Bilal Qureshi appears in the following:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival focuses on expansion – but is not without its critics
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
After two years of pandemic closures, audiences are back at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, to find a season of diverse plays. But for many, change has come too soon.
Here are the breakthrough films that premiered at this year's Toronto Film Festival
Friday, September 16, 2022
The first fully reopened edition of TIFF concludes this weekend. But with a film industry still reeling from box office declines and changing audience habits, the award season remains in flux.
The case for nixing the Oscars' best international feature category
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
In the extraordinary new age of subtitled streaming and globalized filmmaking, the Oscar category is becoming a caricature of itself as a relic of the past.
With 'Dune,' Denis Villeneuve has made Hollywood's definitive post-9/11 epic
Thursday, October 21, 2021
With the new 2021 movie, director Denis Villeneuve turns the novel's meditations on race, culture and colonialism into riveting and undeniable cinema.
The Best And Worst So Far From The Not-Very-Festive Toronto International Film Fest
Thursday, September 16, 2021
The Toronto International Film Fest is usually mobbed with over a thousand industry types from all over the world. But this year the partially-online festival has been bleak and deserted.
Cannes Rolls Out The Red Carpet For An Expanded, More Inclusive Film Festival
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
After the cancellation of the festival in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Cannes Film Festival returns to the French Riviera with an expanded program and a historic jury led by filmmaker Spike Lee.
Looking Back On The Legacy Of 'Shaft,' 50 Years Later
Friday, July 02, 2021
"Shaft" was released 50 years ago this week. The film heralded what came to be known as Blaxploitation cinema, a genre with a chequered legacy that also created inspired, Oscar-winning music.
'I Carry You With Me' Blends Reality And Drama In A Wrenching Gay Love Story
Friday, June 25, 2021
Iván and Gerardo can't be gay in Mexico, and can't be undocumented in the U.S. Filmmaker Heidi Ewing tells this real-life story with documentary footage and a swooning fictionalized drama.
'Quo Vadis, Aida?' Asks: Where Does A Society Go After War Ends?
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Jasmila Zbanic's Oscar-nominated film dramatizes the genocide of more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. Aida is a former teacher working as a translator for U.N. forces.
When The Giants Of Indian Classical Music Collided With Psychedelic San Francisco
Saturday, January 23, 2021
The new live album That Which Colors the Mind, recorded in 1970 by Grateful Dead sound man Owsley Stanley, captures a riveting performance by Ali Akbar Khan, Zakir Hussain and Indranil Bhattacharya.
In 'Funny Boy,' A Young Sri Lankan Gay Man Comes Of Age As Ethnic Tensions Explode
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Deepa Mehta's new film, Funny Boy, is Canada's Oscar submission. It's being distributed by Ava DuVernay's company and premieres on Netflix. It's based on the novel by Shyam Selvadurai.
'Tripping With Nils Frahm': 4 Sweaty Berlin Nights Captured Onscreen
Friday, December 04, 2020
The new concert film, shot in 2018, shows one of the stars of the electronic and indie classical worlds in his element: a homebrewed nest of traditional and modern instruments working together.
Film Version Offers A New Look At Jack London's 'Martin Eden'
Monday, October 26, 2020
The new film Martin Eden is an epic retelling of Jack London's 1909 novel set in Italy in the midst of a socialist revolution. It may well be a metaphor for the "Don't tread on me" America of today.
The Enduring Afterglow Of Ravi Shankar's Life In Music
Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Ravi Shankar took Indian classical music to world stages and introduced the sitar to Western audiences. His influence can still be felt today, 100 years after his birth.
In Austria's Alps, 'A Hidden Life' Of World War II Resistance
Monday, December 23, 2019
Director Terrence Malick is known for dream-like movies. His latest tells a more direct story: one of a family, and how it is affected by the father's decision not to swear allegiance to Hitler.
Artist Kehinde Wiley's 'Rumors Of War' Now Stands In Former Capital Of The Confederacy
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Kehinde Wiley's sculpture, "Rumors of War," was unveiled at its permanent home outside the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond on Tuesday.
'Atlantics' Is A Haunting Refugee Story — Of The Women Left Behind In Senegal
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Mati Diop is the first black woman to compete at the Cannes Film Festival — where her first feature won the Grand Prix. The movie about women left behind by refugees is coming soon to Netflix.
How Spanish Filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar Drew From His Own Life For 'Pain And Glory'
Friday, October 04, 2019
Pain and Glory is the latest from Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. It tells the story of an aging filmmaker unable to make films — to tell his stories — until the past nudges him forward.
An Unauthorized Biopic Of Silvio Berlusconi, Already Stranger Than Fiction
Tuesday, October 01, 2019
Loro, directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Toni Servillo, is a movie about the TV tycoon turned Italian prime minister — and the sycophants who helped build his cult of personality.
Silvio Berlusconi Biopic: 'Loro'
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Loro is the latest from Italian director Paolo Sorrentino and tells the story of businessman and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's last comeback.