Film Feature: Something Divine Doc, Led by Hardcore Punk Rock Star and Ex-Monk Ray Cappo, Official Selection of Lonely Seal Film Festival

something-divineThomas Essig’s new documentary feature Something Divine has been named an official selection of Lonely Seal Film Festival, scheduled from August 20-25, 2024 in Arlington, MA. The film will be screened on Wednesday, August 21st during the Midweek Music Movies and More themed evening.

In the film, Ray Cappo, the lead singer of the straight edge hardcore band Youth of Today, who at the height of its growing popularity, leaves the band and travels to India. Ray goes from punk artist and becomes the Monk Raghunath. What follows is the confluence of two opposites, hardcore punk and spirituality. The film follows a pilgrimage guided by Raghunath through the holy cities of India, chronicling a spiritual journey of transformation.

In 2017, Essig first went on pilgrimage to India with Monk Raghunath. What he believed was to be a yoga trip, was in fact a journey into yogic philosophy and transformation of oneself – the catalyst that forever changed his life.
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Film Forum Set To Premiere Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border”

green-borderWinner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, “Green Border” immediately drew controversy from the Polish government for its depiction of the European migrant crisis on the Poland-Belarus border.

Shot in stark black-and-white, this riveting thriller explores the intractable conflict from multiple perspectives: a Syrian family fleeing ISIS caught between cruel border guards in both countries; young guards instructed to brutally reject the migrants; and activists who, at great risk, aid the refugees.

Holland (three-time Academy Award® nominee for Angry Harvest, Europa Europa, and In Darkness) brings an unflinching eye and deep compassion to this blistering critique of a humanitarian calamity that continues to unfold.

The Museum of the Moving Image will present a series of films by Agnieszka Holland from June 7–21, 2024.

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Japan Society Announces May Screening Events: Sans Soleil, Lumberjack the Monster, and Tampopo

tampopo-janus-filmsJapan Society, a 116-year-old nonprofit organization bridging the U.S. and Japan, today announced it will host three special screenings in May spanning classic Japanese cinema, a lauded documentary, and a major North American premiere. Japan Society is a storied institution that has presented Japanese art and culture for over a century, and its robust Film Program presents over 60 screenings from the silent era through to contemporary cinema all across the year.

Japan Society’s May events begin on May 1 with French filmmaker Chris Marker’s influential 1983 documentary Sans Soleil presented on rare imported 35mm. Driven by the desire to “capture life in the process of becoming history,” Marker traveled the globe and made a sprawling body of work that ruminates on the nature of memory and time. Of the several films he made in Japan, Sans Soleil remains the late director’s greatest achievement.

An unnamed woman narrates the poetic letters and philosophical reflections of an invisible world traveler accompanied by footage of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Iceland, Paris, San Francisco, and, most significantly, Tokyo—a city whose people, streets, malls, and temples inspire the traveler’s richest observations.
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Tarkovsky’s Haunting Late Masterpiece NOSTALGHIA New 4K Restoration Opens Feb. 21 at Film Forum

ANDREI-TARKOVSKY---NOSTALGHIAAndrei Tarkovsky’s haunting late masterpiece NOSTALGHIA (1983) will run at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration from Wednesday, February 21 through Tuesday, February 29.

In Tarkovsky’s first film made outside the USSR, Russian expatriate Andrei (Oleg Yankovsky, THE MIRROR), wanders wintry Italian landscapes while returning in memory to his homeland. He becomes obsessed with the Botticelli-like beauty of his translator Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), as well as with the apocalyptic ramblings of a self-destructive wanderer named Domenico (Erland Josephson, THE SACRIFICE). In one of cinema’s most agonizingly suspenseful sequences, the fate of the world is found hanging on a candle’s flight across a dry pool, culminating in an overwhelming final shot.

Written with Tonino Guerra, frequent collaborator of Michelangelo Antonioni (on every film from L’AVVENTURA through BLOW-UP), Federico Fellini (AMARCORD), and Francesco Rosi (ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI), NOSTALGHIA is a mystical and mysterious collision of East and West, shot with the tactile beauty that only Tarkovsky could provide.

NOSTALGHIA won the Grand Prix du cinéma de creation prize for Best Director (shared with Robert Bresson for L’ARGENT) and the international film critics prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Soviet authorities prevented the film from winning the Palme d’Or, which hardened Tarkovsky’s resolve to never work in the Soviet Union again.

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Film Review: The Struggle And Hope In “The Bicycle Thieves”

By Armando Inquig

The Bicycle Thieves lays bare the harsh reality of life in post-war Italy. Released in 1948, during a time of deep economic struggle, the film captures the raw aftermath of war with a simplicity that makes its message all the more powerful. Directed by Vittorio De Sica, it’s one of the defining works of Italian neorealism, and still widely considered one of the greatest films ever made.

The story follows Antonio Ricci, a down-on-his-luck man in Rome trying to provide for his family. Things start to look up when he finally lands a job putting up advertising posters — but the job depends on having a bicycle. His wife, Maria, sacrifices their bed linens to get the bike back from a pawn shop, and Antonio heads out to work, hopeful for the first time in a long while.

But his luck quickly turns. While he’s up on a ladder hanging a poster, someone steals his bicycle. He gives chase, but the thief vanishes into the crowd.

What follows is a long and often heartbreaking day as Antonio and his young son, Bruno, comb the city trying to find the bike. Their search takes them through different parts of Rome, each offering a glimpse into the city’s wide economic gap. At a bustling market full of stolen goods, they come up short. At one point, they find someone who may know the thief, and they track down a suspect. But Antonio can’t prove anything, and the man walks free.

As the day wears on, Antonio’s desperation grows. Eventually, in a moment of hopelessness, he tries to steal a bicycle himself — only to be caught in front of a crowd, and most painfully, in front of Bruno. The bike’s owner, seeing their situation, decides not to press charges.

The film ends with Antonio and Bruno walking away together, hand in hand, fading into the crowd. The bicycle — and the hope it once brought — is gone.

De Sica paints a painfully honest picture of what poverty can do to a person. Antonio is not a hero or a villain — just a man pushed to his breaking point by a world that doesn’t seem to care. His story still resonates, not because of the time or place, but because of the emotions it captures so clearly: struggle, pride, shame, and love.

The Bicycle Thieves is moving, human, and unforgettable.

The Criterion Collection recently released the film on Blu-ray in a 4K digital restoration. This special edition also includes a 2003 documentary on screenwriter and longtime De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani.

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