The exuberant woman at the top of the newsletter is Ruth Carter, the Academy Award-winning costume designer (BLACK PANTHER) who has contributed her immense talent to 11 Spike Lee films, as well as films by Steven Spielberg (AMISTAD), John Singleton (SHAFT) and Ava DuVernay (SELMA). She has over 40 films to her credit, and has dressed such actors as Denzel Washington and Jane Fonda. There is a wonderful profile of Ms. Carter on the Netflix series ABSTRACT: THE ART OF DESIGN. It's an illuminating deep dive into her process.
But before watching the profile of Ms. Carter, check out US KIDS, which begins streaming this Friday through the Rose Theatre Film Library. Sparked by the plague of gun violence ravaging the nation's schools, US KIDS chronicles the March For Our Lives movement over the course of several years, following a group of teenage activists as they pull off the largest youth protest in American history, and they set out to build an inclusive and unprecedented movement that addresses a growing public health crisis. "A compassionate portrait, eager to let its subjects speak for themselves." -Hollywood Reporter
DOUBLE BILL OF INTRIGUE. THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006), the great German film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and THE CONVERSATION (1974) which won the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival and features a terrific performance by Gene Hackman. Both films are about the morality of surveillance. THE LIVES OF OTHERS is streaming through our Film Library, and THE CONVERSATION can be found on other streaming sites. This is definitely a Marilyn-sized popcorn double bill.
Cinematically Yours,
Rocky