2016 Favorites With Keith Uhlich (Part 2)

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Often, we ask questions about what can cinema do. Perhaps the more important question, however, is to ask what should cinema do. As Keith Uhlich and Peter Labuza countdown their favorite media objects of 2016, this question plays out in a myriad of discussion. From the trascendence of genre to the nature of longform, to the act of describing to the disection of popular entertainment. And finally, the two enter a long debate about the nature of non-fiction and reality, as well as the very act of seeing death in cinema. What function should the camera perform, not just for us but the people who hold it? And is there something unique about art and its function in the surrounding world? Plus, former guests of the show call in with their favorite films of the year.

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0:00-2:57 Opening 
2:57-27:45 Picks for #5
29:06-49:34 Picks for #4
49:34-1:08:04 Picks for #3
1:09:47-1:12:29 Sponsorship Section
1:13-40-1:39:20 Picks for #2
1:40:40-2:11:53 Picks for #1
2:11:53-2:13:37 Closing Thoughts
2:13:47-2:15:27 Close / Outtake

Episode #75 - Blake Williams (INLAND EMPIRE)

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"When I'm making work it's very important that me that I'm unsure where it's going"

What does it mean to view a stereoscopic image, to see films in a way that's at once closer to our daily life perception while also expanding it beyond anything we could ever see? Blake Williams is one of many filmmakers working in the avant-garde who has been exploring this question—through filmmaking, criticism, and historical research. Williams joins the podcast to trace his lineage as both a critic and a filmmaker, and the very nature of 3D images that has made this such an exploratory visual medium to work in, using it to explore heady concepts in both literal and theoretical terms. Peter and Blake then turn to a narrative filmmaker who created his own long experimental: David Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE. The two debate the use of narrative in the film while also examining the nature of its low-grade digital imagery, which can be sublime or absolutely terrifying.

0:00-3:02 Opening

3:40-11:14 Establishing Shots — The Mermaid and Mountains May Depart

11:59-1:10:24 Deep Focus — Blake Williams
1:11:26-1:15:24 Sponsorship Section
1:16:39-1:39:33 Double Exposure — INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch)

1:39:36-1:41:14 Close 

Visit Blake's film-viewing blog and his filmmaking website.
Watch the films of Blake Williams, including No Signal, A Cold Compress, Coorow-Latham Road, Depart, Many A Swan, Baby Blue, and Red Capriccio.

Read Blake on Cinema Scope and Ion Cinema.

Special Episode - The 51st New York Film Festival #1 (Carson Lund)

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Arguably the most excitingly and dynamically curated film festival in the world, Peter returns to the New York Film Festival, now in its 51st iteration, for his 8th (!) trip and he couldn't be more excited. Thus begins a series of podcasts dedicated to the various works being presented throughout the festival, now lead by its new head programmer Kent Jones. To help him work through many of the daunting works (in theme, aesthetic, and running time), Boston cinephile Carson Lund, a blogger covering the festival for In Review Online, joins Peter on a tour through violence in capitalist China, fascism in the Northern Philippines, cruising in France, alcoholism in South Korea, and melting ice cream in Nepal. If the rest of the films are as intriguing and exciting as those covered in this first podcast, NYFF51 might just be the best festival yet.  

0:00-2:17 Opening 

2:47-15:15 Zhangke's A Touch of Sin
15:39-26:27 Miyazaki's The Wind Rises
26:54-37:23 Guiraudie's Stranger By the Lake
37:36-39:48 Trivia Round
40:13-53:43 Diaz's Norte, End of History
54:54-1:06:28 Hong's Nobody's Daughter Haewon
1:07:16-1:20:30 MANAKAMANA

1:20:33-1:23:07 Close / Outtake

Visit Carson's blog, Are the Hills Going to March Off?, and his work on In Review Online, Mubi, Dig Boston, and Boston Viewfinder. 

Follow Carson on Twitter.