Author: Jan Hamilton

Our hero Ilyas is a thirteen-year-old Pakistani-American boy living in the U.S. who attends a private Islamic school where he stands out, much to his embarrassment. He is growing a very visible mustache that his parents won’t let him shave, and he is the brunt of many jokes and teasing at school. The boys and… Continue reading SXSW 2023: MUSTACHE

Benny is an eleven-year-old Navajo “city boy” spending the summer at his grandmother’s Arizona sheep ranch. While his parents are going through marital difficulties, Benny’s primary concern is attending the Fleetwood Mac concert he was promised. His dad thinks he is too soft and feels that the ranch will “make a man” of him. His… Continue reading SXSW 2023: FRYBREAD FACE AND ME

You might not see the twist coming in the documentary film Citizen Sleuth because I didn’t. It’s a seemingly simple story of a young podcaster in West Virginia digging into a local death that occurred some years earlier. A young attractive Black woman was killed along a stretch of highway near mile marker 181. Although… Continue reading SXSW 2023: CITIZEN SLEUTH

This film is very inventive; it makes you want to watch it again because things are coming at you so fast, you know you probably missed something. It’s a romance story spanning twelve years set in the far future. Two dissimilar people, Molli (Zosia) and Max (Aristotle), who you know are right for each other,… Continue reading SXSW 2023: MOLLI AND MAX IN THE FUTURE

In the 80’s, Steve Glew was an introverted mid-westerner, married with kids. He always had a wild scheme hatching, mostly they didn’t pay off. His wife tried to control these tangents he would go off on,  but one actually worked. The candy in the little dispensers, Pez, was divided into a U.S. and a European… Continue reading SXSW 2022: THE PEZ OUTLAW

Here are some thoughts on the animated program. Bestia This is a dark look at the secret life of a secret police agent in Chile during a military dictatorship. She is drawn with waxy doll-like features, she makes visits to a house with unexplained dead bodies. She does unspeakable acts with her dog. Weird but… Continue reading SXSW 2022: ANIMATED SHORTS

Sandra Pankhurst runs what we would call a crime scene clean-up business, and she would normally go out on the jobs with her staff. Lately, as she approaches her sixties, she has had to forgo that because her early work years of not wearing the correct lung protection have left her with COPD.  She runs… Continue reading SXSW 2022: CLEAN

This film from Ghana tells its story from the point of view of two drunks, a shifty politician, a dutiful farmer, and a pair of lovers on the run from a crime. The couple have stolen from a photographer who has sent a hit man after them. The woman, Ana, robbed the man because he… Continue reading SXSW 2022: PUBLIC TOILET AFRICA

Julia (Maika Monroe) and Francis (Karl Glusman) have moved to Romania for Francis’ new job, he is part Romanian and is fluent in the language, Julia, an actress, speaks only English.  Their apartment building faces another large apartment building across the street. Julia mostly spends her days un-productively, and often looks out of the large… Continue reading SXSW 2022: WATCHER