A new contemporary art space is probing how Russia engages with the West by reviving an unlikely 1990s TV hit.......

One of the highlights from the first trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) was a quick glimpse at a comic book cover featuring Miles Morales. Artist Sanford Greene, who is also working on the sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, provided a full look at his cover art. The comic book covers appeared .........

A version of this story about “Flee” and Jonas Poher Rasmussen first appeared in the International Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.Animation has been used for a variety of purposes in documentaries. It can be used for re-enactments, or to explain a complex concept, or to draw out a map or a timeline. But Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” uses it for a much more personal purpose: to maintain the anonymity of a friend.“Flee,” which is Denmark’s selection for the Best International Feature category at the 2022 Oscars, follows Amin, an Afghan refugee whom Rasmussen met when he was 15. Amin (who uses an alias in the film) and his family were among the countless who escaped Afghanistan during the civil war in the 1980s, first fleeing to Soviet Russia before risking their lives and handing every dollar they had to callous traffickers to help them reach Europe, all while Amin hides his homosexuality from his family.Rasmussen said that while he’s known Amin for decades, his friend wasn’t comfortable at first with the idea of making his life into a documentary. “He said he wasn’t ready, but he knew that one day he would have to tell his story and that when that came he would tell it to me,” he said. That day came when Rasmussen joined ANIDOX, a Danish program that pairs up documentary projects with independent animated studios. With France’s Vivement Lundi and Denmark’s Sun Creature Studio now on board to turn Rasmussen’s camera footage and Amin’s memories into hand-drawn re-creations, the filmmaker won Amin’s permission to tell his story. “Amin had always been very quiet about where he had come from and how he made it to Denmark from Afghanistan, and he was worried about people recognizing him if his story was made into a movie,” he said. “Having animation really gave him the space to open up and while he’s obviously been home while we’ve been showing the movie at festivals, he’s been really pleased that people have embraced it.”Rasmussen makes the filmmaking process part of the story of “Flee” to show Amin’s struggle with opening up about a past he’s fought hard to leave behind. Amin’s interviews take place over the course of three years, the passage of time marked by scenes of him house-hunting with his soon-to-be husband, Kasper. Those scenes of a stable present collide with Amin’s memories of poverty, fear and trauma, with the most terrible moments presented as dark blurs with vague outlines of human shapes to reflect the nature of repressed memories. Over time, Rasmussen learned about light and color techniques as he worked with animation director Kenneth Ladekjær and art director Jess Nichols to bring Amin’s words to life.“At times he would have a hard time talking about things. His voice would change when he was talking about something traumatic, and I believed that change should be seen visually through the animation,” he said. “From his testimony, we would decide when we needed to hear his voice and when we go into these reenactments.”And Rasmussen also had to choose when to remove the animation entirely, such as when he shows archival news footage of a decrepit house in Sweden where hundreds of refugees, including Amin’s sisters, were forced to stay for months upon arriving in the country. “It was important for me to have these reminders that this is still a real horror that happened for so many people, that this is a true story,” he said. “As I was talking with Amin I spent so much time on YouTube just looking up the history of the civil war and I saw so many clips that I knew had to be in the film.” Of course, after all these years immersing himself in Amin’s past and in the history of Afghani refugees, Rasmussen never could have imagined that “Flee” would hit theaters at a time when Afghanistan has been back in the headlines following the Taliban’s return to power and the frantic withdrawal of thousands of Americans and Afghan partners from the country. “I’m in touch with Amin all the time and he was really heartbroken because he could see all these young Afghans being pushed out of the country and finding themselves in the same situation he was. It brought back a lot of those memories that he had trouble handling when we were doing interviews for the film and it has been tough.”Read more from the International issue of TheWrap magazine here. .aspect-ratio-box { height: 0; overflow: hidden; padding-top: calc(720 / 1280 * 100%); background: #f9f9f9; position: relative; margin-bottom:30px; } .aspect-ratio-box-inside { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }......

