2018 Countdown With Keith Uhlich (Part 1)

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Witches, Worship, and White People: Oh my! Keith Uhlich returns for another year of counting down films, television, and other media of 2018 in this Part 1 of 2. The choices remain as eclectic as always, but the spirit of debate shifts toward not just what constitutes not just what cinema is but when it is (2017? 1972? Who Knows!)—part of the larger flux in our ever expanding digital world. Each challenges the other for a statement of principals to understand not just what films get made and who gets to make them, throwing wrenches into questions surrounding the systems that hold the keys and the role of representation on screen. Strap on (!) in for another series of conversations on what might not be the best films of the year, but the ones that engaged us most into a winding conversation.

0:00-2:52 Opening
2:52-27:04 Picks for #10
27:04-50:21 Picks for #9
51:08-55:07 Sponsorship Section
55:29-1:21:01 Picks for #8
1:21:01-1:43:53 Picks for #7
1:43:53-2:05:26 Picks for #6
2:06:02-2:06:35 Wrap Up 
2:06:44 -2:08:52 Close / Outtake

2017 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part Two)

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On one hand, cinema has mutated. It is no longer contained to the theater and its methods no longer simply produce simply 3 act narrative features. But was it ever so limited? The first films were hand cranked into a box at a parlor on 34th street. The military in WWII made cinema portable in order to bring secrets across enemy lines. Films taught people their trades. Video tape launched a spiritual and later political revolution against the dominant mode. The medium was never the message, so let's just celebrate what was seen and experienced—the movement was not just in the image but in our bodies (the real movement...was love). All is this to say, Keith and Peter have good fun exploring their favorite works of 2017, debating the nature of reality in a series of works either attempting to pull it from other the rug or expose it through unsuspecting places. Is it future? Or is it past? Or is it simply the now in which me must live. And live we must.

0:00-2:27  Opening
2:28-47:16 Picks for #5
47:16-1:16:00 Picks for #4
1:16:01-1:34:31 Picks for #3
1:35:14-1:39:05  Sponsorship Section
1:40:07-2:09:39 Picks for #2
2:09:40-2:25:07 Pick for #1
2:25:08-2:27:14 Final Thoughts

2:27:31-2:29:57 Close

Episode #96 - Laura Major (Heaven Can Wait)

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"Our aim for a lot of preservation—the standard goal—is to make it look

how it was seen before."

If more and more people are interested in shooting on film and projecting on film, there's one crucial step in between: how does film get from camera to screen? Through a lab obviously. But what does the lab do? Laura Major has been a staple at the Maryland based Colorlab for a number of years, helping the studio produce new 35mm negatives and positives of documentaries, experimental films, archival orphans, and more. Today, she sits down with Peter to trace out her own history from South Carolina to experimental film lover to a technician. They discuss the ins and outs of film processing and how Colorlab has integrated itself as a critical player in the future of celluloid. Finally, they dive into the Warren Beatty directed, Elaine May co-written Heaven Can Wait, a comedy built around a number of great performances and the strange odyssey that is the (now once again) Los Angeles Rams.

0:00-3:07 Opening
4:12-12:24 Establish Shots — Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris
13:10-48:50 Deep Focus — Laua Major
50:34-53:18 Sponsorship Section
54:48-1:10:57 Double Exposure — Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty)

1:11:20-1:14:09 Close / Outtake

Episode #86 - Gordon Quinn (One Way Or Another)

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"You're not just like your subjects. You're a filmmaker. You need to acknowledge who you are."

If cinema can achieve more than simply be art but a form of action, how does one negotiate the role that the camera plays in reality. Celebrating its 50th Year, Kartemquin Films has used cinema as a tool for addressing social, political, and economic inequality through the documentary from, spearheaded by its co-founder Gordon Quinn. In this wide ranging interview, Gordon reflects on the early days of the collective—from films about retirement homes and the general state of happiness to more direct political engagement through filming labor strikes. He talks with Peter about negotiating the role of the subject, the role of his own identity in filming the stories of others, the importance of character, and the fickle nature between making a statement and making a dollar. Finally, the two discuss a film that shows all of the work in action: Sara Gomez's landmark documentary One Way Or Another, which stages fabricated drama in the midst of real turmoil in 1970s Cuba to a powerful effect.

