CINEMA | Taking 'Pleasure' – A Swede in Porno Valley

"Women should have more power over what happens to them at work."

Neon / MK2 Mile End

Swedish filmmaker Ninja Thyberg dives deep into San Fernando Valley pornography culture in a raw but unflinching portrait of professional adult film work in Pleasure. Set mostly within the actual porn industry and starring many real-life performers, the explicit depiction toys with its subject matter and titillation by emphasizing the decidedly less sexy elements of sex work and performance.

CINEMA | Spending 'Every Day in Kaimukī' x LAAPFF 2022

"You smell like skateboarding [...] sweat and arrested development."

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Filmed and set on the Island of Oahu featuring a native Hawaiian cast and crew, co-writer/director Alika Tengan crafts Every Day in Kaimukī into a laidback, slice-of-life docu-dramedy reminiscent of Richard Linklater's early works. Captured through a naturalistic, documentary-like style lens, the lo-fi indie film casually explores its characters' sense of belonging amidst a backdrop of what many consider to be an isolated paradise.

WEEKENDER | BC Distilled Festival x Croatian Cultural Centre

"[It] brings together our province's great community of distillers and spirit fans."

Kensington–Cedar Cottage—(April 9, 2022) Vancouver's seventh annual BC Distilled artisanal spirit tasting festival finally returned to the Croatian Cultural Centre last month after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

SCREEN | Striking Poland in '1970' x DOXA 2022

"Give us bread and wages."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Filmed like a historical thriller, Polish filmmaker Tomasz Wolski dramatizes the violent response of the communist government of the Polish People's Republic to the public protests of December 1970 after the sharp increase in food prices and general economic crisis. Using marionette puppets, stop-motion animation, and archival audio, the hybrid documentary chronicles the bureaucratic banality of authoritarian evil.

CINEMA | Conjuring 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

"Your desecration of reality will not go unpunished."

Marvel Studios

Original Spider-Man franchise director Sam Raimi takes over the reins of Doctor Strange starring a returning Benedict Cumberbatch as the arrogant surgeon turned Master of the Mystic Arts in Marvel Studios' jam-packed, universe-bending superhero sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Raimi brings his stylish sense of bright and playful horror thrills to the MCU but how the convoluted plot motivations of the true villain unfold is nothing short of absolutely insane only to be proven by the eventual resolution.

SCREEN | Soul Food – 'We Feed People' x DOXA 2022

"Make sure that food is an agent of change."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

We Feed People follows gregarious, Spanish-born celebrity chef José Andrés' mission to provide meals in the wake of natural disasters starting with the 2010 Haiti earthquake through his World Central Kitchen non-profit NGO. Director Ron Howard chronicles the famous cook's relentless determination to feed the hungry (as the title would suggest) in devastated areas as fast as possible against the red tape of emergency humanitarian aid.

SCREEN | Chasing Volcanoes – 'Fire of Love' Erupts x DOXA 2022

"It's two young volcanologists dancing on the edge of a volcano."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Fire of Love documents the extraordinary lives of married French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft who were trailblazing pioneers obsessed with capturing footage of active volcanoes before dying tragically in a pyroclastic flow on Mount Unzen in Japan in 1991. Director Sara Dosa uses the quirky couple's own decades worth of material compiled to tell their incredible real-life story of love and lava.

CABLE | 'Pachinko' Spans Generations of Koreans in Japan

"She will thrive."

Media Res

Based on Korean-American author Min Jin Lee's bestselling historical epic novel of the same name, Pachinko is a breathless adaptation celebrating the quiet multigenerational sacrifice of Korean women set against the backdrop of Japanese colonialism throughout the twentieth century.

CINEMA | Peak Cage – 'The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent'

"You're not an actor. You're a f*cking movie star!"

Lionsgate / Mongrel Media

Prolific movie star Nicolas Cage both makes fun and celebrates of his own late career Hollywood image by starring as a fictionalized version of himself ("Nick Cage") in director Tom Gormican's amusing comeback meta action-comedy, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. It's a mostly charming, somewhat scattered ride anchored by Cage's go-for-it performance that's unafraid to mine his real life in fairly ridiculous ways.