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I was not familiar with Charles Yu’s original novel and namesake of the show. Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of Interior Chinatown is that after five episodes (half of the full season order, but all that was provided for the screeners) is that I ordered a copy of the book because I was intimately curious with how such a clever metatextual piece of fiction functioned in a text-based format, but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.
Interior Chinatown is a new series premiering on November 19th that plays jump rope with genre. Charles Yu also serves as the showrunner series, whose leading man is Jimmy O. Yang (who I was introduced to in Silicon Valley) and whose pilot was directed by Taiki Waititi (his production company is also one of sixth others involved with the series). The trailer itself spoke to all of my sensitivities. Crime procedurals. Asian American representation in media (specifically Chinese-American media, which should not come as a surprise given the title of the series). A slight film noir bent as Yang’s Willus Wu becomes an unsuspecting witness to an abduction and then becomes involved in a series of criminal investigations. You may remember, but Pornsak Pichetshote’s The Good Asian was one of my favorite comics of yesterday, and while Interior Chinatown had a decidedly more comedic bent, the fact that any comparison can be drawn in favorable.
The show wastes absolutely no time vamping off the genre it so clearly loves as Willis informs his friend and co-worker about the “cold open” and how in the beginning of every procedural we meet someone who is either about to be a witness or dead body. While neither happens immediately, it does set the self-aware tone between tongue-and-cheek references, head nods, lampshade hanging, and every single trope in the rule book, but this is a fantastic time to remind you dear reader that tropes are tools, and Interior Chinatown has a deep toolkit.
In short order, we get some internal narration, an introduction to BLACK & WHITE: Impossible Crime Unit (something that may or may not be an imagined framing device), and a run down that this is a story that will feel familiar as it has to deal with grief, specifically the disappearance of Willis’s older brother years ago. And throughout the ridiculous antics, the over-the-top language, and super intentional lighting changes, perhaps the most indicative sign post that this is a work of fiction is that the cops actually give a modicum of concern about culture, as they bring in Detective Lana Lee (former Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D alum Chloe Bennett) as a Chinatown expert. Soon enough Lana and Willis cross paths and shenanigans occur.
Throughout the five episodes I was able to watch, the show was marked by clever dialog, smart direction, and cinematography. While the first two episodes didn’t quite commit to the gimmicks it started to instantiate, by the third episode, the metafictional nature of the story was doubled down on and the show went from good fish out of water story to great metaphor about the Asian American experience pretty much in real time. Imagine Supernatural‘s “Changing Channels” except instead of “learning to play a role in the apocalypse” it’s “here are the societal expectations of Asian Americans in the United States,” and you have a solid idea of the show’s modus operandi.
Interior Chinatown is a show that revels in showing off. The episode names are perfectly idiosyncratic. So many of the experiences that Willis and his immediate circles go through ring true whether it’s the karaoke nights, the sharing of meals, the home movie VHSes. The scenes are staged with a discerning eye with intricate attention paid to the lighting, framing, and filters, and fight choreography that, while nothing extraordinary, is easy to watch and cut in a way that feels reminiscent of old Jackie Chan cop movies (which given everything was almost certainly intentional).
The individual episodes work in service of the larger serial, and while it takes a second for the myth arc to really materialize, it unified the quote unquote real and quote unquote dramatic narratives beautifully. And while Jimmy O. Yang’s Willis Wu and Chloe Bennett’s Detective Lana Lee are the clear stars of the show, the rest of the cast more than carry the screen time they are given. Whether that’s Ronny Chieng’s Fatty Choi covering for Willis at the restaurant and living through perhaps the most harrowing experience, waiting on white people, or Sullivan Jones’s Miles Turners and Lisa Gilroy’s Sarah Green perfectly capturing the mannerisms and mentality of every fictional modern cop blended into two archetypes. Lisa Gilroy particularly stands out when it comes to chewing the scenery. Although, I’m not too surprised by that since I adore her improv work especially what I’ve seen on Dropout.
