As the Oscar deadline looms, studios are releasing films as fast as anyone can watch them. Movie Mavens Jed Dietz and Ann Hornaday join Tom to talk about the new movies that standout.
Will the controversy around actor and director Nate Parker’s 1999 rape charge – a charge he was acquitted of – overshadow his film The Birth of a Nation? Despite Parker’s assertion that the film is an “important story that everyone should see,” many have decided to boycott the release. The film chronicles the life of a Nat Turner, a slave who led an 1831 rebellion in Southhampton County, VA.
Queen of Katwe is a Disney movie adapted from an ESPN biography starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, David Oyelowo of Selma fame and Madina Nalwanga in her film debut. The movie tells the true story of an impoverished 10-year-old Ugandan girl whose life is changed when she's introduced to the game of chess.
Camera Person is a documentary by cinematographer Kirsten Johnson in which she exposes her many years behind the camera through a memoir made up of decades of footage shot all over the world.
Jed and Ann also discuss online streaming services like Amazon and Netflix and how those media giants are moving into the major motion picture industry. Ava Duvernay’s documentary 13th drops today on Netflix. Golden Globe nominated Beasts of No Nation starring Idris Elba was released on Netflix last year.
Jed Dietz is the Founder and director of the Maryland Film Festival. Ann Hornaday is the film critic for the Washington Post. Read her latest piece "Fall is the season for Important Movies. But must issues trump excellence?"
Click here for showtimes at The Charles Theater, including The Birth of a Nation, Camera Person and Queen of Katwe.
Next Saturday Oct. 15 is Home Movies Day. At 8:00pm at the 2640 space in Charles Village a collection of locally curated home movies will be shown.