0:00-3:29 Opening

4:19-10:04 Establishing Shots — Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women

10:49-1:20:13 Deep Focus — Gordon Quinn

1:20:56-51:51 Sponsorship Section

1:24:33-1:42:01 Double Exposure — One Way or Another (Sara Gomez)

1:42:05-1:43:44 Close

2015 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part 2)

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If you took cinema at its essence, it's simply recorded bits of the present. This includes bits of physical reality, personal psychology, formal techniques through technologies, and projections of possibility. And thus by putting a capstone on the year with this countdwon, Peter and guest Keith Uhlich hope to investigate just a bit of those bits that become the history of film, as well as history itself. Their final picks travel from New York City to 9th Century China to Southern Plantations and the Planet of Arkanar. They emphasize stories of small people in the large waves around them—each one trying to craft their own little spot within their universe. And whether the world goes into the digital ad infinitum or will become covered in shit, it is the human at the center of these films: the joys, the sorrows, all wrapped in one. These are our favorite works of 2015.

Listen to Part 1 Here

0:00-2:32 Opening
3:56-26:41 Choices for #5
28:07-42:29 Choices for #4
44:33-1:04:56 Choices for #3

1:05:46-1:09:21 Mubi Sponsorship and Garrel Giveaway
1:10:28-1:30:18 Choices for #2
1:30:18-1:52:18 Choices for #1

1:52:18-1:55:16 Closing Thoughts / Credits / Outtakes

Read Keith Uhlich at The Hollywood Reporter and Mubi. 

2014 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part 1)

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Another year, another cinema count down. Despite 2,500 miles between their locations, Peter couldn't resist sitting down Keith Uhlich—now of The AV Club, The L Magazine, and To Be (Cont'd)—to discuss their favorites of the year, so through the power of technology, the virtual balcony is open for this first of two parts. This year's freewheeling discussion takes us from the lore of Macedonia then up cabal cars to the gods of Nepal, the mundane moments of youth to the dystopic futures of simulacra takeover. And yes, even perhaps the realm of television might be crossed, but not without first fueling up on some cocaine from the good doctor. Plus, our favorite repertory picks of the year.

0:00-4:18 Opening Thoughts

4:19-22:34 Picks for #10
22:35-47:47 Picks for #9
47:48-1:04:41 Picks for #8

1:05:28-1:07:02 Mubi Sponsorship - Bluebeard and The Sleeping Beauty

1:08:05-1:24:18 Picks for #7
1:24:19-1:41:39 Picks for #6
1:41:40-1:56:10 Favorite Repertory Picks

1:56:13-1:58:26 Close / Outtakes

Read Keith Uhlich at The AV Club, L Magazine, and To Be Cont'd.
Follow Keith on Twitter.

Special Episode - Cannes Film Festival 2014

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The Cannes Film Festival has been the premiere location for the more masterworks in cinema than likely any other festival in the medium's history. And with its 67th iteration, Peter finally made it to the Croisette to see what the fuss was about. Thankfully, he was not alone, so in this special episode of the podcast, Keith Uhlich, Glenn Heath Jr., and Jordan Cronk join Peter to discuss some of the highlights that made a splash during their last day at the festival. From heavy-hitting works as far as Turkey and Mali, auteurs working with unexpected performers, and Jean-Luc Godard's 3D extravaganza, the festival provides more than enough fascinating material to simply scrape the surface of these enormous works. 

0:00-1:16 Opening

1:17-7:16 Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako)
7:52-14:22 Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
14:23-20:05 Jauja (Lisandro Alonso)
20:55-30:04 Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assyas)
30:57-37:15 Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
37:16-48:28 National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman)
49:27-1:02:06 Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard)
1:02:08-1:14:12 Critics Picks
1:14:13-1:16:32 Close / Outtake

Read Keith Uhlich at Time Out New York, Glenn Heath Jr. at Fandor, and Jordan Cronk at Fandor and Reverse Shot.
Twitters: Keith, Glenn, Jordan. 

Special Episode - 2013 Episode (Part 2)

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A film does not become something more than a mechanical work of reproduction until it is viewed. It only becomes art when it is presented to an audience, as masterpieces are born through the interaction between cinema and cinephile. It is these films that lead Peter and Time Out New York critic Keith Uhlich to their list of the the best films of 2013. They are films about possibilities of imagination both delightful and threatening. They are comedies, thrillers, documentaries, and romances. They are sensuous yet biting, philosophical yet bawdy. Two of them feature characters removing their heads. All in all, another year of cinema. Plus, the two mention their favorite repertory discoveries of the year, and a number of former guests chime in with their own picks.

This is Part 2. Listen to Part 1 here.

0:00-1:34 Opening / Introduction

2:53-11:58 Favorite Repertory Picks

12:55-26:25 Picks for #5

28:33-1:05:20 Picks for #4-3

1:09:05-1:50:15 Picks for #2-1

1:50:20-1:51:59 Close

Follow Keith Uhlich on Letterboxd and Twitter, and read his work at Time Out New York.

Also heard in this episode: Gina Telaroli, James Hansen, Vadim Rizov, Robert Greene, and Dan Sallitt.