Episódios
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In this episode, journalist and film critic Leila Latif talks about her coup de coeur pick from a season of Arab women filmmakers season at the Garden Cinema in London - Nadine Labaki's Capernaum. We talk about the importance of the film, its sensitive and sober depiction of poverty, its positive reviews and those that called it overblown or manipulative, and what this says about Western stereotypes of the Arab world. We also talk about Sudanese film, Saleh Bakri's always charismatic turns in Wajib and The Blue Caftan and nod to Wissam Aljafari's short Ambience.
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In the spirit of shedding light on all the great (and not-so great), imaginative and impressive films being made by the independent sector the world over, I spoke to Jack Brindelli from Indy Film Library, a platform that supports and reviews independent, under-celebrated or little-known films. The Indy Film Library is now a member of the Independent Media Association and they have an online and live mini-fest coming up end of April. The live element will be in Amsterdam. Jack wanted to flag three shorts that will be shown. Get your online tickets here!
Jack also talks about this year's highlights, including Jordan Peele's Nope and mentions analysing the film Pontypool, as part of a video essay. Pontypool, an unusual cultish zombie low budget flick is available to watch on YouTube. -
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"A Lana Del Rey video as directed by the press manager for the Coalition for Families". Animator Nadia Barbu joins us for scathing review of Blonde.
Nadia is an award winning animation filmmaker and illustrator. You can see her work here.
*Trigger warning* We discuss the film's depiction of abortion and miscarriage. -
This is the recording of the discussion and some music following the screening of Fragments of a Dream at Rich Mix on 19 January 2023. Dr Francisco Dominguez talks to us about the current situation in Chile and what we can do to counter the various far right movements around the world and imperialism, musician Phaxsi Coca treats us to some entrancing live music and the film's co-directors tell us about their work, the Dream Lives On festival in Wales that celebrates Latin American music and peace in the spirit of Chilean activist Victor Jara.
The screening was organised by Alborada - a magazine providing a progressive look at Latin American culture, arts and politics and their film arm, Alborada Films - and Movimientos, an organisation that hosts cultural and artistic Latin American events. -
We were delighted to chat with Nana Mensah, director, writer and actress. Her first feature film Queen Of Glory, in which she also stars, met with much critical acclaim and was praised for its astute, unsentimental and at times downright hilarious portrayal of a Ghanian family in the US and high achieving academic daughter. We chat about her foray into filmmaking, how she made use of available resources, recent work by emerging filmmakers and artists of African origin(s) in and she shares her experience on the relationship friends and family of Ghanaian and other African origins have with the US.
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"What unites these documentaries is that they both believe in a meritocracy"
Summer break is officially over... In this episode, we discuss the problem of student debt in the US, the very specific ways it affects Black Americans and the elitism of higher education, through:
- The Intercept documentary Freedom Dreams: Black Women and the Student Debt Crisis, narrated by former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a longtime ally of the growing debt abolition movement, which looks at the crippling student debt in the US specifically affects Black women. You can watch it HERE.
- The Netflix documentary called Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal about the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. The doc is a mix of re-eactements and real life interviews, and stars Matthew Modine as Rick Singer. It depicts the scandal surrounding the uncovering of a scam run by a private college councillor and “adviser” Rick Singer, who used bribes and doctored photographs to get rich people’s kids into elite universities.
The issues we take with both docs is that they don't quite address some of the more fundamental, systemic inequalities, which mean that tackling the debt crisis in this way, or condemning Rick Singer's "side doors" into higher education just isn't enough.
Here is some additional reading on the subject that will hopefully help you gain more context:
Black Student Debt
7 findings that illustrate racial disparities in education
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/06/06/7-findings-that-illustrate-racial-disparities-in-education/
Degree Attainment for Black Adults: National and State Trends
https://edtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Black-Degree-Attainment_FINAL.pdf
How Black Women Experience Student Debt
https://edtrust.org/resource/how-black-women-experience-student-debt/
Raising Undergraduate Degree Attainment Among Black Women and Men Takes on New Urgency Amid the Pandemic
https://edtrust.org/resource/national-and-state-degree-attainment-for-black-women-and-men/
Student loans, the racial wealth divide, and why we need full student debt cancellation
https://www.brookings.edu/research/student-loans-the-racial-wealth-divide-and-why-we-need-full-student-debt-cancellation/
The Student Debt Crisis? It’s Infinitely Worse for Black Women
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/student-debt-black-women/
Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/
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As we take a short break from our usual, very long-form format, we decided to post audio interviews and content via our podcast channel.
