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.
π§ The latest from TIFF: Palestinian films and sports movies for people who don't like sports movies
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Hello Reader, The Toronto International Film Festival has begun...and so has my coverage (bookmark this page for everything), in writing and podcast form. On the podcast, I'm putting groups of related films in conversation with each other to discover new insights and current preoccupations in the film industry. I want to offer you a spoiler-free discussion that's more than just "is this film any good?" This is for you if:
The season will be spoiler-free and designed to be listened to even if you haven't seen or will not see the films (either ever or for some time). βTIFF #2: Palestinian FilmsβIn my first dispatch from the festival, I discuss the four Palestinian feature films at the festival, which address different aspects of Palestinian life:
βListen to the episodeβ βTIFF #3: Sports movies for people who don't like sports moviesβIn my second dispatch, I discuss three movies set in the world of sports that are thoughtful character dramas from early career filmmakers. Two of these films have some of the best blocking I've seen in cinema all year. The films address a variety of issues and milieus from multiple countries
βListen to the episodeβ Don't want to listen to my TIFF coverage?You can read my reviews! Reviews are now live for several of the films listed here (No Other Land, Julie Keeps Quiet, To a Land Unknown), plus the best shorts at the festival. βFind all my TIFF coverage here.β Coming soon:
Happy listening (and watching, if you're at the fest)! Alex
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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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Hello Reader, Welcome to your January edition of The Globetrotting Watchlist. Whether youβre a longtime Globetrotting Watchlist subscriber or Film Adventurer/Cinephile Member, or just finding your way here, thank you. Your support helps to keep Seventh Row nonprofit, ad-free, and fiercely independent. What's Inside the Globetrotting Newsletter This month, I'm recommending the best documentaries of 2025: A Spanish film about bullfighting (no interest in bullfighting required) A German movie...
Near the end of Sound of Falling (the film I discuss on this week's Seventh Row Podcast), Angelika (the blurry figure in the photograph below) poses uncomfortably for a family photo in the 1980s before disappearing. How we read this photo β and what it means that she's blurry in it β is something we can only construct from the film's form: How this image evokes ones we've seen before in the film's 1914, 1940s, and present-day timelines. And how the scenes leading up to this β not just plot...