All in all, Interior Chinatown is late entry in 2024’s must watch TV, but it definitely earns a spot at least on my list. Endlessly clever and inventive, the show is all of my favorite parts of procedurals with a sharp intent to use the genre convention to comment on being Asian American in ways that are both deliberately ambiguous but also deeply personal and specific. While I haven’t used old movies as the foundation to investigate my brother’s mysterious disappearance in a vague conspiracy, I have had the experience of attempting to learn more about family no longer with me only through the artifacts that they left behind. I’m a mixed Filipino American. The details don’t quite match up, but the feelings, the emotions of feeling like a background character, of having to subsume to specific roles, the expectations placed to do great things…all of those hit in all the best ways.
The full series comes out on November 19, and you can bet that I’ll be watching the rest of the series the moment in becomes available to the rest of the public because I am very much invested in seeing how it all turns out. And until then, I’m going to hope my copy of the book comes in so I can get an early glimpse and see the magic of meta-fictional work in a strictly screenplay format.
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I was not familiar with Charles Yu’s original novel and namesake of the show. Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of Interior Chinatown is that after five episodes (half of the full season order, but all that was provided for the screeners) is that I ordered a copy of the book because I was intimately curious with how such a clever metatextual piece of fiction functioned in a text-based format, but I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.
Interior Chinatown is a new series premiering on November 19th that plays jump rope with genre. Charles Yu also serves as the showrunner series, whose leading man is Jimmy O. Yang (who I was introduced to in Silicon Valley) and whose pilot was directed by Taiki Waititi (his production company is also one of sixth others involved with the series). The trailer itself spoke to all of my sensitivities. Crime procedurals. Asian American representation in media (specifically Chinese-American media, which should not come as a surprise given the title of the series). A slight film noir bent as Yang’s Willus Wu becomes an unsuspecting witness to an abduction and then becomes involved in a series of criminal investigations. You may remember, but Pornsak Pichetshote’s The Good Asian was one of my favorite comics of yesterday, and while Interior Chinatown had a decidedly more comedic bent, the fact that any comparison can be drawn in favorable.
The show wastes absolutely no time vamping off the genre it so clearly loves as Willis informs his friend and co-worker about the “cold open” and how in the beginning of every procedural we meet someone who is either about to be a witness or dead body. While neither happens immediately, it does set the self-aware tone between tongue-and-cheek references, head nods, lampshade hanging, and every single trope in the rule book, but this is a fantastic time to remind you dear reader that tropes are tools, and Interior Chinatown has a deep toolkit.
In short order, we get some internal narration, an introduction to BLACK & WHITE: Impossible Crime Unit (something that may or may not be an imagined framing device), and a run down that this is a story that will feel familiar as it has to deal with grief, specifically the disappearance of Willis’s older brother years ago. And throughout the ridiculous antics, the over-the-top language, and super intentional lighting changes, perhaps the most indicative sign post that this is a work of fiction is that the cops actually give a modicum of concern about culture, as they bring in Detective Lana Lee (former Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D alum Chloe Bennett) as a Chinatown expert. Soon enough Lana and Willis cross paths and shenanigans occur.
Throughout the five episodes I was able to watch, the show was marked by clever dialog, smart direction, and cinematography. While the first two episodes didn’t quite commit to the gimmicks it started to instantiate, by the third episode, the metafictional nature of the story was doubled down on and the show went from good fish out of water story to great metaphor about the Asian American experience pretty much in real time. Imagine Supernatural‘s “Changing Channels” except instead of “learning to play a role in the apocalypse” it’s “here are the societal expectations of Asian Americans in the United States,” and you have a solid idea of the show’s modus operandi.
