Like Qasim Basir’s last feature, “A Boy. A Girl. A Dream,” his new “To Live & Die and Live” is a questing mood piece whose characters roam a city’s highlife in a fruitless search for inner peace. Here the setting is Detroit, but the protagonist a successful filmmaker taking a forced yet needed sabbatical from the pressures of that prior film’s Los Angeles. The issues he’s dragged with him are hardly alleviated by this return to home turf, however.
As before, the writer-director’s elliptical narrative approach leaves a lot of unanswered questions. But the frustration they generate is again outweighed by the insight afforded into upwardly mobile (and in this case Muslim) African American communities, as well as the melancholy poetical drift of his cinematic style.
Burly, bearded Muhammad Abdullah (Amin Joseph) is a prodigal son whose return to Motor City should be a victory lap.
As before, the writer-director’s elliptical narrative approach leaves a lot of unanswered questions. But the frustration they generate is again outweighed by the insight afforded into upwardly mobile (and in this case Muslim) African American communities, as well as the melancholy poetical drift of his cinematic style.
Burly, bearded Muhammad Abdullah (Amin Joseph) is a prodigal son whose return to Motor City should be a victory lap.
- 1/22/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s 102 Distribution (“A School In Cerro Hueso”) has boarded Egyptian filmmaker Shaimaa Elgawady’s debut feature-length documentary “Independent Scene.” It joins first-time producer and the film’s cinematographer, Amr Nazeer, as a production partner and will handle global distribution of the project.
The pickup comes as 102 Distribution is preparing to premiering Carlos Kaiser Eichelmann’s redemption drama “Red Shoes” in main competition at Marrakech after a successful run in Venice’s Horizons Extra strand.
Billed as a depth-laden peek into Jordan’s independent music scene, the narrative follows “four talented artists who helped create a unique sound that began to quietly simmer before finally invading the broader musical world, leaving an enduring mark,” the synopsis says, dissecting the personal journey of each musician as they grapple with finding balance between living their dreams and juggling the mounting pressures of a modern world.
“We attempt to look beyond the seriousness of the internal conflicts,...
The pickup comes as 102 Distribution is preparing to premiering Carlos Kaiser Eichelmann’s redemption drama “Red Shoes” in main competition at Marrakech after a successful run in Venice’s Horizons Extra strand.
Billed as a depth-laden peek into Jordan’s independent music scene, the narrative follows “four talented artists who helped create a unique sound that began to quietly simmer before finally invading the broader musical world, leaving an enduring mark,” the synopsis says, dissecting the personal journey of each musician as they grapple with finding balance between living their dreams and juggling the mounting pressures of a modern world.
“We attempt to look beyond the seriousness of the internal conflicts,...
- 11/15/2022
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
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