The visual diaries of Wim Wenders concludes “Portraits Along the Road.” Concluding Northwest Film Center’s Wim Wenders retrospective are some of the German director’s far lesser-known works, many of which are documentaries. I was surprised to find out that in Wenders’ four decades in the film industry, he’s actually been most prolific in this arena. Often …
Tag Archives: NW Film Center
Now Begins a Long Time of Loneliness
“The Left-Handed Woman” is an unlonely story of being alone. In a scene from the opening ten minutes of Peter Handke’s “The Left-Handed Woman,” Marianne picks up her husband, Bruno at the airport after a business trip. He gently bows into her at the top of the escalator and she supports his leaning body. In …
There is a lot of poetry in these films.
Cinema Project gives a fair shake to short film in Space Time Being at PIFF. On Tuesday night at Whitsell Auditorium, Cinema Project and Northwest Film Center co-presented Short Cuts VII: Space Time Being for the 39th Annual Portland International Film Festival. Six short films, not one of them exceeding 25 minutes by directors from …
Powerless Towns in Fukushima
Nuclear Nation II is a Window into the Lives at Ground Zero. Futaba, a small coastal city in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, is where the TEPCO Daiichi nuclear power site failed, on March 11, 2011, following a terrible earthquake and tsunami. Even were the nuclear site to have withstood the impact — or had …
Doctors on the Edge of Syria
50 Feet From Syria at the heart of civil war In April of 2011, the Syrian Civil War began after months of peaceful protest against the Assad Family and the dictatorship of his Ba’ath Party. Syrians were united in a widespread call for democratization across the Arab nations. The Syrian government responded not with reform but …
The Mirror is Sebastião Salgado
I have seen nothing in my years on this planet. Not a thing. Of course, you realize this is not a revelation and that I’m speaking figuratively as we know I’ve not seen nothing in my life. However, I dare you to try not to feel that way about your own life after watching The …
Phantom Parents
Jenny Scholten reviews Mothering Inside, a documentary film about incarcerated motherhood. When we consider prison, we imagine with dread an abysmal nothingness that is the partial fulfillment of basic needs and not much else. Outside of those prerequisites there isn’t much to pin our focus on besides returning to our families and to our lives. In Brian …
Obsession with The Master
How I discovered film and its American guru. My first exposure to the films of Paul Thomas Anderson occurred when I was in 7th grade, although I did not actually see one. It was at the local dollar theater in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a beloved spot, but tragically financially challenged. My brother Nicholas went to see …
The Sleepy Soldier
Ai Wei-Wei is seeding the flowers of revolution in the grounds of justice. He leans back in the chair on the patio under the soft sunlight while his friend fusses around on a smart phone, arguing that Ai Wei-Wei himself said that political art cannot be art. Eyes lidded, his rotund gut supporting folded arms, …