Features

It's SPACE JAM Week!
Announcement: It’s SPACE JAM Week!

As a wise man once said “time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’ / into the future.” It’s pretty gross to think about, but the seminal event in all of our lives, Space Jam, turns 20 this year. Seems like just yesterday that Michael Jordan rescued Bugs, Daffy and the gang from a lifetime of cosmic-slavery, but here we are.

The Mind On Film: Representative or Farfetched?

The subject of mental illness and disorders are interesting, educational, and sometimes sensitive topics in film. From watching movies like Girl, Interrupted, The Road Within and The Machinist, audiences learn a great deal about very real and problematic issues surrounding sufferers, however, can it be said that these representations are portrayed correctly? The film industry is guilty of depicting disorders such as hysteria as an illness that only women suffer from, and autism is far too often painted as a superpower, not to mention the unclear representation of schizophrenia, which causes audiences to confuse the illness with dissociative identity disorder.

Positive Psychology Films: Women’s Careers
Positive Psychology & Film: Women’s Careers

A common stereotype in film is that women don’t work and have no career. What can we learn from the films in which women’s careers are at the forefront?

Film Inquiry Recommends: Great Australian Genre Films

Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Great Australian Genre Films.

How To Get A Movie-Inspired Interior
How To Get A Movie-Inspired Interior

Watching movies is a favorite pastime for people around the globe, and they engage in it for various reasons. You could say pictures are the ideal form of escapism, but I would argue that they are also much more than that. The movie is a portal to another world where we immerse in fantasy, drama, suspense, laughter, but also art and design.

Positive Psychology & Film: Love
Positive Psychology & Film: Love

“Human beings are starved for love.” – Erich Fromm This article is part of a series. Find the first part here.

Virtual Love: What Makes Us Fall For Artificial Intelligence?
Virtual Love: What Makes Us Fall For Artificial Intelligence?

Whether we like it or not, technology is becoming a larger part of our everyday lives, from the cell phones we carry to the laptops we work on. However, this trend has been ever-present in film, as long as science fiction has been on screen. Technological advances generally start as a method to improve human life but as soon as we design technology with a consciousness, that is when all hell breaks loose.

The Power of Film Podcast Episode 3
The Power Of Film Podcast #3: Samantha Shada, Director

In this third episode of The Power of Film, I spoke with the lovely Samantha Shada. She is a director, hosts the screening series Seeking Our Story, and she works at one of the big studios – a busy lady who has a lot of unique insights into the world of film! We spoke about a lot, from film in general and symbolism in film, the status quo of the studio system (and, very interesting, the current state of film marketing) to film preservation.

Film Inquiry Recommends: The Cinema Of Paul Schrader

Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is the cinema of Paul Schrader, highlighting both his writing and directing talents.

The Jungle Book
The Feral Child: What A Real Life Mowgli Would Look Like

Filmgoers have always been captivated with man’s primal nature. From the silver screen adaptations of The Wolf Man to the mysterious Creature from the Black Lagoon, the primitive side of these movie monsters has contributed to horror genre’s A-team roster. Upon viewing their animalistic nature, our minds are suddenly given a glimpse into the missing link between man and beast.

10 Gangster Films From Abroad: Part III

They say if two’s company, then three’s a crowd, but I like crowds, especially when they’re crowds of gangster movies from countries around the world. So this is our third outing (first here, second here), and if my editor doesn’t kill me, there might be a fourth. Yes, there’s crime in every country, and where there’s crime there are criminals, and when they get organized they become gangsters, and if said country has a film business chances are they will make gangster movies.

A Conversation With The Scream Queen Of The Midwest, PJ Woodside, About Her Latest Film, FRANCES STEIN
A Conversation With The Scream Queen Of The Midwest, PJ Woodside, About Her Latest Film, FRANCES STEIN

PJ Woodside and her partner, Steve Hudgins at Big Biting Pig Productions in Madisonville, KY are creating quite a stir in the independent horror scene. They’ve put out a film a year for the last decade. Their most recent film, Frances Stein, was recently released on Amazon Prime and has been getting a steady stream of five star reviews.

A Girl Escaped: Jailed Women In 21st Century Cinema
Positive Psychology And Film

You can improve your life by paying attention to how films use characters and themes to explore human values, virtues, and character strengths.

Making A Sex Scene With James Franco
Making A Sex Scene With James Franco

We all know James Franco as one of Hollywood’s top A-list actors and working artists who has his hand in various aspects of the arts, but a handful of film students and emerging talent in Hollywood know him as an instructor, mentor or college professor. In March 2014, he decided teaching at USC, UCLA and CalArts wasn’t enough, so he opened his own school, Studio 4. In October 2014, James taught his first class at his new school:

Film Inquiry's Best Articles Of April 2016
Film Inquiry’s Best Articles Of April 2016

Aaaaaaaand it’s May. Time to highlight some of the best articles we published last month! Last month we published over 60 articles, and among them many film reviews (like ones for Mr.