First published August 19th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Prime Video and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
This is true: In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, a British man called Robert Freegard pretended to be an MI5 agent...
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Prime Video, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Prime Video and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
This is true: In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, a British man called Robert Freegard pretended to be an MI5 agent...
- 9/18/2022
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
I Am Not A Witch I Am Not A Witch, Film4 on demand until August 20
This assured feature debut from Welsh-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni skewers sexual politics as it tells the tale of a young Zambian girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), who finds herself accused of being a witch. Packed off to a witch camp, she is forced to work, tethered alongside her fellow "witches" by gigantic cotton bobbins, which add an edge of the surreal to Nyoni's tale. Her self-declared state guardian Mr Banda (Henry Pj Phiri) embodies the ludicrous elements of the patriarchy as well as the danger, as he brags to the women about how much longer their tethers are since he took office. There are plenty of laughs here but also poignancy as Nyoni slowly tightens the focus on Shula's plight. Read the full review here.
Heal The Living, Film4 on demand until August 19
Andrew Robertson writes: Adaptations of novels gain strength.
This assured feature debut from Welsh-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni skewers sexual politics as it tells the tale of a young Zambian girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), who finds herself accused of being a witch. Packed off to a witch camp, she is forced to work, tethered alongside her fellow "witches" by gigantic cotton bobbins, which add an edge of the surreal to Nyoni's tale. Her self-declared state guardian Mr Banda (Henry Pj Phiri) embodies the ludicrous elements of the patriarchy as well as the danger, as he brags to the women about how much longer their tethers are since he took office. There are plenty of laughs here but also poignancy as Nyoni slowly tightens the focus on Shula's plight. Read the full review here.
Heal The Living, Film4 on demand until August 19
Andrew Robertson writes: Adaptations of novels gain strength.
- 7/20/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Blaze (Ethan Hawke)
Not unlike its main subject, Ethan Hawke’s Blaze is likeable, long-winded and a little all over the place. Starring musician Ben Dickey as the titular Blaze Foley, this indie biopic feels like a natural follow-up to Hawke’s last directorial effort, Seymour: An Introduction. That documentary examined the life of Seymour Bernstein, a piano teacher with wise life lessons as curated by failure and regret. This film concerns Foley, an Arkansas-born but Texas-raised singer-songwriter who was killed at the young age of 39. Both are ultimately optimistic, though Hawke does well in finding the sour with the sweet. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon,...
Blaze (Ethan Hawke)
Not unlike its main subject, Ethan Hawke’s Blaze is likeable, long-winded and a little all over the place. Starring musician Ben Dickey as the titular Blaze Foley, this indie biopic feels like a natural follow-up to Hawke’s last directorial effort, Seymour: An Introduction. That documentary examined the life of Seymour Bernstein, a piano teacher with wise life lessons as curated by failure and regret. This film concerns Foley, an Arkansas-born but Texas-raised singer-songwriter who was killed at the young age of 39. Both are ultimately optimistic, though Hawke does well in finding the sour with the sweet. – Dan M. (full review)
Where to Stream: Amazon,...
- 1/25/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
I Am Not A Witch, which is the U.K.’s official submission of Best Foreign Film for the Oscars, is headed to DVD and digital on January 22nd via Film Movement.
The satire centers on Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), a nine-year-old Zambian girl who is exiled to a witch camp run by a corrupt government official. Tied to [...]
The post U.K. Foreign Film Oscar Submission ‘I Am Not A Witch’ Hits DVD In January appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
The satire centers on Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), a nine-year-old Zambian girl who is exiled to a witch camp run by a corrupt government official. Tied to [...]
The post U.K. Foreign Film Oscar Submission ‘I Am Not A Witch’ Hits DVD In January appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 12/26/2018
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
Rungano Nyoni wasn’t exactly surprised when her casting director vanished during pre-production in Zambia. Born in the southern African nation, but raised in Wales, she had girded herself for the challenges of shooting in a country whose film industry holds itself to different professional standards than those prevailing in the U.K.
“Using European sensibilities in Africa just doesn’t work. You have to adjust to the local [way of doing] things,” she says. “We were behind from the beginning. It was really an uphill climb.”
Shooting in Zambia was a calculated risk that paid off for Nyoni, whose feature directorial debut, “I Am Not a Witch,” world-premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2017, and is this year’s U.K.’s foreign-language Oscar submission. Film Movement is the pic’s U.S. distributor. Nyoni was also named one of Variety’s 10 Brits to Watch and won a BAFTA...
“Using European sensibilities in Africa just doesn’t work. You have to adjust to the local [way of doing] things,” she says. “We were behind from the beginning. It was really an uphill climb.”
Shooting in Zambia was a calculated risk that paid off for Nyoni, whose feature directorial debut, “I Am Not a Witch,” world-premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2017, and is this year’s U.K.’s foreign-language Oscar submission. Film Movement is the pic’s U.S. distributor. Nyoni was also named one of Variety’s 10 Brits to Watch and won a BAFTA...
