FRESH KILL (1994)
dir. Shu Lea Cheang
Shareen Lightfoot and Claire Mayakovsky raise their daughter Honey near the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island in New York City. Shareen works as a salvager recovering refuse from the landfill, while Claire works as a waitress at a sushi restaurant. The city is heavily contaminated with pollution that adversely affects local animals and food; Claire brings home contaminated fish from the restaurant that is eaten by Honey, who begins glowing green and then vanishes. Shareen and Claire discover that the multinational GX Corporation is responsible for the pollution and Honey's disappearance, and become involved in an effort to hack and expose the company with sushi chef/hacker Jiannbin Lui, and poet/dishwasher Miguel Flores. (link in title)
Limbo is a 2020 British comedy-drama film, directed by Ben Sharrock.[3] The film centres on four asylum seekers who are staying on a remote island in Scotland, and taking cultural awareness classes, while awaiting the processing of their refugee claims.
The film was named as an Official Selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, but was not screened due to the cancellation of the physical festival in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] The film has gained positive reviews and has won several awards and nominations. Limbo garnered four nominations at the 2020 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) including Amir El-Masry Best Actor, Irune Gurtubai Breakthrough Producer, and Nick Cooke Best Cinematography, for which it won Breakthrough Producer.[5] It has also been nominated for two British Academy Film Awards, including Outstanding British Film.
Plot
An offbeat observation of the refugee experience. On a fictional remote Scottish island, a group of new arrivals await the results of their asylum claims. Among them is Omar, a young Syrian musician burdened by the weight of his grandfather's oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland.[6]
THE GARDEN (1990)
dir. Derek Jarman
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
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