Interior Chinatown is a show that revels in showing off. The episode names are perfectly idiosyncratic. So many of the experiences that Willis and his immediate circles go through ring true whether it’s the karaoke nights, the sharing of meals, the home movie VHSes. The scenes are staged with a discerning eye with intricate attention paid to the lighting, framing, and filters, and fight choreography that, while nothing extraordinary, is easy to watch and cut in a way that feels reminiscent of old Jackie Chan cop movies (which given everything was almost certainly intentional).
The individual episodes work in service of the larger serial, and while it takes a second for the myth arc to really materialize, it unified the quote unquote real and quote unquote dramatic narratives beautifully. And while Jimmy O. Yang’s Willis Wu and Chloe Bennett’s Detective Lana Lee are the clear stars of the show, the rest of the cast more than carry the screen time they are given. Whether that’s Ronny Chieng’s Fatty Choi covering for Willis at the restaurant and living through perhaps the most harrowing experience, waiting on white people, or Sullivan Jones’s Miles Turners and Lisa Gilroy’s Sarah Green perfectly capturing the mannerisms and mentality of every fictional modern cop blended into two archetypes. Lisa Gilroy particularly stands out when it comes to chewing the scenery. Although, I’m not too surprised by that since I adore her improv work especially what I’ve seen on Dropout.
All in all, Interior Chinatown is late entry in 2024’s must watch TV, but it definitely earns a spot at least on my list. Endlessly clever and inventive, the show is all of my favorite parts of procedurals with a sharp intent to use the genre convention to comment on being Asian American in ways that are both deliberately ambiguous but also deeply personal and specific. While I haven’t used old movies as the foundation to investigate my brother’s mysterious disappearance in a vague conspiracy, I have had the experience of attempting to learn more about family no longer with me only through the artifacts that they left behind. I’m a mixed Filipino American. The details don’t quite match up, but the feelings, the emotions of feeling like a background character, of having to subsume to specific roles, the expectations placed to do great things…all of those hit in all the best ways.
The full series comes out on November 19, and you can bet that I’ll be watching the rest of the series the moment in becomes available to the rest of the public because I am very much invested in seeing how it all turns out. And until then, I’m going to hope my copy of the book comes in so I can get an early glimpse and see the magic of meta-fictional work in a strictly screenplay format.
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The post Looking into ‘Interior Chinatown’ appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
AleksandarNakic / Getty Images 
When we’re fighting acne in our teenage or adult years, it can feel like a lifetime. The moment we eliminate one breakout, another is right around the corner. It can be an endless struggle that often leaves us frustrated. Thankfully, retinoids like tretinoin can put acne in its rightful place. It’s become trendy over the last few years for its ability to reverse acne and wipe the skin of any battle scars.
Dr. Nkem Ugonabo is a certified dermatologist who specializes in overall skin health and is all too familiar with the intense effects that can be caused by chronic acne. Although she understands how helpful tretinoin can be, Dr. Ugonabo is concerned with how people use the popular product. “Retinoids are probably the number one skincare product I see being misused. It’s easy to use too much!” says Dr. Ugonabo in an Instagram post.
That said, here is her guide to everything we need to know about tretinoids before using them.
What is tretinoin?Beyond tretinoin being a type of retinoid, it is also a source of vitamin A that can help with fine lines. This source of vitamin A can also be helpful for those with intense hyperpigmentation or struggling with severe acne. However, it is always beneficial to consider your skin type before using this form of retinoid. “People new to this ingredient, particularly those with sensitive skin, can experience irritation or dryness initially,” Says Dr Ugonabo. Thus, she recommends starting with a pea-sized amount. A great way to measure this is not going greater than the tip of your index finger.
What percentage is safe to use on the skin?We understand the urge to want to achieve the best skin possible. Living with carefree, clear skin is a dream we all want to live. Despite this, we must still understand that a major key to good skin is patience. Using a high percentage to achieve quicker results can hinder you on a surface level. “I typically recommend people start slow and build their way up. I usually start at a lower percentage (e.g., 0.025%); if the patient tolerates it, I may increase it months later,” says Dr. Ugonabo. Practicing the spot test before proceeding is also suggested. Focusing a small amount on one area to see how your skin reacts can be an excellent guide to what your skin can tolerate.
