Currently Browsing: Roza Melkumyan

Neasa Ní Chianáin: A Whistleblower Documentarian with Heart

On this day in 2016, School Life, a heartwarming documentary about the last remaining boarding school for primary age children in Ireland, was released in theaters. This film was directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin, whose career has included many gems, including this one. 

Neasa Ní Chianáin is an Irish documentary filmmaker whose work has ranged from controversial to beloved.read more.

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Applause for Jacqueline Durran’s Costume Designs for ‘Barbie’

It’s the third act of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023), and the Kens are embracing their newfound patriarchy, brainwashing the Barbies into being their maids, interrupting Barbie Land’s perfect pink palette with their horse prints and faux minks. Enter Kate McKinnon’s “Weird Barbie,” her puffy pink paint-splattered dress traded in for cargo pants and a bedazzled bomber jacket, and her choppy locks smoothed into a half-buzzed side-swept hairdo.… read more.

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Here’s Hoping “Fire of Love” Burns Bright at the Oscars

An eruption of color and sound (no pun intended), Fire of Love is mesmerizing, and it would seem that the Academy agrees; the film has just been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature Film category.
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The Life and Legacy of Punk Icon Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer who blazed her own trail, bringing punk to high fashion, died on December 29th in South London at the age of 81. Her death was announced by her company, which did not specify the cause.
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Golden Apricot Film Festival and the Joy of the Movie Theater

During what might have just been the hottest week of the year in Yerevan, Armenia, I had the opportunity to attend the 19th annual Golden Apricot International Film Festival (GAIFF), the largest film festival in the Caucasus region. It’s been five months, and I’m still reflecting on my experience. 
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From the Uffizi Gallery to Sursock Palace with Artemisia Gentileschi

In late October, as reported by the New York Times, an anonymous painting damaged in the 2020 Beirut explosion was identified as a long-lost work of art by 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. It was found damaged at the historic Sursock Palace on Rue Sursock in the Rmeil district of the Lebanese capital. 
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