If you’re looking for a film festival that’s just as likely to screen a cult horror film as a classic John Woo action alongside a bunch of film premiere’s from Hollywood and abroad, you should check out Beyond Fest. It claims to be the highest attended genre film festival in the U.S. – which we can definitely believe as both premieres we saw were sold out. Plus, the slate catered brilliantly to the genre community in Los Angeles with screenings from a diverse range of films that spanned from Tollywood and Indian Cinema legend S.S. Rajamouli to premieres of the latest Park Chan-wook and Hollywood horror films.

Beyond Fest Premieres

We only saw two film premieres at the 2022 edition of the festival. Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s long anticipated return following his amazingly weird fantasy-romance-thriller Border, as well as Park Chan-wook’s latest (no introduction needed) Decision to Leave.

As expected, Holy Spider was a very well made true crime thriller set in the holy city of Mashhad. It follows the killer violently taking out his victims simultaneously as a rogue journalist reporting the story. The violence is a little exploitative, and the killer’s perspective in these moments comes across a bit distasteful situated within the current popularity of the true crime genre in which serial killers have been turned into celebrities. The focus on his perspective also diminishes the impact of the anti-patriarchal quest of the female journalist, which generates the film’s political message. The violence is more shocking than the anti-patriarchal society, and the film leans into this by showing both sides. Following the originality of Border, it was also surprising to find a very ‘by the book’ true crime thriller. Apart from one speaking corpse, there was nothing to identify this film as something from the same director. It’s a well-made film, but not as original or biting (politically) as desired.

Our film viewing history also affected expectations for Decision to Leave. Having only seen Oldboy and Handmaiden, we expected Park Chan-wook’s latest to be defined by some weird sexual scenes too. Instead, Decision to Leave proved to be one of the best modern noirs we’ve seen, complete with a very normal romance, at least in comparison to the films mentioned above. It follows a bored in marriage detective that falls in love with the suspect of a murder case. The brilliance in the film comes from the little things, such as the humorous clues of a brewing romance (including expensive sushi), and a hilarious way to take part in a knife fight. Park Chan-wook also uniquely meshes two shots into one to more efficiently convey the detective process. One example of this is when he merges the detective on stakeout with shots of the suspect by placing the detective ‘in’ her apartment talking through the detective process with the suspect. Another is when Chan-wook edits the detective into the reconstruction of the murder. These innovative scenes along with the injections of humor make Decision to Leave immensely engaging to watch.

Tollywood Takeover – S.S. Rajamouli Tribute

Following the success of the Netflix release of RRR, S.S. Rajamouli’s latest was re-released in a broader range of cinemas nationwide (notably those that don’t regularly show new Indian releases, outside of areas targeting large Indian communities). Without the Netflix buzz, we may not have received a Rajamouli tribute at Beyond Fest as not many people turned out to watch it in the U.S. in its initial release. We wrote about Rajamouli’s films deserving to be seen on the big screen a few months ago, so we were thrilled to see that 7 of his films were programmed across Los Angeles as part of Beyond Fest- most hosted at The Aero. As expected, it was a great experience, with audiences cheering throughout the film for all the iconic moments, and even getting up to dance for the big musical numbers. Whilst it probably doesn’t compare to screenings in India, it was amazing to watch immensely fun films with an audience that was equally up for it. Despite the premieres from Park Chan-wook and Ali Abbasi, these Rajamouli screenings were the highlight of our Beyond Fest 2022 experience.


Refer back to the Beyond Fest website for updates on future editions of the festival.

JuJu Stories

Last weekend, the 5th edition of the Nollywood in Hollywood film festival returned to Los Angeles for another brief showcase of the best Nigerian films from the past year. This year, the festival ran for two nights, screening Gone at the USC School of Cinematic Arts on Friday, before heading over to the West Side for Juju Stories at The Aero. Whilst we were only able to attend Saturday’s screening, we encourage all film fans to look out for Nollywood in Hollywood next year. Not only are the screening’s a brilliant showcase of new Nollywood films in a city that often overlooks the African film industries, but these screenings are free and very well hosted.