A version of this story about “Prayers for the Stolen”first appeared in the International issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. “Prayers for the Stolen,” Mexico’s entry in the Best International Feature Film Race at the Oscars, deals with a trio of young girls growing up in a Mexican mountain village where a drug cartel looms as both a threat and a potential employer. TheWrap sat down with Tatiana Huezo, a long-time documentary filmmaker making his first work of narrative fiction for Netflix. Have you been looking to move from documentaries to narrative fiction?Yes, I think it was good for me to take on this challenge. I do think that in my documentaries I was already doing narrative and aesthetic work that was close to fiction. For example, I have the lives of my characters acted out in the documentaries, and I work out the dramatic structure and prepare for one or two years even before I shoot. I also imagine what the film must look like, what the sensations of the film are, what the color of the film is. In some ways, deciding to embark on this project was a way of pushing all that investigation even further. Are there ways in which narrative fiction is more challenging than nonfiction?Yeah. Just speaking in terms of the production machinery that fiction involves, it’s exponentially larger than documentary. For 15 years I’ve only been working with a crew of 15 people, but on this movie we had more than 100 people on the crew, and many different departments that are new to me. Costume, makeup, animal trainers, visual effects… The art department alone was almost like a small army. For example, in (the documentary) “Tempestad,” because water and storms were very important, I actually employed meteorologists who would guide me to where the storms and the wind was. In this film I also wanted there to be a lot of rain and wind, but instead I had this amazing special effects team who could make it rain when I said rain. And it was also really interesting for me to actually create the sets – the whole poppy field was something that we constructed for the film. The same art department constructed each of the flowers, each of the bulbs, all made out of latex. In the houses that have mold, all the mold has actually been drawn by the people in the art department. That’s the biggest difference, that in fiction you have to create everything. You were also working with first-time actors, weren’t you?Yeah, in fact casting the girls was the most important thing for me. I had to find these three bright 8-year-olds, and three respective, almost cloned teenagers. It took us about 12 months to find them. About 800 girls were auditioned in order to find the six protagonists, and we trained them for three months. How did you find this particular story from novelist Jennifer Clement?I was working with kids in rural schools in order to do my next documentary when the story arrived in my hands from the producers Nicolas Celis and Jim Stark. I didn’t think they were actually going to offer it to me, but I read the novel in three days and thought it was amazing. I really loved the 8-year-old main character, and the almost journalistic approach to the story of the growing of the poppy field. And when I shared with them my opinion about the novel, they immediately asked if I would be interested in directing the movie. But I didn’t really know how to do other people’s work. I only felt like I could approach this film from a very personal place about childhood and what it means to grow up, which is a territory that I’m very close to in my personal life, because I have a young daughter who is discovering the world. Much of the danger these girls face is unspoken. We know Ana’s mother is cutting her hair short because appearing too feminine could make her a target for sex trafficking. But nobody talks about it.For me, it was fundamental to not represent the violence graphically. The violent monster is outside the frame. We hear it and we feel it through the girls, but I really thought it was important to not represent it explicitly — especially because in Mexico we’re very much contaminated by images we see constantly in the news of gunfights, people dead or decapitated or hanging from bridges. For me it was important to pull back from that and tell the story through the eyes of a young girl. Do you plan to director both narrative films and documentaries from here?I feel very strong after having done this film, and I feel like I have the freedom to go back and forth. At the essence level of what a film is, I don’t really see a huge difference between documentary and fiction. Either one is a journey in which you are invited to live through the skin and the experience of someone else. And it’s also an emotional and a very sensory-driven experience. I am doing a new documentary now, and after that I will start writing my next fiction film. Read more from the International issue here. .aspect-ratio-box { height: 0; overflow: hidden; padding-top: calc(720 / 1280 * 100%); background: #f9f9f9; position: relative; margin-bottom:30px; } .aspect-ratio-box-inside { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }......

The statue was the focus of a deadly white nationalist rally in 2017. A local African American heritage center plans to turn it into a new piece of public art.......