Abla and Mydy contributor and chillout music expert Eddy Durnan sent a series of questions to ambient music maestro Phondupe, whose transportative sounds have provided much-needed escapism to many in the last couple of years. The musician, whose wider known titles include Ama and Silo, tells us more about his work, inspiration, travels and ambitions. We're also publishing this in written form on our website.
We also now FINALLY have a jingle! Impressions welcome. Comments @mydylarama via Twitter or any of the podcast platforms! -
We're back!! We took a couple of months' break for me to get over the chaos of the first few weeks of having a newborn (my second - still chaotic!).
We're delighted to have Akua Gyamfi join us this week to discuss her work and her top picks. Akua is the founder of The British Blacklist . She's also the creator of the TBB Talks & Your Aunties Could Never Podcasts, as well as co-creator of The Circle Podcast & Web series.
Akua's top picks include the Prince Of Bel-Air reboot and the film she chose to discuss is Spike Lee's Crooklyn. We discuss the tone of the film, the depiction of familial relationships and female characters, the fate of daughter Troy, Black cultural output in the US and the UK, the prevalence of Black American popular culture. We also share anecdotes about MC Hammer and get schooled about what the Bay Area is!
Here's a useful link to Tonetalks, which is relevant to our discussion.
https://youtu.be/2m63A9dmRM8
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*MIC ISSUES* Apologies for the less than stellar quality of sound in this week's podcast. We had a minor missing mic issue which has been resolved. Also to look forward to, in the new year, we'll finally have a jingle!
This time, we focus on Amazon Prime doc LuLaRich, which follows the trials and tribulations of MLM empire LuLaRoe, a supposed garish legging selling business that operates as a pyramid scheme in all but name. We discuss the doc itself of course and the problematic nature of multi-level marketing schemes, who they appeal to and why.
We also flag the upcoming Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the largest short film festival in the world. Mydylarama has been a partner of the event for 5 years now so you'll be able to find interviews and highlights from February onwards on our website.
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We jumped straight into this week's picks:
Dave Chappelle's Netflix show The Closer - we discuss the various contentious issues that had been raised, the concept of punching down - or up - , taking offence, who holds power and critiques of whiteness.
Passing - Does Rebecca Hall's adaptation live up to the book? We discuss casting choices, the American specificity of the phenomenon of passing and the director's perspective on it.
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After a couple of weeks' break for LFF, we are joined by guest Eddy Durnan, a Mydy subscriber, supporter, and a film buff with a long-standing career in visual effects to talk about (the somewhat maligned) Malignant.
A trip down memory lane brings up discussions around Dirty Dancing and Pretty Woman...
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This week, our focus is the series Little Fires Everywhere. Based on the book by Celeste Ng, the miniseries tells the intertwined stories of Black single mother artist Mia and White suburban housewife Elena and their ramifications. It’s a series that’s rich and complex in perspectives, strands and ideas. We discuss issues it brings up around privilege and motherhood, adoption and abortion, mixed race friendships and the social capital needed to navigate certain systems, like the courts and schools.
We also flag the BBC documentary series A Killing In Tiger Bay, which sheds light on the miscarriage of justice, which saw 5 Black men tried - and 3 of them sentenced - for a crime they did not commit, through a shocking lack of evidence and due process.
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More Slasher talk! We go back in time to Series 2 this time to discuss gore, twists, popularity and the show's knack for realistic edges. We also highlight Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord, available to watch on Netflix.
Our focus this week is Zola, a brash, colourful, ballsy filmic take on a viral Twitter thread by stripper Aziah "Zola" King and the Rolling Stone article based on it "Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted".
We discuss the film's experimental approach and bold choices as well as depictions of sex workers and the world both inhabited and conveyed by Zola, as well as making a career out of social media.
