Stuck-at-Home International Film Festival

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THE STUCK AT HOME INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

I had a really exciting year full of trips planned in 2020. Then COVID-19 pretty much cancelled them all.

How do you poke at the travel itch when you can’t exactly scratch it? One of my favorite ways is with foreign films!

So what am I to do? Well, one of my favorite ways to poke at the travel itch when I can’t fully scratch it is with foreign films! Admittedly, it can be hard to know where to look for good ones. You watch Parasite, and you’re like, yes! Give me more! But then all you find is each country’s equivalent of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

I’ve got your back, my friend.

My latest quarantine project is this: The 2020 Stuck-At-Home International Film Festival. Go ahead and draw yourself a festival pass on a piece of cardboard. We’ve got some good ones to watch.

Here’s how it’ll work. When you sign up, here’s what I’ll be sending you.

  • A (kind of) weekly email featuring a new batch of international films

  • My own mini-review and thoughts on the film.

  • Some insight into the film industries and cultures of countries that get less attention, including Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.

  • Links for streaming the film.

This will mostly be free! Well… mostly free if you have subscriptions to Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc. Each week, there’ll be one exception. A film available for streaming using a digital ticket, the cost of which will support a local theatre or organizers of a cultural arts organization.

The first batch of films features a film-noir, a crime-thriller, and a love story with ghosts.

Atlantics (Senegal, 2019)
Metro Manila (Philippines, 2013)
Trash (Brazil, 2014)

Wild Goose Lake (China, 2019)
Cake (Pakistan, 2018)
Happy As Lazzaro (Italy, 2018)
Parasite (South Korea, 2019)

WEEK TWO

Our next batch features a Brazilan genre-bender, a musical from Ireland, and a murder mystery from Spain.

Sing Street (Ireland, 2016)
Roma (Mexico, 2018)
Burning (South Korea, 2016)

And Breathe Normally (Iceland, 2018)
Lionheart (Nigeria, 2018)
Bacurau (Brazil, 2019)
The Invisible Guest (Spain, 2016)

And the third batch!

Shoplifters (Japan, 2018)
The Whistlers (Romania, 2019)
Zama (Argentina, 2019)

Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema (South Africa, 2008)
I Lost My Body (France, 2019)
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (New Zealand, 2016)
Children of the Mountain (Ghana, 2016)