Monos (Alejandro Landes, 2019) – Chattanooga Film Festival 2019

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Monos.

On a far away South American mountaintop, a group of adolescent child soldiers guard a kidnapped American woman for the Organization, a bandit militia that demands complete obedience from the youngsters. When a borrowed milk cow is killed and a battle approaches their mountain refuge, the group is sent to guard their prisoner in the dense jungle below where resentments, paranoia, and power struggles turn into a nightmarish fight for authority and survival. Charged by Jasper Wolf’s crisp, concentrated cinematography and Mica Levi’s titantic score, Alejandro Landes creates a monumental and hallucinatory war film that evokes Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and William Goldings Lord of the Flies.

Disc Features:

• 4K digital master, approved by cinematographer Jasper Wolf, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interviews with director Alejandro Landes, composer Mica Levi, actress Inés Efrón, and cast members
• Video diary shot during the film’s production
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Manuel Betancourt

Birds of Passage (Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, 2018) – Ithaca Fantastik 2018

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Birds of Passage.

In 1970s La Guaira, Colombia, an indigenous Wayuu family gets swept up in the newly-booming marijuana trade and their lives and traditions are forever fractured when greed and passion overtake their tribe’s honor. Based on the true origins of drug trafficking between the United States and Colombia, filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego resist the lurid glamour of narco-crime cinema and instead present a film alive with ethnographic authenticity and Shakespearean tragedy. Brilliantly colorful and fiercely prideful, Birds of Passage traces the familiar downfall of a criminal empire in an unfamiliar setting.

Disc Features:

• 4K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Tension and Revision, a MUBI interview with directors Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego at Cannes
• The Word Messengers, new interviews with the cast and crew
• Behind the scenes footage
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Jessica Kiang

SFFF Day 4 Report – An Extended Trip Overseas

The Saskatoon Fantastic Film Festival closed with a massive final day that included five feature films, five shorts, and screenings of the films participating in the Festival’s 48 Hour Movie Making Challenge. SFFF closed the four day run with a trio of Asian films – the Mo Brothers’ Headshot (2015), Yeon Sang-ho’s Train to Busan (2016), and Kôji Shiraishi’s Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) – that were collected to thrill audience members and get their communal adrenaline pumping. These efforts seemed to prove successful, but the best of Day 4 was found elsewhere and the final day offered some welcome surprises along the way.