EMBARGOED UNTIL 10AM TUESDAY The 2022 Palm Springs International Film Festival will open on Jan. 7 with a screening of the documentary “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over” and close nine days later with Roger Michell’s “The Duke,” PSIFF organizers announced on Tuesday. In between, the festival will screen 129 films from 70 countries, including 36 of the 93 submissions in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category. It will also feature “Talking Pictures” programs in which guests including director Jane Campion, writer William Monahan and actors Kristen Stewart, Andrew Garfield, Clifton Collins Jr. and Jennifer Hudson will be on hand to screen and talk about their films. The 33-year-old festival will return to the desert resort town east of Los Angeles after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to cancel the 2021 event. Its Jan. 7 opening night will be preceded by its annual Palm Springs Film Awards Gala, with honorees who include Campion, Garfield, Hudson, Stewart, Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, the cast of “King Richard” and director Kenneth Branagh and the cast of “Belfast.” The festival’s Awards Buzz section will consist of almost three dozen Oscar international entries, among them Japan’s “Drive My Car,” Denmark’s “Flee,” Italy’s “The Hand of God,” Iran’s “A Hero,” Germany’s “I’m Your Man,” France’s “Titane” and Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World.” The Talking Pictures program will feature screenings of “Jockey,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Respect,” “Spencer,” “The Tender Bar” and “Tick, tick… BOOM!” with special guests. Modern Masters will consist of seven films from international directors and will include U.S. premieres of Terence Davies’ “Benediction,” Ildiko Enyedi’s “The Story of My Wife” and Barry Levinson’s “The Survivor.” New Voices New Visions will focus on first- and second-time directors, inckuding Megan Park (“The Fallout”), Audrey Diwan (“Happening”) and Amil Shivji (“Tug of War”). The True Stories section will be made up of 15 documentaries, among them Stefan Forbes’ “Hold Your Fire,” Giedre Zickyte’s “The Jump” and Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler’s “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America.” Other sections will focus on Latin American and Latinx films, LGBTQ cinema, films about music, movies that celebrate movies, international cinema and films spotlighting the Palm Springs area. Four of the festival’s selections, all documentaries, will be world premieres: Frank Marshall and Ryan Suffern’s “Jazz Fest,” Daniel Raim’s “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen,” Loch Phillipps’ “Utica: The Last Refuge” and Luis Reyes’ “Pepe Serna: Life Is Art.” Because of the pandemic, patrons will be required to show proof of full vaccination, and to remain masked in the theaters. Capacity in those theaters will be limited to 75%. There is the full lineup. Additional information is available at www.psfilmfest.org. OPENING AND CLOSING SCREENINGSOpening night: Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over Directors Dave Wooley and David HeilbronerClosing night: The Duke Director Roger Michell AWARDS BUZZ – BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM SUBMISSIONSBad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Romania), Director Radu Jude Brighton 4th (Georgia), Director Levan KoguashviliCasablanca Beats (Morocco), Director Nabil Ayouch Clara Sola (Costa Rica), Director Nathalie Alvárez MesénCompartment No. 6 (Finland), Director Juho KuosmanenCosta Brava, Lebanon (Lebanon), Director Mounia Akl Drive My Car (Japan), Director Ryûsuke HamaguchiDrunken Birds (Canada), Director Ivan Grbovic Escape from Mogadishu (South Korea), Director Ryoo Seung-wanThe Falls (Taiwan), Director Chung Mong-hong (U.S. Premiere) Fear (Bulgaria), Director Ivaylo Hristov Flee (Denmark), Director Jonas Poher RasmussenThe Good Boss (Spain), Director