In many years of attending film festivals, Nollywood in Hollywood’s screening of Juju Stories was only the second which actually provided regional food to the entire audience ahead of the film. The other was a screening of Mohamed Al Daradji’s The Journey for the BFI Fest for which the Iraqi Embassy supplied Baklava to everyone attending. Whilst free food isn’t necessary to enjoy movies, it does add a memorable touch that will probably make you more open to whatever film you are about to see. From what we saw, the free meat pies, spring rolls, and puff puff excited a few attendants familiar with the foods, and made others more open to socializing to discover what the food was and to learn more about the event in the cinema lobby ahead of the film. It’s a great way to get an unfamiliar audience open to experiencing unfamiliar films.


Whilst ‘Nollywood’ has come to stand for all film production from Nigeria, Nollywood boomed in the late 1980’s/early 1990s with the arrival of the VHS system. VHS made filmmaking cheaper and therefore more accessible, allowing anyone (filmmaker or not) to have a go at making their own films. It also made it easier to distribute films, as VHS opened the home video market, meaning filmmakers didn’t have to have to make deals with theaters to get their films seen. Because VHS made it easier and cheaper to shoot films and get them seen, filmmaking in Nigeria exploded. At certain points in the 2000’s the Nollywood film industry was making an estimated 4 films a day! However, alongside the boom in production, the new face of Nigerian cinema faced a lot of criticism. Opening up the film industry to everyone loosened the standards of filmmaking as well as the themes. Many of the new Nollywood productions focused on witchcraft and juju, giving viewers a skewed view of Nigerian (and African) culture.

Juju Stories is an example of the current state of Nollywood film. As the focus of Nigerian film production has switched back to theatrical releases supported by larger budgets, the production standards have improved. Many Nollywood productions are now screened in cinemas at home or abroad, as well as reaching international film festivals and streaming platforms. Whilst the themes made popular in the Nollywood home-video era remain (such as witchcraft), the films look a lot better. Juju Stories is a great example of this. It includes three different stories shot by three different filmmakers from a Nigerian film collective that all touch on Juju. Each short is very well made, and the comedy fit the big screen environment perfectly. It reminded me of a screening of Argentina’s Wild Tales that I saw a while back in which one man, probably Argentinian, was cracking up throughout the film. Similarly, the audience at the Juju Stories screening was cracking up and shouting out at the characters on screen.

Unlike the Nollywood movies of the home-video era, today’s Nollywood films are at home on the big screen. So do yourself a favor and acquaint yourself with Nollywood at the Nollywood in Hollywood film festival next year to see Modern Nigerian film where it should be seen: on the big screen.


Keep an eye on the Nollywood in Hollywood website for details for next year’s festival.

Perfumed Nightmare

Perfumed Nightmare Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Honestly, I was a bit confused at the start of Perfumed Nightmare as the tone seemed a bit off. The film was made in 1977, but the black and white footage looks even older, so I was surprised to have the fourth wall broken a few times by the main character, Kidlat, after he pulls an increasingly larger toy truck over a bridge. The genre is also deliberately hard to pin down. It gives off the appearance of a stylish, amusing ethnographical film set in rural Philippines to disguise its strong revolutionary undertones. Don’t let anything put you off from watching this movie though as it’s a brilliantly unique and clever contribution to the Third Cinema movement.

From: Philippines, Asia
Watch: JustWatch, IMDb
Next: Black Girl, Breathless, Born in Flames

Perfumed Nightmare – The Breakdown

There are a lot of familiar elements in Perfumed Nightmare as it deliberately borrows from a mixture of well-known revolutionary film-making. The frenetic pace of the movie, with cuts across time and a fuzzy narrative voice that seems to be a half-second behind the images, feels a lot like Jean-Luc Godard’s iconic film, Breathless. The fast paced montages of Filipino and Parisian society, which meshes together a range of stock and new images showing the evolution of society towards modernization, borrows from Dziga Vertov’s influential Man with a Movie Camera. Both of these influences (each monumental to the development of European film) are referenced by the Director, Kidlat Tahimik, to stake a claim for Filipino film within the context of cinema and to also set Filipino film apart by reclaiming the medium’s portrayal of the Philippines.

