Emma Ward, Author at Bright Wall/Dark Room

As 2024’s gauntlet of film festivals comes to an end, as Oscar prognosticators arrange their ballots and starry new releases vie for box office numbers, I hope to sit for a little while longer with this small group of films and the new narratives and images, both sobering and hopeful, that they provide.

Filmed on Location

Emma Ward·

Issue 128: Outer Space

Al Reinert’s For All Mankind (1989) is a poetic, meditative, kaleidoscopic narrative of the greatest journey mankind has ever made.

I’m Already Thinking About You

Emma Ward·

Issue 123: Nostalgia

Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman manages to recognize the rich and complex interiority of children—a rarity in art, especially art made by and for adults; it simply depicts children as children know themselves to be.

This Is the Way the World Endures

Emma Ward·

Issue 113: Recovery

Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men is about hope lost, but it’s also about hope willfully recovered.

A Little Willingness to See

Emma Ward·

Issue 101: Generations

Andrew Ahn’s Driveways is a difficult film to pin down, precisely because there’s so little in it to process, demystify, or explain. There are no set pieces or battle scenes, no dramatic plot twists or betrayals. Instead, it captures life in its simplest, most ordinary forms.

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds (2009) | Lantern Entertainment

On Inglourious Basterds, Alternate Histories, and Possible Futures

Emma Ward·

Issue 88: Justice

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds operates on two levels for its entirety; it both imagines a different story and examines the ones we’ve already told.

San Quentin Film Festival 2024: Telling Their Stories on Their Own Terms

Filmed on Location

I’m Already Thinking About You

This Is the Way the World Endures

A Little Willingness to See

On Inglourious Basterds, Alternate Histories, and Possible Futures