Join us for Salon de Résistance: Dangerous Films on Thursday, July 30th at Black Iris. We'll be watching clips from films selected by two of Virginia’s most accomplished filmmakers: writer-director Derrick Borte (The Get Out, Unhinged, London Town, The Joneses) and...
Editor's Note: This story that begins, as too many do, with a clown in someone’s DMs and ends with a camera duct-taped to a toy train. The first thing to know is that Mike Shea tried to make a normal introduction. In his mind, it was a filmmaker reaching out to a musician he admired. In Jonathan Facka’s mind, it was a man in full clown makeup...
Editor's Note: What makes D(e)ad a bit different isn’t just the story or performances, it’s the way it came together. 344% funded on Kickstarter with more than 5,000 backers, the film turned community support into momentum. After getting passed over by the big festivals, the team carved their own path, powered by the Dropout crowd that’s...
“You want me to tell you what’s immoral? War is immoral. Poverty is immoral. Racism is immoral. Police brutality is immoral.” — a defendant in Punishment Park I read that director Peter Watkins had passed away last week and realized I’d never heard of him. As it turns out, Watkins was one of the most radical filmmakers of the twentieth century, a...
At the intersection of pulpy horror and a coven-like sense of inclusive community is Good For Her: Richmond’s preeminent destination for femme monsters, wretched women, and nasty displays of the (not so) divine feminine. Good For Her is, among a myriad of other things, a monthly meeting of similarly minded villainesses for a film...
The new coming-of-age feature Griffin in Summer is already drawing attention for its Tribeca wins and upcoming theatrical release, but for producer Bobby Hoppey, the film carries an extra layer of meaning: it was made in Richmond, a city he’s connected to thanks to his childhood best friend and local entrepreneur Fred Bryant, who also...
“Look around you, this is the uprising.” When Children of Men was released in 2006, it flopped. It had nothing to do with the filmmaking. Visually, this is one of the most striking films of the last two decades. It flopped because the story was too real. The politics were too ambiguous. The prophetic vision touched too close to home. Audiences...
Off of Broad Street, deep in Scott’s Addition between warehouses and alleyways, is a black hole in the wall filled with music, vintage VHS, and (perhaps most importantly) Richmond’s preeminent collection of horror-themed pinball machines. I came to Wax Moon on a cool evening, unsure of exactly what I was looking for, until an all-black, barn-like...
"You have to learn how to kill." In Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, the vampires aren’t sexy. There’s nothing particularly interesting about them. They’re not Eurocentric romantics; they’re pure Americana, highway drifters chasing the night. They burn. They kill. Nihilism is fundamental to their vampirism—a Vampira Americana, if I may be so bold. In...
"I love when movies are dangerous. Are they anymore? I don’t think so." We consume noise. We’ve lost the signal. The transmission is overwhelmed by “content,” not art. That’s the point. To wear you down. To accept mediocrity. The celebration of film and music has been sacrificed to the gods of marketing. Our search for meaning has been replaced...