If you’ve been using tretinoin for a few months and are considering increasing your dosage, please contact your dermatologist. A licensed professional can determine whether increasing your dosage benefits or hinders your skin goals. If you’re in the New York City area, Dr. Ugonabo regularly practices this habit with patients. She mentions, “depending on how they are doing, I may recommend a higher potency if I believe it would lead to better results.”
Is it safe to use at home?Tretinoids are safe to use in the comfort of your own home. It’s all about being mindful of how we’re using them. Dr. Ugonabo advocates for using all retinoids, including tretinoids, at night. The product should be a prescription cream, gel, or lotion to be implemented into your regime easily. “I may recommend a pea-sized amount to the entire face, just a few nights a week, which should be followed with moisturizer,” says Dr. Ugonabo.
The dermatologist also recommends the sandwich method. Users would apply moisturizer, add tretinoin, and finish with another layer of moisturizer. TikToker Sarah Saleen demonstrates a perfect example of implementing the sandwich method for optimal results. The proof of this method is all in the results! Saleen’s skin is opposing from the early days of her healing journey.
Who should stay away from tretinoin?Not all skincare recommendations are created equal. What works for one person can be deemed unsafe for someone else. It’s a tease! How can a product produce beautiful results and be a danger to others? It all comes down to the ingredients, and because of this, it’s not safe for pregnant women. According to this study, tretinoin is connected to a medicine called isotretinoin. This factor is known to cause congenital disabilities in the heart, face, and brain.
TOPICS: acne hyperpigmentation tretinoinThe post Dr. Nken Ugonabo’s Ultimate Guide To Tretinoin appeared first on Essence.
Katherine Goguen
The Tatiana Monet brand story is told in different phases of a love’s chronicle, traversing the changing textures of start, growth, loss, and renewal. Last fall, designer Tatiana Monét debuted the first item in her eventual collection: a poplin skirt forming a tutu-like bubble over five layers of tulle. Like Monét, the skirt was playful but declarative, hinting at an anticipated ushering in her artistic vision. Over the next several months, the bubble skirt concept gained momentum online and off, prompting a limited-run pre-release of the garment as modeled by Herrana Addisu. That was on New Year’s Eve, and Monét diligently worked on her Spring/Summer 2025 collection in the months since, which debuted in Brooklyn to an audience of close friends and collaborators.
That original skirt eventually became the brand’s Little Black Skirt and represents the young brand’s developing iconography in textile and concept. For the collection’s showroom launch hosted in the converted retail studio of designer Yara Flinn, the garment is prominently displayed as an almost sculptural element among hanging accompaniments.
Tatiana Monet’s Collection 001 is entitled “A Brooklyn Love Story,” an ode to the founder’s own journeys through affection in its various stages. An upstate New York native now based in Brooklyn, Monét has navigated this stage in her creative and personal development through an evolved understanding of depth and how it affects her work. Each of her thirteen collection items—all sustainably made and unisex—reflects this concept of dimension, featuring accents that nod to where Monét was when she was inspired to create.
Katherine Goguen The intimate subtexts of her love stories take life in the items she has created and exemplify how affection can simultaneously be directed into multiple spheres. Tatiana’s garments prominently address one’s love for community and the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood’s impact on her sartorial evolution. Monet worked in real estate before moving to the city to pursue fashion design. Despite professional successes, she realized over time that a significant change would best achieve her desired ful decoding="async" src="https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/5-1.jpeg" alt="Brooklyn-Based Designer Tatiana Monét Reveals Her Debut Collection" width="400" height="266" />Katherine Goguen
As “A Brooklyn Love Story” grew from the ideation stage, Tatiana was experiencing the impact of community-based love in real-time. The fashion designer did not arrive to abandon; they were welcomed, and celebrated. Their new home was a place where the streets pulse with the echoes of jazz and the vibrant energy of block parties, where neighbors become kin, and every corner tells a story. Some of the individuals from this period became collaborators during fittings, production days, and launch planning. Monét credits her friends with facilitating the fruition of her dreams dreams over the past year.
