked technical skills like proper audio and coverage of events that seemed integral to the story, but it did have the charm viewers were hoping to grab from the time they spent in Merge.

The potential was clear, and with a larger team of videographers the result could have reached it. However, the audience was fully immersed in the film for the most part of thirty minutes, only checking phones when side characters tangents seemed unimportant.

The film ends with Wright and Carlson talking about their creative differences and “tension” that ended their artistic collaboration. “We got a lot of similarities…cool people get together” Wright said.

Make sure to check the Witching Hour Festival website to stay up to date on when next year’s festival will take place!

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I have to start out by saying that this film seems tailor-made for me. It checks off so many boxes on my list of favorite elements of horror films; paranoia, suspense, religious iconography, isolation, family dynamics, and uncontrolled female sexuality. The Witch reminded me quite a lot of another personal favorite of mine, Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England. I was truly shaken seeing this film, and for that reason it has quickly become one of my personal favorites.

The Witch follows a Puritan family that is excommunicated from their township for accusing the local church of heresy and corruption. They are then forced to make their own settlement in the harsh forests of New England. One day, when eldest daughter Thomasine is playing with her infant brother, the baby goes missing. A wolf is blamed, but the viewers and the family know that something much more disturbing is at work in the woods. Paranoia and religious fanaticism drive the family apart, and they descend into madness as the witch of the woods begins to tear them apart.

The film is absolutely stunning to watch, and Eggers really wrenches every amount of emotion and terror out of every shot in the film. Wide angle shots show the dense and terrifying forests of New England in all of their glory, and claustrophobic scenes set in the family’s cabin are beautifully lit by natural candlelight. I’m no art expert, but it seems clear to me that the visual style of the film was heavily influenced by 18th-century Spanish painter Francisco Goya. In particular, his darker works seem to haunt the visuals throughout The Witch.

The soundtrack also plays a key role the tone of the film. The non-traditional soundtrack builds tension and terror that perfectly compliments the slow-burning pace of the film. For those expecting a standard genre film, know that The Witch is not your typical horror film. Along with other recent critical darlings like It Follows, The Babadook, and Goodnight Mommy, The Witch takes a more high brow and patient approach to the horror game. I think we’re in the middle of a new era of smarter and more technically-impressive horror films, and films like The Witch truly feel disturbing and refreshing in an otherwise tired genre.

Unfortunately, The Witch has finished its nationwide theatrical run, but be on the lookout for news of a Blu-ray or Digital release!

The post Cinema Spotlight: The Witch appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Dance and film are interesting art forms to combine and play off of one another. When dance is performed in front of the camera, there are lots of things for the filmmaker to consider. What is the best way to film this dance? Should the camera move with the dancers? Should it accentuate certain moments and movements, or should it stay stationary and not risk losing some aspect of the dance? Each of these films approached these issues in unique and creative ways, and left me considering how different mediums of art can intersect and interact with one another

The first film in the festival was Sebastien Farges and Viloleta Rodriquez’s Marque d’Eau. It began with a woman dancing through an urban street, as if being pulled along by an invisible force. A child’s voice over (in French) then told a surreal and imaginative story, which the woman acted out through her dance. They camera shakily followed along, accentuating the dancer’s constant steps forward. One particularly great scene featured the woman dancing through the street barefoot, in the rain, to the sound of a child playing on the beach. The film’s focus on portraying adolescence through dance was particularly effective.

The next film was Tori Lawrence and Chistopher Landy’s Elizabeth. This film followed two women, first trapped in their respective seats before breaking free and finding each other. They then performed a dance together, focusing on physically linking their bodies together. The editing of this piece featured lots of cuts, with the camera frequently shifting its position around the dancers. This seemed to disrupt what looked like a very fluid dance, and in my opinion its use of the camera did more to distract the viewer from the dance rather than add a new dimension to it.

The Dizzying Crest, created by Jeremy Moss and Pamela Vail, approached the camera in an entirely different way. Shot in grainy and distorted 16mm film, the film began by playing with light, as a ballerina danced in a small shadowy space. As the film progressed, it began to experiment with the physical medium of the film. Various colors, effects, and shapes made their way onto the film strip, building in intensity until the ballerina was almost indecipherable. While the effect was certainly interesting, there dance and the film felt like two very different.

The final film I’ll discuss was Elizabeth Bergman, Kaitlyn Busbee, and Joshua Dumas’s Introspect. This film was my favorite of the festival, and was the most effective blend of dance and film. It explored the tension between various dichotomies, such as male and female, performer and audience, and groups and individuals. These themes were all explored through slick dance numbers, and stunning camera shots. There were digital effects, and perfectly positioned shots that melded flawlessly with the motions and movements of the performer. This film in particular, truly felt like a dance for the camera, rather than a dance performed in front of a camera.

Check out the rest of the Mission Creek Festival calendar here

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