As an ex-librarian and book collector, one of my favorite things to do is to ferret out new publications and share them with readers. Whenever I'm traveling, I scour local bookstores and museum shops for interesting books. (Carting heavy art tomes home on an airplane is a familiar [...]
A still from the film Minka (Image courtesy Davina Pardo & Birdlings LLC) It is rare to find a film that is pitch-perfect in its cinematography, story, pacing, and length, but Davina Pardo's short film Minka is such a gem. (I owe writer Craig Mod a thank you for turning [...]
Director Jem Cohen and Pieter Brueghel’s 1559 painting There are times when art criticism can illuminate a specific art work---expand on it, put it into context, or communicate details too easily overlooked. But there are other cases when a given art work, film, book, or piece of music [...]
Joseph Bernard, Maze, 2008. Acrylic Paint on Wood Panel. 22 inches x 24 inches Artist Joseph Bernard in Conversation with Mary McNichols (Note: This is a guest post by curator and art historian Mary McNichols) Detroit-based artist, Joseph Bernard, once described a toy he had made as a [...]
Polaroid by Andrei Tarkovsky from the book Instant Light: Tarkovsky Polaroids from Thames and Hudson. “Never try to convey your idea to the audience," said Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, "---it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they’ll find within themselves the means to [...]
A still from Wim Wenders' Pina (Photo © Neue Road Movies GmbH. A Sundance Selects Release. Click to Enlarge) Timing is everything, particularly in the case of Wim Wenders' film Pina. Wenders, director of the critically acclaimed Wings of Desire and Buena Vista Social Club, first saw Pina [...]
Sam Green narrating his live documentary The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (Photo by Sam Allison) "I live on Earth at present, and I don't know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am [...]
One of the images from Anthony Sherin's Solo, Piano - N.Y.C. Since creating its controversial pay wall in 2011, The New York Times has continued to explore new ways of merging storytelling with technology. Their recent multi-media piece "Snowfall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek" is an impressive glimpse at [...]
A still from Terry Gilliam's 1968 animation "The Christmas Card" Merry Christmas! This holiday I'm grateful to readers like yourself who have made 2012 such a fulfilling and exciting year. Thank you. I've thoroughly enjoyed connecting with so many of you in person, through email, social media, [...]
Last night a friend and I watched Jean Cocteau's 1946 film La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) for the very first time. Luckily, we were able to see the restored version of this French masterpiece on the big screen. It is hard to remember just how radical [...]
Filmmaker Samein Priester with his daughter Syann (Photo courtesy Samein Priester) How do you learn to be a father, particularly when there are no fathers around to be an example? This is the question at the heart of Samein Priester's personal documentary 1st&4ever. The dilemma of fatherhood has [...]
Self-portraits by actor and theatre director André Gregory (Photo courtesy Atlas Theatre Company) We gathered around André Gregory like children eagerly assembling around the librarian for story hour. André perched in a picture window inside Winsome Brown and Claude Arpels' fashionable Tribeca apartment. Behind him, the sun was setting over [...]
Stills from The Clock by Christian Marclay (Photo courtesy arkitipintel.com) (NOTE: This review is from the summer of 2012. Marclay's The Clock is on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City through January 21, 2013, with a special 24-hour screening on New Year's [...]
If you're in the New England area on June 8th, 9th, or 10th, you'll want to check out the Thing in the Spring art and music festival in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Gwarlingo is proud to be the media sponsor for this event. The festival is organized by musician [...]
The first time I saw a Peter Hutton film was at a screening at The MacDowell Colony several years ago when Peter was in residence. A small group of us gathered in the Colony library to watch Study of a River. A 16mm projector hummed over our shoulders [...]
In the West, Hiroshi Teshigahara is best known as the avant-garde director of the 1964 film Woman in the Dunes--an erotic, surreal film that was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Teshigahara's haunting shots of sand, skin, [...]
Genius or Scam Artist? Artist and provocateur Banksy is a walking, breathing oxymoron. Depending on who you ask, he is either a genius or an overhyped vandal, a talented documentary filmmaker or a brilliant scam artist. As a self-described art terrorist, he is both a lefty and [...]
Last night the snow finally arrived in New Hampshire. Having grown up in Georgia, a white Christmas is still a welcome novelty for me. Back home in Atlanta, businesses and schools close the moment the "S" word is mentioned. There are few snow plows or sand trucks there, [...]
Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret is out in theaters today. Selznick's remarkable book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal (the first young adult novel to win the award for children's book illustration), was a finalist for the National Book Award, and was chosen as [...]
One of my favorite filmmakers working today is Bill Morrison. There aren't many directors whose work compels me to see every film they make, but Morrison is one of those rare artists I've enjoyed following closely through the years. His films are always memorable and worth seeking out. Over [...]
If forwarding an email or sharing a story could bring an important creative project to fruition, would you do it? If giving $10 could help us better understand the lives of four young women living in the Middle East or unravel the causes of a cultural revolution, would you [...]
On my recent visit to the UK I talked to several music lovers about the British music scene. One classical pianist I met in London recommended the choral work of British composer Jonathan Harvey and urged me to investigate the excellent website Sound and Music, which covers the contemporary [...]
If you’ve never seen Yuriy Norshteyn’s Hedgehog in the Fog, then you are in for a special treat. And if you have seen it, you owe it to yourself to revisit this classic, animated film. Hedgehog in the Fog is one of the most beautiful, evocative short films ever made. It [...]