Monet’s debut collection takes a utilitarian approach to romance, offering structured, tailored garments that support fluid, confident movement. Many of the pieces are interchangeable for wear, presenting expansive opportunities for combination styling. Primary colorways flow between jet blacks, off-whites, and fiery reds, the chromatic embodiment of Valentine’s Day, a trio steeped in the iconography of romance and love. Red, bold and uncompromising, speaks to the intensity of passion, while white whispers of possibility, a blank slate where love can etch its narrative.
Black silks also ground this fervor in reality, reminding the Tatiana Monet patron that love’s depths are shadowed and profound. The rose, a motif in all these shades, enters as the ultimate symbol—delicate, fierce, and enduring—reflecting the myriad faces of love itself.
Katherine Goguen Tatiana explains that the Karla Top, a lined and structured bralette, can be purchased as a set with the Frederick Trouser or alone in cream and black Japanese cotton or luxurious red silk. The bra’s construction was “inspired by vintage balconette bras and elevated by complimentary grosgrain trim and straps,” Tatiana says.
The designer is a learned seamstress, training in the studios of Christopher John Rogers, among other decorated designers. During her months of draping, stitching, and fitting practice, she became a master of seams, which ultimately was brought to life in her debut collection’s offerings. The Karla top features clean vertical stitching, as well as two rows of hook and eye closures, underwire, and adjustable straps, which maintain support while allowing for a more revealing cut.
Accompanying themes of romantic and community love is the theme of self-affections, a concept materialized in expertly tailored functional pieces that take a comfort-optimizing oversized form. “We set out to make a trouser that was the embodiment of grounded confidence,” Monet writes via the official Tatiana Monet NYC Instagram page. Made of Japanese wool that gives enough weight to maintain form across different seasons of wear, the Kravitz pant evokes maximum power and confidence.
Katherine Goguen Each of these items presented at the physical launch was announced shortly prior in a digital campaign creative directed by the designer and her collaborator Ondrea Wheeler. The continuous world-building at play emphasizes the sum of Monet’s initial inspirations: desire and relationships. Love, as she exemplifies, takes many forms from romantic dalliances to the thoughtfulness of friends. These expressions of affection can >@tatianamonettt + Ondrea Wheeler @_witchdaddy_Photographer: Katherine Goguen @katherinegoguenTalent: Mammina @mckellyayorGaffer: Lukas Cardoni @lluk45Digitech: Creigh Lyndon @creighlyndonMakeup: Dior @onlyonediorHair: Renee Brutus @rowsbyreneeStylist: Shea Stiebler @s_m__s._Producer: Thandi Roe @thandiroeProduction Assistant: Sharmeen Chaudry @sharmeen.c
TOPICS: black designer christopher john rogersThe post Brooklyn-Based Designer Tatiana Monét Reveals Her Debut Collection appeared first on Essence.
When it comes to the Oscars, there are usually two kinds of movie fans. People who are about that cinema life and watch tons of movies every week using movie passes and know damn near every nomination in all major categories. Most people though?
Most enjoy a good movie theater visit whenever they can find the time, watch the occasional documentary/short film/indie flick, and get wild invested when something they’ve watched is nominated. Oh that low budget Croatian joint I watched at 1:37am after my sister’s birthday party is nominated for a Cinematography Oscar? THAT’S MY MOVIE NOW. I’m an executive producer, marketing director, and key grip for this film I now ride for.
But It’s difficult to stumble across a future Oscar darling, so I’m here to sift through the potential and shed light on a few short films that you will definitely find yourself rooting for after witnessing the power that can get packed into a well written, acted, and shot 10-50 minute production.
