The words contain such pain, even though they come from one of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and we wept, when we remembered Zion.” It’s the lament of Jewish exiles, at the end of a song cycle of love, loss and longing for home, […]
David Fellerath
Bio: David Fellerath is INDY Week's culture and sports editor.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/dfellerath
Posted inArt
Wilson’s New Beat
Duke theater professor/playwright Erin Cressida Wilson wrote the screenplay to Secretary, the new James Spader — Maggie Gyllenhaal film opening locally this weekend. In it, Mr. Grey, a lawyer, and his secretary, Lee, explore the benefits of S&M. Wilson’s earlier works, including Hurricane, The Erotica Project and The Trail of Her Inner Thigh, have dealt […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Speaking Up–and Out
They’re two current films by and about African-Americans, and they offer widely divergent views of black life in the United States. While the controversial smash hit Barbershop starts off trading on very familiar tropes, it ultimately tries to break through a cultural wall by taking “straight talk” traditionally reserved for black ears only to the […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Uneven Visions
Every fall, WUNC-TV unveils the latest work of Tarheel filmmakers in North Carolina Visions, a series of six hour-long episodes that air Saturday nights at 11 p.m. But this year’s particularly eclectic selections seem to suggest two things. First, North Carolina filmmaking has yet to coalesce into anything resembling a signature style. This current collection […]
Posted inGuides
Attack of the Seven-story Chimps!
Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees, IMAX Theatre at Exploris, Raleigh, Starting Nov. 1 After so many years in the wild, anthropologist Jane Goodall became very close to her subjects. So will we, when Exploris presents Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees starting Nov. 1. Shot in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park, the film details Goodall’s groundbreaking research on […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Hip Hop Hits Home
At one point in Straight Outta Hunters Point, a group of bored teenagers in cars do a series of doughnuts in the middle of a busy street. Partly an expression of youthful exuberance, partly a pointless waste of rubber, gasoline and engine life, the scene captures the enormous energy being uselessly expended in a nihilistic, […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Taking The Long View
Previewing a season’s worth of films is like looking at a pile of unopened gifts: the anticipation is almost always more exciting than the revelations. Last spring, Death to Smoochy looked like a snarky, surefire hit, and an unspectacular little ethnic comedy with a no-name cast called My Big Fat Greek Wedding wasn’t on anyone’s […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Going to Heaven
“I wish there was a story about me,” muses Jennifer Aniston’s Justine, the downtrodden heroine of The Good Girl. “But I don’t know who’d read it,” she adds. Before the movie is over, a story does get written about her, but since it appears to be unpublishable, we’ll have to settle for the movie version, […]
Posted inArt
Flicker Femme
Jen Ashlock greets her interlocutor in a retro bowling shirt with a name stitched on the pocket identifying her as “Betty.” We’re in her basement apartment in Chapel Hill, where the 28-year-old has created something of a shrine to kitsch Americana. Plastic hot dogs and bologna packages line the wall. A vintage pink AM-band radio […]
Posted inGuides
Freeze Frame
Since spring, it has had a new name, but no home. It has been in limbo, and rumors flew about its future. But recent developments have ensured the continuing presence of one of the film world’s premier documentary film festivals in Durham. For five years, the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival had operated under the aegis […]
