Mykola Wash

a vivid exploration of memory -- through the most lyrical and translucent element available, water. the nature of memories and it's parallel to water is genius in Butterfly. It demonstrates the ever-changing, yet deeply familiar and internally quiet struggles of past -- as is the quiet underwater, and the rippling of the waves. I think this truly deserved the Oscar win last night. It illustrates the past in a way that makes the present, and future look the same. Seeing the stigmatization and pure hatred against an African swimmer during the time of the Nazi regime. And seeing the implication of continuation in the very waters that were trained, competed in, as a much older man. The colors and construction of such a film make it just as, if not more, deserving of an award. Everything is clearly handpainted and carefully constructed, yet it flows so beautifully? Butterfly perfectly mastered the profoundness of water, and the brisk, so beautiful transitions between different timelines.

KPop Demon Hunters reinvents the idea of overcoming shame, and the idea of accepting one's self. I say this with the context of the pressing winning speech by one of the women awarded an Oscar last night. KPop Demon Hunters achieved a beautiful mixture of cultural display, and global appreciation -- allowing Korean culture to thrive in all it's modern artistic beauty and making it wildly accessible for the rest of the world. There are no other notes. Fantastic, colorful display of fighting against one's own 'demons' of shame and internal-ridicule, and learning to love who you are, and what you represent.

not that impressive to me, I've seen a story like this done countless times before, with only differences in characters and design. these still are major differences, but of a film of this length, it hardly is memorable, and the theme remains simplistic.

A voice is a heartbeat. It is the livelihood in which we embody, it's communicating the existence that flows within. And in an increasing amount of instances, it is the only thing we have to prove such a life resided. The Voice of Hind Rajab features several shots of Hind Rami Iyah Rajab's recorded voice. With each word she innocently reports to the Palestinian Red Crescent Crisis Center it parallels an EKG heart-monitor seen in hospitals. It takes the shape of a heartbeat, of a life beating and fighting. And it's this feature, that establishes the lesson that, a voice holds and translates the heart: the possibility of change and to highlight the urgency, the rapid beating of the heart, of a crisis that seeks utter silence. Her voice is small, and appears as only a small thin-line against the digitized photos of a frozen-smiling face. As is the thread of hope that has run dangerously thin for the people of Gaza. A sliver of an echo against a total void that is slowly muting a voice of innocence. Kaouther Ben Hania doesn't want such a story to be a statistic, a 'social media post', any longer; instead, what he demands, what the lives of those permanently affected want, is to share the personal terror they exhibit daily. The dread that demolishes everything it's been twisted to hate, leaving only trauma in it's ingrained path. What Hania does is tell a story of a loss that cannot be ignored any longer, a tragedy that either highlights your morality or proves it's absence. For what you are witnessing isn't considered a 'feature' or a 'drama' at all, it is the documentation of a mere snippet of primal life. Depicting nothing but total evil against complete innocence; there are no more politics to be discussed, only truth, and what can only be immediate calls to awareness and justice. This is something no one should be watching, because nothing like it should exist. Yet, whether some aspects are dramatized or not, the most disorienting aspect is that it's believable. It's feasible, logical, and credible that such tragedies and injustices occur everyday -- that is why The Voice of Hind Rajab is so starkly important, she speaks to expose the daily savage violation of humans, by humans. This will remain a historical film, one that was released during a time where one side turns away, and another seeks to elevate a single voice -- one that seeks to speak to everyone.