One of the best things Kidlat Tahimik adds to the revolutionary film movement is humor. It both makes the film more enjoyable whilst also targeting the ‘Third World’s’ portrayal by ‘the West’ to reclaim it for the Third Cinema movement. One example of this is in the inventive use of dubbing, in which all of the film’s white characters, whether in the Philippines or Europe, are dubbed and made into comedic caricatures. One white person in the Philippines is turned into a bumbling, arrogant, imperialist, through the dubbing, whilst Kidlat’s French beneficiary is turned into a money obsessed businessman. Whilst it is fun to laugh at the dubbed characters, which makes the film an easier watch, the dubbing is also used to subvert the portrayal of Filipinos and other ‘Third World’ characters in Western film who are typically voiced and spoken for by white European/American directors. Instead, it’s the white characters that are spoken for in Perfumed Nightmare.

The film’s visual gags also serve a similar function. The shots of Kidlat filling up chewing gum dispensers in some ridiculous locations for his French beneficiary, whilst funny, also serves to make fun of capitalism. If chewing gum dispensers in cemeteries is the peak of Western progress, then capitalism and Western imperialism seems pointless. The humor is a welcome addition to an otherwise serious revolutionary genre. It makes the film easier to watch, but also backs up the central theme of Kidlat’s Charlie-Chaplin-esque journey chasing the American Dream; that life is better in the Philippines. Perfumed Nightmare mocks and rejects the progress of globalization, imperialism, capitalism, and everything the West stands for in favor of a celebration of Filipino life.

What to Watch Next

There’s a few places you can turn to next after watching Perfumed Nightmare. The most obvious place to go would be to watch more revolutionary films from the Third Cinema movement such as Ousmane Sembene’s Black Girl or Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga. You could also brush up on your European film history, which Kidlat Tahimik subverts in this film, by watching Breathless or Man with a Movie Camera. Obviously both of these film movements have plenty more examples than the four listed above, so please don’t limit your exploration to these four movies!

El Gran Movimiento

El Gran Movimiento Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Take another immersive trip with Elder in Bolivia in El Gran Movimiento. This time, instead of being consumed by the darkness of the mines like in Dark Skull, you’ll feel the oppressive urban environment of La Paz. The concrete and mechanical sounds are inescapable, and whilst there are plenty of people, everyone seems lonely. Even with the dance scenes and zany visions, El Gran Movimiento depicts a very bleak picture of the city.

From: Bolivia, South America
Watch: Trailer, IMDb
Next: Dark Skull, Los Conductos, Mysterious Object at Noon

El Gran Movimiento Breakdown

If you’ve seen Dark Skull, you’ll notice that El Gran Movimiento is its sequel. It features the return of Elder, Dark Skull‘s main character, who has walked 7 days to the city in search of work now that the Huanuni mine has closed. With nothing on offer in the city, he’s resumed his pre-miner life as a drifter; roaming the streets with hard liquor and some ‘friends.’ But now he’s older and he’s developed a hideous cough. His prospects in the city look incredibly bleak.

The style of the two films are also very similar. Both focus on unnatural environments (the mines and the city respectively) and frame them as incredibly hostile. In Dark Skull, Kiro Russo uses multiple shots of noisy mining machinery to create the film’s harsh environment. In El Gran Movimiento, Russo starts the film with a long montage of shots that slow-zoom in on city buildings and linger on city machinery (such as the motors of a cable car). These shots are accompanied by loud and unnatural mechanic sounds, traffic jams, and construction. Like the industrious shots of the mines, this opening emphasizes the hostile unnaturalness of the city.

It’s not until around the 10 minute mark that we first see life. However, the first scene with people doesn’t make the city appear any more friendly. It features protestors from the Huanuni mines clashing with tear gas-throwing police, in what is a living manifestation of the city’s hostility.