- 11/16/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni’s provocative satire “I Am Not a Witch” drew much praise when it premiered at the 2017 Cannes Festival, but as it continued to screen around the world, it left many audiences confounded. The events of the movie revolve around a young girl sentenced to life imprisonment at a state-run witch camp, and Nyoni envisioned it as a dark comedy that tackled the country’s history of misogyny.
“My film’s sort of a joke about my culture, that I thought we could all laugh along together to, until I realized that this understanding wasn’t quite universal,” she said in a recent interview. “At screenings, mostly across Europe and North America, it occurred to me that audiences weren’t really in on the joke.” Some audiences would apologize for laughing at certain parts, “maybe feeling like they were punching down by laughing at Africans in a certain predicament,...
“My film’s sort of a joke about my culture, that I thought we could all laugh along together to, until I realized that this understanding wasn’t quite universal,” she said in a recent interview. “At screenings, mostly across Europe and North America, it occurred to me that audiences weren’t really in on the joke.” Some audiences would apologize for laughing at certain parts, “maybe feeling like they were punching down by laughing at Africans in a certain predicament,...
- 9/17/2018
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Rungang Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch opens in the backseat of a small bus as it transports passengers through the sparse Zambian countryside. Against the frenzied score of Vivaldi strings, the bus rambles along the uneven terrain toward an enormous sculpture of a cartoonish human head; its eyes wide and searching, its mouth agape. The manic score cuts out as the bus comes to an abrupt stop and the passengers disembark, all of them black except for one young, white female. We watch through the bus windows as these passengers-cum-anthropological tourists observe over a low metal fence a group of women arranged on the ground, as if on display at a human zoo. From each of the women’s backs spools a long white ribbon that billows in the wind; a harness, we hear the guide tell the tourists, that is used to keep the women from flying away.
- 8/30/2018
- MUBI
As summer cools down, we’re entering perhaps the best time of year for cinephiles, with a variety of festivals — some of which will hold premieres of our most-anticipated 2017 features — gearing up. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide a comprehensive preview of the fall titles that should be on your radar.
We’re doing things slightly different this year, combining both the best films we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the films with (mostly) confirmed release dates that are coming over the next four months and have us intrigued. While some won’t show up until late December, a good amount will first premiere over the next few weeks at various film festivals, so check back for our reviews.
See our list below, and return soon for the second part of our preview:...
We’re doing things slightly different this year, combining both the best films we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the films with (mostly) confirmed release dates that are coming over the next four months and have us intrigued. While some won’t show up until late December, a good amount will first premiere over the next few weeks at various film festivals, so check back for our reviews.
See our list below, and return soon for the second part of our preview:...
- 8/22/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
"I used to be like you when I was a kid." Film Movement has debuted a new Us trailer for the Zambian film I Am Not a Witch, the second feature from Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni (Nordic Factory). This premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in Directors' Fortnight last year, and went on to play at numerous other festivals including Tiff, Helsinki, London, Mumbai, Busan, Stockholm, and even the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. I Am Not a Witch is about a young girl who is accused of being a witch, and she ends up stuck with a group of other outcast women working in the desert. But as the title says, of course she is not a witch. The film stars Maggie Mulubwa as Shula, along with a vibrant cast of local actors. If you've been hearing about this one, now is your chance to finally catch it...
- 7/18/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Recalling the polemics of Ousman Sembène, Rungano Nyoni’s Zambian film, I Am Nota Witch is an impressively crafted comedy of manners turned tragedy. The film centers around the accusation that an 8-year old girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) is engaging in witchcraft solely because people in the town say so, and because the girl refuses to confirm or deny whether she’s a witch.
The police therefore are forced to conduct an investigation which includes a test involving dancing and the ritual slaughter of a chicken. The results conclude she’s a witch and she’s sent to a camp in the middle of the dessert where witches of all ages are tied with a ribbon, connected to a giant spool to track and control their movements. The effect allows for moments where they’re surreally recoiled back on to a rig while also the subject of the tourists’ gaze.
The police therefore are forced to conduct an investigation which includes a test involving dancing and the ritual slaughter of a chicken. The results conclude she’s a witch and she’s sent to a camp in the middle of the dessert where witches of all ages are tied with a ribbon, connected to a giant spool to track and control their movements. The effect allows for moments where they’re surreally recoiled back on to a rig while also the subject of the tourists’ gaze.
- 5/18/2018
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Since 2009 BAMcinématek’s: New Voices in Black Cinema has remained a premiere showcase for emerging voices in just that. A mix of documentaries, shorts, and narrative features, the program examines unique aspects of the black experience across the African diaspora. The black experience which is often treated a monolith is in truth multifaceted, dynamic, spans the globe, and various walks of life. BAMcinématek shines a light into these unseen corners of the black identity through up and coming dynamic storytellers. The series started April 26 and continues through 29 in NYC. Here are a few highlights from this year’s slate.
“Jinn”
Arriving at Bam on the heels of a Special Jury Award for writing at SXSW, writer-director Nijla Mu’min’s “Jinn” is a slice-of-life story dealing with faith, sexuality, and the black experience. The film features a dynamic black female protagonist rarely seen on screen. Summer’s (Zoe Renee) struggle...