Fernando León de AranoaThe Gravedigger’s Wife (Somalia), Director Khadar Ayderus AhmedGreat Freedom (Austria), Director Sebastian MeiseThe Hand of God (Italy), Director Paolo SorrentinoA Hero (Iran), Director Asghar Farhadi Hive (Kosovo), Director Blerta BasholliI’m Your Man (Germany), Director Maria SchraderLamb (Iceland) Director Vladimar JóhannssonLeave No Traces (Poland), Director Jan P. MatuszyńskiLet It Be Morning (Israel), Director Eran KolirinLingui, the Sacred Bonds (Chad), Director Mahamat-Saleh HarounMemoria (Colombia), Director Apichatpong WeerasethakulOlga (Switzerland), Director Elie GrappeOn the Water (Estonia), Director Peeter Simm (International Premiere)Playground (Belgium), Director Laura Wandel (U.S. Premiere)Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico), Director Tatiana HuezoRehana Maryam Noor (Bangladesh), Director Abdullah Mohammad Saad (U.S. Premiere)Shambala (Kyrgyzstan), Director Artykpai SuyundukovTigers (Sweden), Director Ronnie Sandahl (North American Premiere)Titane (France), Director Julia DucournauUnclenching the Fists (Russia), Director Kira KovalenkoThe Worst Person in the World (Norway), Director Joachim TrierYuni (Indonesia), Director Kamila AndiniZátopek (Czech Republic), Director David Ondříček (North American Premiere) TALKING PICTURES & BOOK TO SCREENJockey (USA)with actor Clifton Collins, Jr.The Power of the Dog (Australia/New Zealand/UK/USA/Canada) with director Jane CampionRespect (USA) with actress Jennifer HudsonSpencer (UK/Germany) with actress Kristen StewartThe Tender Bar (USA)with screenwriter William Monahan Tick, Tick…Boom! (USA)with actor Andrew Garfield MODERN MASTERSBenediction (UK/USA), Director Terence Davies (U.S. Premiere)One Second (China), Director Zhang YimouThe Pact (Denmark), Director Bille AugustParallel Mothers (Spain), Director Pedro AlmodóvarPetite Maman (France), Director Céline SciammaThe Story of My Wife (Hungary/Germany/Italy/France), Director Ildikó Enyedi (U.S. Premiere) The Survivor (USA/Canada/Hungary), Director Barry Levinson (U.S. Premiere) NEW VOICES NEW VISIONSThe Fallout (USA), Director Megan ParkFarha (Jordan/Sweden, Saudi Arabia), Director Darin J. Sallam (U.S. Premiere)Happening (France), Director Audrey DiwanOut of Sync (Spain/Lithuania/France), Director Juanjo Giménez (U.S. Premiere)Paka (River of Blood) (India), Director Nithin Lukose (U.S. Premiere)Queen of Glory (USA), Director Nana MensahSmall Body (Italy/France/Slovenia), Director Laura Samani (U.S. Premiere)Tug of War (Tanzania/South Africa/Germany/Qatar), Director Amil Shivji (U.S. Premiere)Wildhood (Canada/Germany), Director Bretten Hannam TRUE STORIES7 Lives, 7 Lakes (Spain), Director Víctor Escribano (U.S. Premiere)The Automat (USA), Director Lisa HurwitzBlind Ambition (Australia/Zimbabwe), Director Robert Coe, Warwick RossThe Caviar Connection (France), Director Benoît BringerDaughter of a Lost Bird (USA), Director Brooke Pepion SwaneyThe First 54 Years (Israel/France/Finland/Germany), Director Avi MograbiGemmel & Tim (USA), Director Michiel ThomasHold Your Fire (USA), Director Stefan ForbesThe Jump (Lithuania/Latvia/France/Germany/USA), Director Giedrė ŽickytėMesswood (USA), Director Emily Kuester, Brad LichtensteinMission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times (USA), Director Louie Psihoyos, Peggy CallahanRadiograph of a Family (Iran/Switzerland/Norway), Director Firouzeh KhosrovaniThree Minutes – A Lengthening (Netherlands/UK), Director Bianca StigterUtica: The Last Refuge (USA), Director Loch Phillipps (World Premiere)Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America (USA),Director Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler CINE LATINOThe Best Families (Peru/Colombia), Director Javier Fuentes-LeónThe Box (USA/Mexico), Director Lorenzo Vigas (U.S. Premiere/unconfirmed)Medusa (Brazil/USA), Director Anita Rocha da SilveriaMy Brothers Dream Awake (Chile), Director Claudia HuaiquimillaThe Other Tom (Mexico/USA), Director