Elder’s plight in the city isn’t any better. As soon as he arrives he develops a cough that gets worse every day he stays there. Doctor’s can’t identify the illness, which make its origins unclear. Whilst it would make sense that it’s a symptom from his life as a miner, his symptoms only start to show after he arrives in the city. It makes it seem like it could be a metaphorical reaction to the hostile urban environment; or maybe even to the remnants of Spain’s Colonial rule. Either way, the other feature character, Max, a hermit that thrives in the picturesque natural environments on the fringes of the city, backs up the theory that the city is not a place for life.

The only respite for Elder comes in a few offbeat dance scenes and Max’s indigenous medicine. Each method hints at a different way of dealing with life in the city: 1) to simply get on with it and embrace the bleakness, or 2) to seek an anti-colonialist/capitalist return to the land’s roots and culture.

Overall, El Gran Movimiento is another bleakly brilliant construction of Bolivian life. Russo shows that even above ground, Bolivia’s man-made environments are not just destroying indigenous Bolivian culture, but also literally sucking the life out of the population. It’s a subtle anti-capitalist call for a return to nature and spirituality.

What to Watch Next

Dark Skull is a must watch if you enjoyed El Gran Movimiento and you haven’t already seen it. Many of the themes from this film were kick-started there from the bleak man-made environments to the Elder’s deteriorating health.

Or for another sub 90-minute South American art-house film with anti-capitalist vibes and a wandering lead character, try Colombia’s Los Conductos.

Lastly, you could also try the mystical films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, starting with the eclectic storytelling of Mysterious Object at Noon.

Dadli

Dadli Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Dadli features a boy’s narrative over a montage of shots of Antiguan life. It’s a brief but incredibly immersive 15 minutes in Antigua & Barbuda that any fans of Jonas Mekas and Khalil Joseph should love.

From: Antigua & Barbuda, North America
Watch: Vimeo, IMDb
Next: Process, Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania, Right Near the Beach

Dadli – The Breakdown

Dadli is short, but it doesn’t need time to build its beautifully immersive aesthetic. The quick editing and dulled diegetic sound (the music and narrative are the focus in this film) don’t allow you to think of anything else apart from the images and atmospheric sounds you are hearing, whilst the natural home video style texture of the film – which is taken to the next level with the cinematography – and the mid to close range shots draw you in further. This combination of techniques makes it feel both immersive and intimate – as if you are experiencing a Fast-Forwarded snippet of life on the island. The texture of the film even sweats the close-mugginess of the night, the warm melancholy of the sunsets, and laid back vibrancy of daytime. It feels like you’re there. Whilst other movies capture island life over the course of a feature film, Dadli manages to do it in a compact 15 minutes.

The young boy’s narrative is what separates the immersive style of Dadli from Khalil Joseph’s art-films and music videos. He’s a kid playing an adult – with no role models or parents. He talks of murder, drugs, and poverty, giving us an ‘underground tour’ of the island. However, his narrative never feels completely believable, which makes the film feel like it could be a twisted fantasy or exaggerated memory (of the brief adult narration) instead of a harsh reality. The fleeting shots of the montage helps to blur the distinction between fantasy and reality, turning it into an even more trance-like, immersive experience.

If you’re a fan of movies that use sound and editing to immerse viewers into an environment, you should watch Dadli. It creates a feeling of life on Antigua that you probably wouldn’t experience as a tourist or visitor.

What to Watch Next

For more immersive films that rely on sound, check out Khalil Joseph’s catalogue of music films such as Process (featuring Sampha) and Good Kid m.A.A.d City (featuring Kendrick Lamar). Both, like Dadli create a strong sense of place through the editing and sound of their movies.

You could also try the films of Jonas Mekas, such as Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania and Lost, Lost, Lost. These films use home-video style footage and quick editing to immerse viewers into the narrators stories.

Or for more immersive editing from the Caribbean, try Jamaica’s Right Near the Beach.