Editor’s Pick: Errol Morris & Philip Kaufman on Roger Ebert

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Roger Ebert was the distinguished recipient of the Mel Novikoff Award at the 53rd edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival (2010).  The presiding theme that ran throughout the celebratory evening held at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre was that—at a time when (as Jason Sanders stated it in his tribute essay) “the future of film criticism remains a real question”—Ebert had proven by example that film criticism’s role in championing the work of new filmmakers kickstarted many a career and encouraged others to hone their craft. Continue reading →

Editor’s Pick: ADD THE WORDS

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by Michael Guillén

In my first political science class at San Francisco State University in the mid-’70s, my professor argued that without practicing solidarity with the struggles of disempowered people, political change could never be effected.  Solidarity became the introductory lynchpin to an engaged activism that resisted pluralistic efforts to divide and conquer.  “Unless you can feel solidarity with the cultural critiques proposed in Malcolm X’s autobiography and the prison letters of George Jackson,” my professor insisted, “you will never understand the plight of Black people in the United States.”  Continue reading →