Dear friends,
Today’s top pick is the first movie ever funded by the International Sámi Film Institute, whose goals are among else to “to enhance and promote Sámi film production,” and “to promote indigenous films and cooperation between indigenous film workers at a global level.”
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Sami Blood
On Amazon Prime U.S. In Swedish and Saami.
This coming-of-age story starts in the present time, where Elle Marja, now a grandmother, reluctantly goes to her sister’s funeral held by her old indigenous Sámi community in Northern Sweden.
Understanding her reluctance requires going back to when Elle Marja was 14 and was preparing to go to boarding school with her little sister.
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Gadget Man
Season four is new this week on Amazon Prime.
In each episode of this silly BBC production, comedian Richard Ayoade picks a topic and buys the silliest, most expensive gadgets invented for it.
Gadget Man is an easy and funny insight into human ingenuity and one man’s fascination with gadgets, in everything from commuting to camping.
Readers’ top picks
The Peanut Butter Falcon on Amazon Prime also with 💕 Shia L. 💕 is our readers’ favorite movie.
Immigration Nation on Netflix, a three-year in-depth look at ICE, is our readers’ favorite show.
New titles worth your time
The fifth season of the DC fantasy crime show Lucifer was added to Netflix today.
No noteworthy titles on Amazon Prime this week.
Great titles that will soon expire
The French romance Blue Is the Warmest Color leaves Netflix this Tuesday, August 25th. The British prison drama Starred Up leaves next Friday, August 28th.
Colin Firth’s The King's Speech leaves Amazon Prime this Monday, August 24th.
The Newsflash: Criterion so White
This week the New York Times published an interactive article on the lack of representation in the Criterion Collection, a prestigious film distribution company that focuses on reissuing curated classics.
In Criterion’s 1034 films, there are only four made by African-Americans, or 0.4%. And it’s not that much better on other fronts for representation. For example, 93% of the movies are directed by men.
The New York Times article is far from the first to spot this issue. In 2017, while sitting with Criterion’s president Peter Becker, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins shared his view on gaps in the curation in a recorded interview:
The collection, which adds over 50 movies every year, did nothing to address these issues, even after they became public. This goes to show that there is a premeditated aspect to this exclusion.
In the article, director Haile Gerima said about Criterion:
“Our experience never allowed us to even think of the possibility of having a relationship with them, because I just feel their very standard is very white supremacist.”
And the impacts go way beyond self-exclusion. As an industry expert Amy Heller told The Times:
“The folks who are left out of the lists start to become literally personae non grata, […] not worth talking about, or hiring, or watching.”
Towards the end of article, race and popular culture scholar Todd Boyd summarizes the systemic effect of Criterion’s racist curation:
“It’s not the ‘segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever’ kind of racism, […] It’s the sort of racism rooted in assumptions about what’s relevant, what’s significant, what’s worth seeing, what’s important.”
That’s it for today, I hope there is something in there for you.
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The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, August 28th.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.