“Jinn”
Arriving at Bam on the heels of a Special Jury Award for writing at SXSW, writer-director Nijla Mu’min’s “Jinn” is a slice-of-life story dealing with faith, sexuality, and the black experience. The film features a dynamic black female protagonist rarely seen on screen. Summer’s (Zoe Renee) struggle...
- 4/28/2018
- by Jacqueline Coley
- Indiewire
Of all the films eligible for this year's BAFTAs, Rungano Nyoni's feature debut I Am Not a Witch is definitely the least categorizable. An African story strong on social comment and with definite contemporary relevance, it is leavened with scenes of lyrical magic realism and pierced with streaks of scathing, jet-black satire as a nine-year-old girl, Shula (newcomer Maggie Mulubwa), is accused of witchcraft and sent to a prison camp where women are bound by yards of ribbon…...
- 2/16/2018
- Deadline
Kenya
Films Without Borders is a non-profit which works with African youth from troubled backgrounds to make short films. Supported by Swarovski, in partnership with Nairobi City County Government, Fwb is building a hub in Nairobi within walking distance from the Kibera slums offering free filmmaking and post-production workshops and other film-related activities.
At the Shorts Film Corner, Kenyan Russel Bonguen and his short crime thriller,“Who Murdered Judge Dunia Kafir?” are making the rounds with his feature script. Russel is a graduate of Conservatoire Europeen decriture audiovisuelle, the best screenwriting school in Paris, but has returned to his home in Nairobi where he now lives. He has written “News Diva” a feature script with the potential of becoming a series or franchise. Imagine “Broadcast News” as “Chinatown” wherein the station’s lead anchor and Woman of the Year partners in crime with an ex-cia agent to smuggle blood diamonds from the Congo to Nairobi.
Films Without Borders is a non-profit which works with African youth from troubled backgrounds to make short films. Supported by Swarovski, in partnership with Nairobi City County Government, Fwb is building a hub in Nairobi within walking distance from the Kibera slums offering free filmmaking and post-production workshops and other film-related activities.
At the Shorts Film Corner, Kenyan Russel Bonguen and his short crime thriller,“Who Murdered Judge Dunia Kafir?” are making the rounds with his feature script. Russel is a graduate of Conservatoire Europeen decriture audiovisuelle, the best screenwriting school in Paris, but has returned to his home in Nairobi where he now lives. He has written “News Diva” a feature script with the potential of becoming a series or franchise. Imagine “Broadcast News” as “Chinatown” wherein the station’s lead anchor and Woman of the Year partners in crime with an ex-cia agent to smuggle blood diamonds from the Congo to Nairobi.
- 6/6/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cast of “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” on the Red Carpet
In Cannes this year, children played significant parts in Competition films by Todd Haynes (“Wonderstruck”), a grownup film about children, in Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja” about a child’s best friend, a huge animal, who is to be used by a multinational company as food, and in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”.
Todd Haynes, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael and Roy Price at the Amazon “Wondesrstruck” Party in Cannes
In Directors’ Fortnight “The Florida Project” by Sean Baker, children played all the key roles, with an especially outstanding performance by the eight year old Brooklynn Prince who plays the lead as a precocious six year old who with her friends live carefree lives in stark contrast to the lives of their struggling parents.
He was 11 years old when Pio Amato from Calabria, Italy played his first role in...
In Cannes this year, children played significant parts in Competition films by Todd Haynes (“Wonderstruck”), a grownup film about children, in Bong Joon-ho’s “Okja” about a child’s best friend, a huge animal, who is to be used by a multinational company as food, and in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”.
Todd Haynes, Millicent Simmonds, Jaden Michael and Roy Price at the Amazon “Wondesrstruck” Party in Cannes
In Directors’ Fortnight “The Florida Project” by Sean Baker, children played all the key roles, with an especially outstanding performance by the eight year old Brooklynn Prince who plays the lead as a precocious six year old who with her friends live carefree lives in stark contrast to the lives of their struggling parents.
He was 11 years old when Pio Amato from Calabria, Italy played his first role in...
- 6/4/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes this year was enlivened by the fortuitous programming of a number of films about children channeling the bounding energy of their young protagonists, whether Sean Baker’s precocious “hidden homeless” scampering around cheap motels in Orlando in The Florida Project, Jonas Carpignano’s bracing faux-adults spitting slang and smoking cigs in a Romani community in Siciliy in A Ciambra, or the young Joan of Arc, singing and dancing in Bruno Dumont’s Jeannette.More passive than all these kids so willing to act out in difficult circumstances is Shula (Maggie Mulubwa), the young Zambian girl accused of witchcraft in Zambia-born, Wales-based director Rungano Nyoni’s bold debut feature, I Am Not a Witch. In fact, this young girl has no name and is nearly unable to speak up for herself. In the film’s opening scenes, she is accused of being a witch and, failing to deny it,...
- 5/31/2017
- MUBI
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