WHAT’S INSIDE
Ep. 80: Nikki Erlick, journalist & travel writer, NY Times Best Selling Author
Curator’s Pick: “Parting Glances”
Not quite Steve Buscemi’s big-screen debut—that honor goes to Eric Mitchell’s no-wave landmark The Way It Is (1985), alongside fellow first-timer Vincent Gallo and his stage comedy partner Mark Boone Jr.—Bill Sherwood’s Parting Glances (1986) is a “Curator’s Pick” and essential Pride Month viewing on Fandor. It’s the film that first got the world beyond NYC’s East Village to notice the firefighter-turned-actor.
WATCH FOR FREE: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Bright Future”
Premiering at Cannes 20 years ago this month, at a time when Kurosawa was still hotly associated with horror, Bright Future (available to watch free this month on Fandor!) flirts with genre elements and an ambient, shadowy tone of vaguely defined anxiety, but with an often-deadpan vibe that aligns it with slacker comedies.
INTERVIEW: Theodore Schaefer on “Giving Birth to a Butterfly”
After a decade of working his way up through the indie film ranks, writer-director-producer Theodore Schaefer at last sees the debut of his highly distinctive …
Six to Watch: “Mother!”
Mother’s Day is Sunday, which on Fandor means it’s a fine time to call home (cinematically speaking) and check in on Mom. This month’s 25-film “Mother!” collection honors the tradition even as it explores maternity in a myriad of sometimes unexpected or surprising guises. Here are six highlights to help you celebrate in unconventional style.
INTERVIEW: Johannes Grenzfurthner on “Razzennest”
Rogue artist, raconteur and cocktail roboticist Johannes Grenzfurthner is a Viennese Renaissance man whose obsessively detailed and cleverly unhinged films infiltrated some of North America’s more fun-oriented film festivals during the pandemic. His latest, RAZZENNEST, is now streaming exclusively on Fandor.
Curator’s Pick: “A Fish in the Bathtub”
JAWS it ain’t, nor is it named WANDA. But the dinner-sized carp that plays the title role in Joan Micklin Silver’s A FISH IN THE BATHTUB causes plenty of ruckus in the lives of a Queens, NYC family that briefly comes apart at the seams after it takes up splashy residence in a spare bathroom.
Six to Watch: “I Need Space”
All so aptly named, Fandor’s themed compendium “I Need Space” offers up 27 movies that unreel across the great outdoors—and, occasionally, outer space itself—in unforgettable locations all around the globe. To get your viewing started, Keyframe offers a thumbnail guide to six wildly distinct features.
INTERVIEW: Stéphane Lafleur on “Viking”
The director of VIKING talks about life on his cinematic faux Mars, his lifelong love of science fiction movies, and his absurd astronaut comedy’s underlying question, “How do we live together with the least pain possible?”
INTERVIEW: Mickey Reece on “Country Gold”
Keyframe chats with Mickey Reece, “the Fassbinder of Oklahoma City,” about his new fantasy music comedy COUNTRY GOLD. Reece reflects on his casual origins as a creative artist, how used DVDs became his film school, and the joys of working with hometown actors.
Six to Watch: “She’s Gotta Direct It”
If, as the T-shirts say, “the future of film is female,” the industry is still fumbling for the keys to the time machine. At Fandor, however, the achievements and artistry of women are highlighted in a current collection of titles called “She’s Gotta Direct It.”
Fandor Exclusive: “Hannah Ha Ha”
New England filmmakers Joshua Pikovsky and Jordan Tetewsky, the talents behind last year’s Slamdance Grand Jury prizewinner for Best Narrative Feature HANNAH HA HA, bring their own finely tuned sensibilities to bear on the now-familiar quarter-age crisis genre, updating it to reflect the late-capitalist limbo we’re all living in.
Fandor Exclusive: “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic”
Now on Fandor, the Venice Film Festival audience award winner and beloved SXSW fave is a clever, unusual and ultimately empathetic comedy-thriller-romance from straight outta Finland.