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Writing about the migrant experience is "one of the most important things I feel I've ever done or can do."

Shylock Gets Even in Revised ‘Merchant of Venice’ Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” in which Jews are forced to wear yellow stars, has all kinds of racist messages, which must be addressed. Aaron Pyle as Shylock – Photo courtesy of Ophelia’s Jump A cartoon in a New Yorker magazine issue of the late 1930s showed Adolf Hitler pinning a Nazi medal on William Shakespeare for his perceived anti-Semitic slant in his play “The Merchant of Venice.” In recent years, various directors and actors have tried to portray a more sympathetic and humane persona i...

Scene from Hit the Road by Panah Panahi. Courtesy Celluloid Dreams Standing in the check-in queue at LAX, checking that I had my negative PCR test results ready with my passport, I looked up to find a colleague gazing at me, his eyes amused over the line of his mask.  “We’re really doing this, huh?” he said.  We were. The Air France flight was packed, restrictions to Europe having been lifted for US citizens and residents just three weeks earlier. Eleven hours later we were in Paris, en route to Cannes and a film festival that maybe wasn’t such a great idea, and would almost certai...

Afterlife fantasies—from Dante’s Divine Comedy to Pixar’s Soul—have always been a unique way to look at society. In this short series, I’ll be looking at the film tradition of afterlife fantasies, and discussing the recurring themes and imagery across a century of cinema. Last time I set sail with Outward Bound and Between Two Worlds, two films that followed a group of souls on a journey between life and death. Today I’m wrestling with four interrelated films, three starring a personification of Death, and one starring…the Devil! Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Angel on My Shoulder,...

Afterlife fantasies have always been a unique way to look at society. Since death is a fairly impenetrable wall, it gives us an opportunity to imagine all kinds of stuff on the other side. Visions of heavens and hells can be used as carrots and sticks to critique people while they’re still alive, hence Dante’s Divine Comedy, Faust’s terrifying trapdoor, and Jacob Marley’s chains. When I watched Pixar’s Soul, I was reminded of a couple of afterlife fantasies—most immediately, Defending Your Life and A Matter of Life and Death. This got me thinking: is there a tradition to after...