The Early Frontrunner
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent: Live Action short film
Armed forces board a train that isn’t supposed to be stopped at their current location. Our main character, Dragan, is clearly concerned with the ethics of this stop and frisk ID move these decorated soldiers thugs were pulling. Tensions are heightened by the reveal made by a man traveling in the same train car as Dragan. He tries to put everyone at ease, though the way the rest of the story plays out makes you feel anything but, thanks to the man who could not remain silent.
Behind the Scenes:
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is directed by Nebojša Slijepčević and produced by Katarina Prpić and Danijel Pek. Nebojša and Katarina were gracious enough to hold a Q&A after the screening and discussed how and why they decided to bring this atrocity to life that is the first Croatian short to win the prestigious Cannes Palme d’Or.
Katarina: “This massacre was so impactful. One of the first conversations before making the film was how accurate to the real events it would be. We agreed that we’d be true to the event, but we also didn’t want to track the info that wouldn’t be important to the general public. No mention of the year or place because it’s not the point to tell you when and where but to highlight a character who spoke up, despite knowingly fearing death. And also the focus on the man who didn’t speak up.”
Nebojša: “We didn’t want to make a history lesson with this film. Majority of us in this situation remain silent.”
Katarina: “Think about the moments where you have the opportunity to do something. What is fair and what is justice?”
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is partially dedicated to Tomo Buzov – the retired military man who spoke up.
The Feel Good Story
A Bear Named Wojtek: Animated short film
Have you ever heard the one about the bear that fought Nazis? Now that I have your attention, let me show some love to Wojtek and his contributions to the world!
He trained as a soldier in the Polish army, mimicked his brothers in arms perfectly, carried artillery in the Battle of Monte Cassino, took down Hitler, rose in the military ranks, and entertained the masses all for a few dates and the love of his companions. A Bear Named Wojtek is the beautifully animated true story of the friendship between a bear and a Polish soldier during World War II. It’s a tale that is bound to garner adoration and affection from animation aficionados and animal lovers of all ages.
Behind The Scenes:
The TV paint art style is sure to impress animators in the biz, especially when you find out the color backgrounds were hand painted on watercolor paper then scanned in. This story begins at Glasgow School of Art in the 1990s. Director Iain Gardner was a student there and coincidentally enjoyed drawing at Edinburgh Zoo. “I sketched and animated a polar bear for my degree show,” he reveals in an interview. “Unbeknownst to me at the time, the enclosure the polar bear inhabited used to be Wojtek the Bear’s. One of my tutors at the time, Dave Harding, sculpted Wojtek during the ’70s, having drawn him from life in the 1960s — presumably from the same spot I stood. Currently, my studio is located at Edinburgh University’s former veterinary school, and Wojtek’s remains were brought here for examination after he passed!”
Fast forward 30 years and Gardner’s decade long labor of love is finally getting the recognition it deserves. A Bear Named Wojtek is up for consideration at Animafest Gdansk in Poland and one of the lucky contenders to make the long list for the Animated Short Film Academy Award.
The Warzone Reality Check
Once Upon A Time In Ukraine – Documentary short
Plenty of documentaries have been made about Ukraine over the last 2 years, but how many have been made through the lens of children? With creativity and imagination, they have transformed backyards and playgrounds destroyed by missiles, invented fairy tales where vegetable armies vanquish Russian attackers, and carried on the Ukrainian tradition of music and dance in bombed out studios. Life behind the frontlines as seen through the eyes of the children who will inherit a country struggling to survive a brutal invasion.
Explosions are heard in the distance of the opening scene, followed by a child saying, “Most people know of the things happening in Ukraine,” but it isn’t until she mentions the exact date and time of the first Russian bombing that you feel the heartbreaking gravity that so many children are facing with the fallout of these 2 nations. Once Upon a Time in Ukraine dares to bring you to the gut-wrenching reality of war in unflinching detail.