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This week, we focus mainly on the third season of serial killer anthology Slasher, to mark the release of season 4 on Shudder. We touch on the excesses of social media, lynch mob mentality, accurate socio-economic depictions and plot twists!
Our top picks include Palestine Action - A Year Of Direct Action Against Elbit Systems UK by Real Media, a doc which as its title suggests explores the effective tactics of direct action. It's free to watch on their website.
As well as 2018 film Trial By Fire, wacky doc The Legend Of Cocaine Island and M. Night Shyamalan's recent release OLD.
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We're back! Our latest episode following our month-long break managed to bring together our regular go to topics: MLMs, cults and skincare.
We discuss American series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, starring Kirsten Dunst as a low paid amusement park employee who climbs the rank of a pyramid scheme type marketing company called Fam. We talk about multi-level marketing (MLMs), their legality, their implications for family and society and their history. We briefly mention the series The Path.
We also massively digress onto the topic of skincare. Having discussed MLMs we might as well plug some quality products. For those of you who have listened until the end and are interested, here are the brands mentioned: LUV U skincare and those "amazing" lip balms are these from Zenology.
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This week, we focus on Frontline documentary Being Mortal, in which Boston surgeon Atul Gawande talks to doctors and patients about end of life care. The film highlights the sometimes woeful like of preparation and emotional intelligence shown by doctors and the issues that arise in that critical period.
We also flag Ramin Bahrani's The White Tiger.
The film looks at class and caste divide in India as a poor villager rises up to become a successful entrepreneur.
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*We're skipping ep 23 given the relevance of ep 24 to this month's releases - normal service will resume in 2 weeks!*
This week, our guest is Anna Smith, leading film critic and broadcaster and host of the popular podcast Girls On Film. Our focus is women as lead characters in sexually-charged noir films from the 90s to the present day - to the new spate of films that belong to what Anna calls Bubblegum Noir, using Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman as a starting point. We also discuss new release Gillian Wallace Horvat's I Blame Society. You can follow Anna on Twitter @annasmithjourno.
Anna's pick of the week is Joanna Scanlan's new film After Love, which is currently on the big screen. Abla's picks include Palestinian arthouse director Elia Suleiman's filmography, available for free for a limited period as an entertaining, moving and actually very informative way into understanding Palestine and the history of Palestinians. As this is limited in time, another release worth flagging is Abby Martin's hugely powerful film Gaza Fights For Freedom, which is now free to watch online! And a series worth watching (if you still haven't been convinced by all the good publicity) is HBO dark crime drama Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet with yet another impeccable performance.
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This week, we discuss the documentary charting the rise and fall of co-working space/real estate scam We Work and its eccentric co-founder Adam Neumann. We cover the ethics of co-working spaces and their implications and the cultish elements of the We Work "experience".
We flag John Carpenter's prescient classic They Live and the Line Of Duty finale.
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Regina King’s directorial debut starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom as Jr. Sam Cooke, is a fictionalised account of the four icons’ meeting in Miami, Fl after Clay’s first heavyweight title with Sonny Liston. The film is based on the Kemp Powers play which imagines their one night at the Hampton House, located in Brownsville, outside of Liberty City, due to segregation laws in Miami, which was the base for Miami's black performers and celebrities. Its strength lies in the key questions it debates about black struggle and empowerment in 1960s America.
We also bring up the issue of celebrity endorsements of certain causes, the recent British "race report" and casting British actors to play Black Americans.
Top picks include ITV psychological drama Too Close, wacky Nicolas Cage comedy horror Willy's Wonderland (Amazon Prime) and jaw-droppingly bizarre documentary Abducted In Plain Sight (Netflix), as well as the online premiere of short film Savage.
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This week we are joined by psychotherapist Antonella Mercurio to talk about Crip Camp and the issues around activism, aspirational and revolutionary movements and disability rights sparked by the documentary.
Crip Camp (Netflix) sheds light on summer camp for teenagers with disabilities and the rights movement borne out of its pioneering set up.
Top picks include horror film The Empty Man, a creepy, hugely entertaining feature released to mostly so-so reviews in 2020 but has built a bit of a cult following, documentary The Story of Gospel Music and Antonella's pick - albeit one she's mildly embarrassed about - reality TV series Below Deck.
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