Arts & Culture

First Films: Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “Wadjda”

Leave a Comment / Eric McDowell

* Eric McDowell *

More so than any of the other films I have considered over the course of this series, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (2012) is a film of firsts: not only is it Al-Mansour’s feature debut, but it’s also the first feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, the first feature directed by a female Saudi filmmaker, and Saudi Arabia’s first submission to the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category.

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Meeting Wittgenstein at the Playscape

Leave a Comment / Airea D. Matthews

* Airea D. Matthews *

Since Tractatus suggests that language mirrors states of affairs in which objects are engaged, questions arise: if the object is invisible, does the object even exist? What if the object is the Black body?

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Selfies

Leave a Comment / Oksana Lutsyshyna

* Oksana Lutsyshyna *

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines plane crashed in Eastern Ukraine, downed by the Russian terrorist forces, referred to as “pro-Russian separatists” in western media. The questions my US friends asked me most after the crash of MH17 near the Ukrainian town of Torez were as follows: Who are the people casually going through the dead passengers’ luggage? Why are they taking selfies next to the parts of the plane?

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Love Letter to My Fanfiction Past

Leave a Comment / Lillian Li

* Lillian Li *

Remember when you were a fan of just about everything? “Please don’t scream in the car!” your dad would shout when you became overexcited by a dog we had just driven past, or a convertible with its top up. “You’re going to give me a heart attack!” As early as the first grade, you had already accessed your stores of obsessive energy. You could not be contained.

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Aan Alle Slachtoffers

Leave a Comment / Kevin Haworth

* Kevin Haworth *

In Israel and Gaza, there are sounds that tell you when someone is trying to kill you. In Israel, a high-pitched siren signals an incoming missile and sends everyone to the nearest cover—either a public shelter, or the basement of your apartment, or your stairwell, or, if you’re on the highway, huddled between your car and the concrete divider, the best of bad circumstances.

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The Long Haul

Leave a Comment / Paula Mendoza

* Paula Mendoza *

At the time, I was only dimly aware of the work that house members, reproductive rights activists, and other civic minded people were doing to call attention to, and prevent the passage of, this bill. That night I was to be thrown into the thick of it.

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Iranian Literature Born in Exile

Leave a Comment / Kaveh Bassiri

* Kaveh Bassiri *

Like many great works of modernist literature, these texts were new, self-conscious, and critical, though the Persian works seem to be darker and more scathing. Yet what is most unusual about these books is that they were mainly written and published in other countries. In other words, key foundational works of modern Iranian literature was born elsewhere.

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That Summer Feeling

Leave a Comment / Gina Balibrera

* Gina Balibrera *

Many nights I fall asleep reading. Glasses on my face, a light turned on beside me, fans whirring, only a few pages in: in bed, on the couch, or, a couple times lately, in the bathtub. I awake with a start, close the book, settle into the brief remaining dark. Here are three I’ve been reading.

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On Shapelessness

Leave a Comment / Leah Falk

* Leah Falk *

Is the sense of shapelessness that comes with mid-summer something an artist should dread, or use?

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Get Their Good Tidings

Leave a Comment / Claire Skinner

* Claire Skinner *

Three miles up the canyon, I see a bear. We’re standing on a small cliff overlooking McGee Creek. Like many Sierra Nevada streams, McGee is lush: willows, wild rose, wildflowers, and quaking aspen, their bark white as milk.

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