“When they weren’t shooting, Mom ran to the house to make borscht,” a child says. “There is no day that was most terrible. They were all the most terrible” says another as the camera scans scenes from war torn cities like Bucha, Iman, Mariupol, and Kherson.
Behind the Scenes:
Director Betsy West followed up this screening with details of how Earl Mack, a prominent New Yorker found out he has Ukrainian heritage and subsequently commissioned a small Ukrainian crew to film children amidst the terror of a war. It is truly amazing what can be accomplished when a personal attachment comes into play.
Heartfelt and Informative
LUKi and the Lights: Animated short film
LUKi and the Lights is about a robot full of life, surrounded by good friends and soccer. One day he notices his robotic body beginning to malfunction and a robodoc visit later, he is diagnosed with ALS. You know Lou Gehrig’s disease? For those who are still unsure about what ailment I’m referring to, this movie was made for you.
ALS is a fatal motor neuron disease that causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. The nervous system breaks down, muscles weaken and impacts a person’s physical abilities until they are unable to move, speak and eventually, breathe. While recent medical advancement and therapy can slow down the disease, there is currently no cure for ALS.
LUKi & the Lights is a silent film – An intentional decision to tell LUKi’s story through animation and simple robotic sounds, allowing families of all languages around the world to watch the film and discuss ALS and other Motor Neuron Diseases in their native tongue.
Behind the Scenes:
Inspired by Sascha Groen and Anjo Snijders whose 2017 diagnosed lit a fire in them to do something about this seldomly discussed, yet decimating disease. They came up with the character Luki and the idea of the light bulbs representing the different parts of the body that gradually become nonfunctional. The ALS foundation discovered this LUKi character, encouraged the family to make the animation at a reduced cost and once they found Toby Cochran and Big Grin, the filmmaking was underway. Then grim reality set in as they realized they have to work overtime to create this film before Anjo was no longer with us. Luckily, Anjo and his family got to see the film premiere in the Netherlands 14 days before he passed away.
LUKi & the Lights may be a silent film, but it is packed with so much emotion throughout the film, you barely notice the minimized volume. They used the seasons of the year to showcase time passing so you really understand how quickly this can affect someone. Anjo was a builder while he was still with us, and that’s why you can see the main character build a wheelchair to use in the film. A nice touch by the filmmakers.
In Case You Missed It
In The Garden of Tulips – Live Action short film
The official synopsis for this one is that at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, Caroline takes a final car ride with her father through the Iranian countryside. It’s honestly the perfect peek behind the veil, because this short isn’t driven by what happens on this ride, but the emotions that are radiating off the screen during each interaction. This film may be a year older than the rest on this list, but Caroline embarking on her impossible journey, a journey thousands of Iranians have been forced to take over the decades, is so relevant that everyone should have the opportunity to witness this labor of love that painstakingly parallels atrocities happening today, despite being set in 1998.
The cinematography of the 14-min long journey is truly masterful work as the look of Iran is captured so well despite being shot in LA. Ava Lalezarzadeh and Ethan Rains are 2 actors I want to see in more prominent roles after the performances they put on.
What was truly striking was the director’s ability to infuse moments of beautiful playfulness into certain parts of the film, that cut through the intensity of the subject matter. When a film revolves around Caroline and “the singular moment where she was thrust into adulthood,” you have to find ways to balance the intensity of such a pivotal moment in life.
Behind the Scenes:
Director Julia Elihu and actress Ava Lalezarzadeh, whom are both Iranian American, explain that this film is dedicated to the Iranians who were forced from their home at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. A film that was inspired by Lalezarzadeh’s mother who left Iran during the same war.
A huge thank you to the Bryant Park Hotel for hosting this screening of powerful short films.
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The post For Your Consideration…Oscar Worthy Movie Shorts to Look For appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.