Told through a triptych of three disconnected families, Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother is a minimalistic meditation on attempted reconciliation—between relatives and within the self.  Writer/Director Jarmusch and his longtime collaborator, Producer Carter Logan achieve this luminous effect through a nearly invisible, yet masterful sense of control.  Is it possible to control a work of art that is by nature—and intent—an enigma?  According to Logan, the familial interactions they explore onscreen are direct analogues to his creative process with Jarmusch.

In October of 2017, I interviewed Ruben Östlund during the New York Film Festival for IONCINEMA. We talked about how his latest film The Square is—or now, aguably was—Östlund’s most ambitious attack on humanity yet … with a compellingly affectionate touch.

In 2017, I had the privilege of spending time with the legendary 88-year old Belgian-born filmmaker Agnès Varda. She was in New York for the premiere of her latest opus, Visages Villages; I was covering NYFF (the 55th New York Film Festival) as a journalist. After our interview, I brashly asked if she’d allow a selfie. Varda agreed—but after observing my initial attempts, all hopelessly blown out by an overhead light fixture, she proclaimed “C’est nul!” (“That sucks!”) and led me firmly across the room. Suddenly, I was getting tutored in the Art of the Selfie by a New Wave Pioneer.