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Film Inquiry’s Best Articles Of 2015

Film Inquiry’s Best Articles Of 2015

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Film Inquiry Best of 2015

Happy new year! Although the end of 2015 was already 19 days ago, it’s never too late to reflect on what a terrific year we’ve had at Film Inquiry and highlight some of our favourite articles. We hope that in 2016 we can bring you more cinematic goodness – we’re looking forward to it!

The first exciting thing we can announce for 2016 is that Film Inquiry has founded a new Youtube channel, called Women Direct – Trailers, where we will curate trailers for films directed by women! So, please go ahead, check it out and subscribe!

In 2015, we’ve published exciting interviews, many great additions to our Resource Library, great essays and tons of reviews and trailer posts. If we had to list all of our favourite articles in this list we might as well just share a link to our archives because we love them all, but we’ll try to keep it short.

In case you missed them, here are our ten favourite articles of 2015, in no particular order!

25 Greatest Documentaries Of All Time

Lake of Fire documentary
Lake of Fire (2006) – source: ThinkFilm

Though documentaries have been around as long as cinema itself, it is only within the past decade or so that they have started to really gain widespread acceptance. Traditionally marginalized as “academic” or “high-brow” filmmaking, the humble documentary has found a home in an age where authenticity and accessibility have grown to be core cultural values.

Also, a core cultural value in this modern age are lists: as everything needs to be placed and ranked in its proper order. This phenomenon has led to canons being established for every niche one can think of, documentaries included. Everything can be checked and cross-referenced to come to a general consensus on what product, cultural media, fruit really is the best. […]

Start at #25 here. Written by  our documentary specialist Arlin Golden.

Film Theory 101 – Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze Theory

Transformers
Transformers (2007) – source: Paramount Pictures

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain, best known for her essay on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Her theories are influenced by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan (by using their ideologies as “political weapons”) whilst also including psychoanalysis and feminism in her works. Mulvey is predominantly known for her theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media, more commonly known as The Male Gaze” theory. […]

Read our first film theory article, by Rachael Sampson, here.

How Will THE HATEFUL EIGHT Fit Into Tarantino’s Film Universe?

The Hateful Eight
The Hateful Eight (2015) – source: The Weinstein Company

Not as outdated as you might think – even though The Hateful Eight’s had its release now, it’s still interesting to reflect upon how it fits in Tarantino’s cinematic universe.

Quentin Tarantino’s on-again-off-again-on-once-again production of The Hateful Eighthas been confirmed for 2015 and, reportedly, he’s joining forces with several of his favourite go-to actors like Tim Roth, Samuel L. Jackson, Zoë Bell, Kurt Russell, and Michael Madsen. I thought it might be a good time to look at the previous Tarantino films and see where this new one might fit in. The poster tells us that this is the “8th film from Quentin Tarantino,” and this is significant. […]

Read Jacqui Griffin’s insightful article here.

“Joshua, Stop Your Crying” – An Interview With Director Joshua Oppenheimer

The Look of Silence
The Look of Silence (2014) – source: Drafthouse Films

The Look of Silence, the harrowing companion piece to The Act of Killing, was released earlier this year to universal acclaim. With the film about to be released on streaming platforms in the US, with a ton of awards nominations heading its way (including a place in the shortlist for Best Documentary at the Oscars this year), Film Inquiry spoke to director Joshua Oppenheimer about the past decade in his life making these films, as well as the new form of documentary storytelling he has pioneered. […]

Read Alistair Ryder’s in-depth interview with Oppenheimer here.

The Charge For Equality – Women Directors

Maria Giese - photo credit: Danny Liao
Maria Giese – photo credit: Danny Liao

We are in the midst of a global revolution for female empowerment and equality. This movement has been building for some years, and the new efforts for women directors have added great momentum to the cause. The campaign and ongoing support for women directors starting 2013 by the ACLU has now led to an industry-wide investigation. In turn, this has helped motivate many other countries to create sweeping programs for parity for women directors in their own film & television industries. […]

Read Hollywood director Maria Giese‘s article here.

The Beginner’s Guide: David Lynch, Director

Mulholland Drive - David Lynch
Mulholland Drive (2001) – source: Universal Pictures

David Lynch has one of the most polarizing bodies of work in Hollywood (though he is objectively one of the nicest and most genuine people there). His films divide audiences like they were born of a marriage between Moses and Solomon. Filled with peculiar idiosyncrasies and defiantly flaunting conventions of both genre and narrative, Lynch’sfilms have been stubborn in their consistency for most of his career. As a result, people who were turned off by one of his films at some point in their life often are confident that their distaste is justified and can applied to the entire Lynch oeuvre. […]

Read Arlin Golden’s Beginner’s Guide here.

The History Of Hong Kong Action Cinema

The True Story of Wong Fei-hung (1949) - source: Dali Film Company
The True Story of Wong Fei-hung (1949) – source: Dali Film Company

Although Alexander Miller started his History of Hong Kong Action Cinema series in late 2014, the majority was published in 2015, and so we would like to highlight his terrific 7-part history series. He starts at the very early days of cinema in 1896, and guides us all the way to modern day Hong Kong cinema.

What makes Hong Kong so important in the film industry is that it was one of the leading exporters of movies in the world, and that while it was just a small, coastal Chinese island that was leased to the United Kingdom. The early days of Hong Kong’s film industry is as intriguing as the area itself, and the reflection of this unique area would manifest a legacy of great films. […]

Find the first part of the History of Hong Kong Action Cinema series here!

A History of Film Noir in 10 Movies

Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon (1941) – source: Warner Bros.

Noir filmmakers used shadowy black and white cinematography and inventive camera angles to make movies filled with crime, lust, betrayal, and the darkness in the human heart. The noir style encompassed many types of films: there are of course murder-mysteries and heist movies, but noirs were also social problem movies, women’s pictures and even science fiction.

Today, film noir is more  popular than ever. In recent years, classic movie fans have dedicated November, or “Noirvember” if you want to use the social media hashtag, as a month for the study and appreciation of noir, so without further ado here’s 10 great movies that shaped the history of American film. […]

Read Amanda Garrett’s excellent list here.

The Future of Womankind: Beyond Ellen Ripley

Mad Max Fury Road
Mad Max Fury Road (2015) – source: Warner Bros. Pictures

In a world dominated by men and machines, these two extraordinary female characters gave rise to the phenomenon we have come to know as ‘the strong female character’. Whilst it’s a character trait that nowadays easily falls into a bad trope, these two characters ensured that women could begin to be viewed as three dimensional people, rather than just titillation or background objects. […]

Read Becky Kukla’s amazing article here.

What were some of your favourite Film Inquiry articles last year? Let us know in the comments, and we’d also love to hear it if you have any suggestions for 2016.

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