Avant-garde cinema emerged in direct conversation with the film criticism that contextualized, championed, and critiqued it. Writing about work that is premised on defying formulaic intelligibility, and which invites us to reach beyond language to other modes of interpretation, can be both challenging and thrilling—requiring the critic to draw on a deep historical knowledge and a finely-tuned sensory awareness. And reading such criticism can be at once an eye-opening entryway into better appreciating experimental cinema, and its own creative encounter with connections across image and thought.

On May 9, Film Comment Editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish sat down with Amy Taubin, Genevieve Yue, and Ayanna Dozier, some of the best critics of the avant-garde working today, to discuss the history of the craft, the nitty-gritty of this niche beat, what good writing on avant-garde cinema looks and sounds like, and what to even call the genre—avant-garde? Experimental? The other cinema? The talk took place at DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema in Downtown Manhattan as part of this year’s edition of Prismatic Ground, an exemplary and boundary-pushing festival dedicated to experimental documentary. Throughout the inspired conversation, the group referred to a few exemplary passages written by the esteemed panelists. Go to Film Comment's website to read:  https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/the-film-comment-podcast-writing-about-avant-garde-cinema

Writing About Avant-Garde Cinema, with Ayanna Dozier, Amy Taubin, and Genevieve Yue

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

For this episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by Cannes veterans and all-star FC critics Bilge Ebiri and Jonathan Romney, whose dispatch on the festival’s early days will be in Friday’s Film Comment Letter. The three discuss and debate some of the most buzzy titles that have screened to date, including George Miller’s would-be blockbuster Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Magnus van Horn's The Girl With the Needle, Jonathan Millet’s Ghost Trail, Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Roberto Minervini’s The Damned, and Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: https://www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #2, with Bilge Ebiri and Jonathan Romney

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

For today’s episode, critics Kelli Weston and Jessica Kiang join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to unpack three of the most highly anticipated premieres of the festival: Francis Ford Coppola’s operatic fable Megalopolis, Andrea Arnold’s magical realist Bird, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s macabre anthology film, Kinds of Kindness.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #3, with Jessica Kiang and Kelli Weston

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

On today’s episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish sat down with Canadian filmmakers Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson to discuss their new film Rumours, one of the true delights of the festival so far. It’s a horror comedy set during a G7 Summit, with a dynamic ensemble cast including Cate Blanchett as the German chancellor, Charles Dance as the American president with an explicable British accent, and Roy Dupuis as the Canadian prime minister sporting a man bun. These and other leaders of the world’s richest democracies gather in a gazebo in the German forest to draft a statement addressing an unnamed political crisis, but soon sinister noises and figures emerge from the shadows around them. Rumours is a satire that is as whip-smart and timely as it is unabashedly silly, featuring hijinks such as a giant brain and an AI bot that traps sex predators.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #4: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson on Rumours

Cannes 2024 has arrived—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors is high-tailing it from screening to screening, ready to cut through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

On today’s episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by Kevin B. Lee, Abby Sun, and Vadim Rizov to debate their differing reactions to Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides, Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson’s Rumours, Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours, and Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition.

Cannes 2024 #5, with Kevin B. Lee, Abby Sun, and Vadim Rizov

Cannes 2024 is in full swing—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

For our latest episode from the shores of the Riviera, critics Robert Daniels, Miriam Bale, and Mark Asch join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish for a discussion of their recent festival viewing, including David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, and Claire Simon’s Elementary.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #6, with Robert Daniels, Miriam Bale, and Mark Asch

Cannes 2024 is in full swing—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

On our latest episode from the sunny shores of Southern France, critics Guy Lodge and Adam Piron join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish for a lively conversation, touching on two of the most buzzy recent premieres—Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez and Sean Baker’s Anora—before offering some personal recommendations for deserving films that aren't getting the same hype treatment, including Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, Carson Lund’s Eephus, and Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #7, with Guy Lodge and Adam Piron

Cannes 2024 is in full swing—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

On our latest episode from the sunny shores of Southern France, critics Beatrice Loayza, Giovanni Marchini Camia, and Caitlin Quinlan join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to dig into their recent festival viewing, including Miguel Gomes’s Grand Tour,  Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown, and Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #8, with Beatrice Loayza, Giovanni Marchini Camia, and Caitlin Quinlan

Cannes 2024 is in wrapping up this weekend—and our intrepid on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been high-tailing it from screening to screening, cutting through the noise with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

For our (nearly) final episode from the sunny shores of Southern France, Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival, and Justin Chang, film critic for The New Yorker, join Film Comment Editor Devika Girish to discuss some late-festival selections and highlights, including Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, Mohammed Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Truong Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam, before debating what the Cannes 2024 lineup says about the current state of cinema.

Subscribe today to the Film Comment Letter for a steady stream of Cannes coverage, providing everything you need to know about the 2024 edition: www.filmcomment.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Cannes 2024 #9, with Justin Chang and Dennis Lim

For the last two weeks, our on-the-Croisette crew of Film Comment contributors has been reporting from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with a series of thoughtful dispatches, interviews, and podcasts.

Before the festival officially drew to a close last Saturday, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish moderated a panel about documentary ethics in the Cannes Docs section of the Marché du Film. Curated by the Documentary Association of Europe and presented with American Documentary, the live event featured a stellar lineup of speakers, including Kiyoko McCrae from Chicken and Egg Pictures; Adam Piron from the Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program; Alemberg Ang, a Philippines-based producer and filmmaker; and Viv Li, a Chinese filmmaker based in Berlin. Titled “Towards a Universal Values System in Documentary,” the panel explored a number of fascinating questions, such as what equitable collaboration looks like in nonfiction filmmaking, what it means to gain the consent of your subjects, and who gets to tell which stories.

Cannes 2024 #10, with Kiyoko McCrae, Adam Piron, Alemberg Ang, and Viv Li

Founded in 1962, Film Comment has been the home of independent film journalism for over 50 years, publishing in-depth interviews, critical analysis, and feature coverage of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. The Film Comment Podcast, hosted by editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute, is a weekly space for critical conversation about film, with a look at topical issues, new releases, and the big picture. Film Comment is a nonprofit publication that relies on the support of readers. Support film culture. Support Film Comment.

Writing About Avant-Garde Cinema, with Ayanna Dozier, Amy Taubin, and Genevieve Yue

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