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Seventh Row

Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.

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Free Consultation: how to get butts in seats for your film

Hello Reader, Attention Filmmakers! Between now and May 15, I'm offering three lucky filmmakers a FREE consultation to develop a plan to get butts in seats for your film. Read on for details! (Not a filmmaker? Click here to opt out of emails for filmmakers.) You've agonized over what to make a movie about, plus where and how to shoot it. You've put your blood, sweat, and tears into getting the best equipment and crew. You're going to spend hours and hours and hours editing it into the perfect...

3 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, This week, watch one of the best documentaries of the year by the filmmaker who inspired Seventh Row's thinking on creative nonfiction, Penny Lane: Confessions of a Good Samaritan. Virtual tickets are available WORLDWIDE until Monday at noon. The film is still seeking distribution, so this may be your only chance to see it for some time (or at all). Still of Penny Lane's desktop from Confessions of a Good Samaritan About Penny Lane Penny Lane has been a huge influence on how we...

18 days ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, You are receiving this as a paying subscriber to The Globetrotting Watchlist (which includes Members), a monthly newsletter that helps you expand your cinematic horizons through streaming recommendations for the best socially progressive under-the-radar films worldwide. Your support helps us pay our expenses to keep Seventh Row, a non-profit, ad-free and online. What's Inside the Globetrotting Newsletter Two of the world's biggest and best documentary film festivals — HotDocs in...

28 days ago • 4 min read

Hello Reader, This week, transport yourself to the Tibetan Plateau to meet the Snow Leopard Monk, see gorgeous landscapes, and discover a way of life threatened by capitalism... in Pema Tseden's Snow Leopard! If you're in the UK, get your FREE ticket this week only (details below). This may be your only chance to see the film EVER. Most of the director's wonderful past films are unavailable in English-speaking territories. This wonderful humanist drama is the final film from the late great...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Two of the year's best movies may be hitting cinemas/digital near you this week. If you're in Canada, get your FREE ticket to the national digital screening of Agnieszka Holland's Venice Jury Prize-winning film Green Border. This urgent, inspiring, politically charged drama is tied for my #1 film of 2024 with Bas Devos's much quieter Here. It will make you angry about the atrocities happening at the Polish-Belarus border and heartened that ordinary people like us can make a...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read

Hello Reader, Happy Oscar Sunday! To celebrate the occasion, I'm offering up a list of alternative nominees that I personally would have voted for and my preferred winners — some of which overlap with Oscar. Most of these never had a chance at the Oscars, but I think you might like them! The list of nominees is roughly in rank order of preference. Winners are in bold. I've done my best not to commit category fraud! Most (but definitely not all!) of these films/performances are on my Best of...

about 2 months ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Fifteen years ago, Sally Potter's film Rage premiered at the Berlinale in Competition. It's been virtually impossible to see since...but it's premiering on Instagram this week! Rage was designed to be watched in real-time installments over the course of a week on social media. If you followed the Norwegian series Skam when it aired, its daily installments released throughout the week resemble what Potter does in Rage, only she was already doing it 6 years earlier. In Rage, a...

2 months ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, You are receiving this as a paying subscriber to The Globetrotting Watchlist. Seventh Row Members also get free access to this premium newsletter. The Globetrotting Watchlist is a monthly newsletter that helps you expand your cinematic horizons through streaming recommendations for the best socially progressive under-the-radar films worldwide. You'll never miss the best films now streaming by and about women, 2SLGBTQ+ people, Indigenous People, and other marginalized groups —...

2 months ago • 6 min read

Hello Reader, Although Michel Franco's last film, New Order, was one of our most hated films of 2020, his new very silly but surprisingly entertaining (if dark!) film Memory is well worth seeing. Mongrel Media has released Memory on VOD today in Canada. The film is about a man with dementia (Peter Sarsgaard) who meets a woman traumatized by childhood sexual assault (Jessica Chastain) at a high school reunion. As it turns out, he needs a career, and she's looking for home care work. He hires...

2 months ago • 3 min read

Hello Reader, If you'd like a chance to watch the film at no charge, shoot us a reply to enter the giveaway. (You must have an iTunes account in Canada). Nikolaj Arcel's (A Royal Affair, also starring Mikkelsen, which is good!) new historical thriller, The Promised Land hits VOD in Canada today courtesy of Mongrel Media! It's a fun underdog film that goes deep on its central characters in ways I didn't expect, given the mustache-twirling villain. This Danish Western follows former military...

2 months ago • 2 min read
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