Rodrigo Plá, Laura SantulloSundown (Mexico/France/Sweden), Director Michel Franco QUEER CINEMA TODAY & THE GAYLAGayla! screening – Boulevard! A Hollywood Story (USA), Director Jeffrey SchwarzLove, Spells and All That (Turkey/Germany), Director Ümit Ünal Moneyboys (Austria/Taiwan/France/Belgium), Director C.B. Yi No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics (USA), Director Vivian KleimanThe Swimmer (Israel), Director Adam Kalderon (U.S. Premiere)Gayla! screening – Sweetheart (UK), Director Marley MorrisonValentina (Brazil), Director Cássio Pereira dos Santos SOUNDTRACK – MUSIC ON FILMBernstein’s Wall (USA), Director Douglas TirolaBorn in Chicago (USA), Director Bob Sarles, John AndersonInvisible: Gay Women in Southern Music (USA), Director T.J. ParsellJazz Fest (USA), Director Frank Marshall, Ryan Suffern (World Premiere)Oscar Peterson: Black + White (Canada), Director Barry Avrich (U.S. Premiere) THE BIG SCREEN – MOVIES CELEBRATING MOVIESAlien on Stage (UK), Director Danielle Kummer, Lucy HarveyClaydream (USA), Director Marq EvansExposing Muybridge (USA/UK), Director Marc ShafferFiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen (USA), Director Daniel Raim (World Premiere)Last Film Show (India/France/USA), Director Pan NalinThe Story of Film: A New Generation (UK), Director Mark Cousins WORLD CINEMA NOWAnaïs In Love (France), Director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet (North American Premiere)Any Day Now (Finland), Director Hamy RamezanBack Then (Poland), Director Kinga DebskaBallad of a White Cow (Iran/France), Director Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam MoghaddamBrother’s Keeper (Turkey/Romania), Director Ferit KarahanThe Crossing (France/Czech Republic/Germany), Director Florence MiailheThe Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson (Australia) The Great Indian Kitchen (India), Director Jeo Baby (U.S. Premiere)Greener Pastures (Israel), Director Matan Guggenheim, Assaf Abiri (International Premiere) Haute Couture (France), Director Sylvie OhayonHinterland (Austria/Luxembourg), Director Stefan Ruzowitzky (North American Premiere) Juniper (New Zealand), Director Matthew J. Saville (U.S. Premiere) The Judgement (Netherlands), Director Sander BurgerMothering Sunday (UK), Director Eva Husson My Sunny Maad (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia), Director Michaela Pavlátová (North American Premiere)Neighbours (Switzerland/France), Director Mano Khalil Nowhere Special (UK/Italy/Romania), Director Uberto Pasolini (U.S. Premiere)The Phantom of the Open (UK), Director Craig Roberts (U.S. Premiere)The Rapist (India), Director Aparna Sen (North American Premiere) Redemption of a Rogue (Ireland), Director Philip DohertyRun Woman Run (Canada), Director Zoe Leigh Hopkins (The festival will host a free community screening.)Scarecrow (Russia/UK), Director Dmitrii Davydov (North American Premiere)Secret Name (France), Director Aurélia GeorgesShankar’s Fairies (India/Hong Kong), Director Irfana MajumdarTrue Things (UK), Director Harry Wootliff (U.S. Premiere) LOCAL SPOTLIGHTDesert X 2021 – The Film (USA/Ghana/Germany/Mexico/Saudi Arabia/Colombia/UK/Guatemala), Director Dylan RobertsonInvisible Valley (USA), Director Aaron MaurerMiracle in the Desert: The Rise and Fall of the Salton Sea (USA), Director Greg BassenianMy Name Is Lopez (USA), Director P. David Ebersole, Todd HughesPepe Serna: Life is Art (USA), Director Luis Reyes (World Premiere) .aspect-ratio-box { height: 0; overflow: hidden; padding-top: calc(720 / 1280 * 100%); background: #f9f9f9; position: relative; margin-bottom:30px; } .aspect-ratio-box-inside { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }Related stories from TheWrap:Alec Baldwin to Host NYC Awards Gala on Thursday in First Public Appearance Since 'Rust' Tragedy'Succession' Tops Critics Choice Awards Television Nominations'King Richard' Cast to Receive Ensemble Performance Award from Palm Springs Film Festival......