(Variety Magazine, John Anderson)

Cre Films. Directed and edited and screenplay by Sean Baker.

With: Prince Adu, Karren Karaguilian, Keyali Mayaga, Kat Sanchez, Aiden Noesi.



Streetwise, kinetic and solidly dramatic, "Prince of Broadway" is a convincingly character-driven tale set in a clandestine universe --- the realm of stolen and/or counterfeit fashions that exists in the no man's land of Manhattan's West 20s. It isn't a milieu one sees much of, not even while walking right through it. But helmer-co-scripter Sean Baker makes us look --- and care. Savvy marketing could lead to substantial arthouse play.

In a neighborhood of discount fragrance stores and cheesy T-shirt vendors, illegal immigrant Lucky (Ghanaian actor Prince Adu) steers budget-minded fashionistas past the storefront manned by an [...]

Like the Godfather mafioso rip-offs, The masterpiece, City of God, spawned a child soldier and children-with-guns cottage industry that will be with us for a while... And Africa has been its backdrop for some time. This time, it's Liberia and based on Emmanuel Dongala 's 2002 novel. The cover has all the markings of guerilla marketing and looks like something out of a Portland 'zine filled InfoShop..



(Variety Magazine, Justin Chang)
Directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire.

A fearsome plunge into the world of child soldiers in present-day West Africa, "Johnny Mad Dog" initially repulses with its brutalizing depictions of civil-war carnage. But viewers who strap themselves in for Jean-Stephane Sauvaire's first fiction work (after "Carlitos Medellin," his 2004 docu about war-torn Medellin, Colombia) may glean some [...]

The REAL multicultural classroom in Paris!



The film chronicles a year in the life of an idealistic young schoolteacher (played by Francois Begaudeau) in a multicultural section of Paris. Directed by Laurent Cantet and based on Begaudeau's 2006 novel. My introduction to Laurent Cantet's work was The wicked
Vers Le Sud (Heading South) starring Charlotte Rampling,a  film exploring male sex workers in the final days of Duvalier--not easily forgotten!

 The Class Trailer

(Variety Magazine, Justin Chang)

A fully sustained immersion in the academics, attitudes and frequent altercations of a group of junior high school students, "The Class" marks Laurent Cantet's return to the sharply observed social dynamics and involving character drama that distinguished [...]

(Eye for Film, Amber Wilkinson)

Documentaries about Sudan - The Devil Came On Horseback, Darfur Now - tend, by their very nature to be a tough watch. This film about rising Sudanese rap star Emmanuel Jal   takes a different tack, choosing to document his traumatic childhood but also leaving plenty of room to celebrate the man he has become. Now an internationally known artist, his songs are based on his experiences of life in Sudan in the Eighties and mark his attempt to testify about what is happening and to raise awareness so that change may come. Like Nigerian Femi Kuti in Suffering And Smiling he is an activist - urging the Sudanese government to keep its promise to let the people decide what should become of their country.

His troubles began when his father sent him from his village as a child in a mass [...]

I'm never quite sure what to make of Lee Daniels ' work, thus a new production is met with pause—where is he going this time: provocateur or hyper-provocateur or provocateur-in-overdrive. The problem is that more often than not, the provocation--those push the buttons moments are more grade school Elmer's Glue than mighty Gorilla Glue.


I don't know..... Monster's Ball was less a shocker than the media hype and public over-reaction to scenes might have suggested. That particular scene didn't make or break the story but simply fanned the flame of controversy--Daniels’ modus operandus.

And as always, Halle Berry was pretty on screen but couldn't pull herself out of a two-dimensional character if she was in a Twilight Zone vortex. YES, she adds a lot to the screen but that Academy Award was for Billy Bob Thornton or [...]

    YouTube Trailer

(Variety Magazine-Ronnie Scheib) Starring: Melvin Van Peebles , Stephanie Weeks, Mario Van Peebles , Glen Turner, Teddy Hayes, Alfred Preisser.

Melvin Van Peebles strikes back. The seminal multi-hyphenate auteur of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song ," who has chalked up more careers in his 75-year life than most folks could fit into several reincarnations, has just reinvented himself --- cleverly, as it happens --- as a video artiste. Not that his digital techniques are even slightly groundbreaking, technically, but they mesh perfectly with the homemade illustrative nature of "Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha." Spinning a wry, tall-tale version of his autobiography, the septuagenarian audaciously plays himself at [...]