With cinemas and film festivals in Canada, Germany and across the world currently closed or postponing their live programming, we are discovering the virtues of streaming. Among the offerings, one of the best is
Kanopy. The platform is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and thousands of independent filmmakers.
You can use it for free for example through the Toronto Public Library. Download the Kanopy app, log in with your library account, and a portal of high-quality global content awaits.
To sift through the catalogue, I am curating a little series of my personal film recommendations here and on social media #MyKanopyKanon. #Docs #features #shorts #femalefilmmakers #arthouse #mainstream ... Let me know your favourites and film viewing experiences and let's turn social distancing into social connecting.
☆ Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” is an example of the rarer & here beautifully illustrated screen-to-book adaptation of his fantasy film by German YA star author Cornelia Funke: Watch the film & read & marvel at this exquisite book.
☆ I’ll add French-German-Czech-Belgian
mystery thriller “Personal Shopper” by Olivier Assayas here simply because it has Berlin uber actor Lars Eidinger as Ingo flailing his arms with a gun…
☆ "Esto no es Berlín" I just discovered myself -- and like it because This Is Not Berlin for once ... but then again it sounds & feels like it: Mexico City. 17-year-old Carlos doesn't fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art. Hari Sama's coming-of-age story was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and as Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca.
"A vibrant, affectionate ode to Mexico City's burgeoning counterculture," the LA Times judged.
☆ If in doubt, revert to RWF: The wild ride "Kamikaze '89" shows Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his last acting role in an iconic leopard skin suit as hardboiled detective Jansen. In a neon-drenched futuristic dystopia ruled by a multimedia conglomerate called The Combine, Jansen is sent on a labyrinthine investigation when their headquarters is threatened with mass destruction by a phantom bomber.
More recommendations next week, stay safe & keep watching!
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
