Latest news with #MUBI
The Hindu
13 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Filmmakers urge MUBI to sever ties with Sequoia over Israeli military tech investments linked to Gaza genocide
More than 35 acclaimed filmmakers associated with arthouse distributor and streaming platform MUBI have signed an open letter demanding the company cut ties with investor Sequoia Capital over its links to Israeli military tech firms. The signatories include prominent international directors such as Aki Kaurismäki, Radu Jude, Miguel Gomes, and Joshua Oppenheimer. Their letter criticises MUBI's decision to accept a $100 million investment from Sequoia in May, citing the venture capital firm's involvement in defense-tech startups with direct ties to Israeli intelligence. 'MUBI's financial growth as a company is now explicitly tied to the genocide in Gaza,' the letter states, pointing to Sequoia's 2024 investment in Kela, a battlefield operating system founded by Israeli military veterans. The filmmakers argue this association contradicts MUBI's identity as a platform committed to global cinema and social responsibility. MUBI, which previously issued a statement saying investor views do not reflect its own, has declined to comment on the letter. The signatories also called on MUBI to meet demands set by the activist group Film Workers for Palestine, including: Publicly condemning Sequoia Capital for 'genocide profiteering' Removing Sequoia partner Andrew Reed from MUBI's board Implementing ethical investment and programming policies aligned with PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) The backlash has already had tangible effects. Festivals and venues such as Glasgow's CCA, Mexico City's Cineteca Nacional, and the Cinemateca de Bogotá have withdrawn from MUBI Fest, while Chile's Valdivia Film Festival announced it would no longer screen films distributed by the company. Programming partner Girls In Film also ended its seven-year collaboration, citing MUBI's prioritisation of 'commercial growth' over ethics.
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘The History of Sound' Trailer: Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor Fall in Love Over Folk Music
Two of the indie film world's favorite young actors will share the screen this fall in what many are already clocking as an award season contender to watch. Oliver Hermanus' 'The History of Sound' made waves at Cannes for its sensitive portrayal of a love affair between Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor. The film was acquired by MUBI, which will roll the film out theatrically in September as the Oscar race begins to take shape. More from IndieWire 'Train Dreams' Teaser: Joel Edgerton Stars in a Time-Spanning Denis Johnson Adaptation Don't Let Anything Spoil Summer's Funniest Rom-Com - Even This Interview The film begins in 1917, where budding, preternaturally gifted musician Lionel (Mescal) first meets David (O'Connor) at the Boston Conservatory, where they bond over their shared love of folk music. They reconnect years later when David asks Lionel to join him on an impromptu journey through New England to collect traditional folk songs. That journey paves the way for a romance — set against the music they're preserving — that will change the course of Lionel's life. 'The History of Sound' received positive reviews at Cannes, with IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio writing that 'The false notes are rare in director Oliver Hermanus' affecting and dustily textured romance 'The History of Sound,' written by Ben Shattuck from his own short story about men in love, together and apart, circa World War I and its aftermath. But for a queer love story starring two of the hottest, of-this-moment leading actors around — Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor— 'The History of Sound' almost perversely denies your expectations of what a gay romance could be.' The film's willingness to defy expectations extends to its approach to sex scenes, opting to tell a softer love story without explicit intimacy. Speaking to IndieWire at Cannes, Mescal said he appreciated that approach and thinks it benefits the story. 'I've done my fair share of sex scenes, I'm like, 'been there, done that,'' Mescal said. 'What feels slightly different about this from [other] romantic relationships onscreen, I would say in the hierarchy of their relationship, physical touch isn't the priority. It's intellectual stimulation, it's friendship. Not that they're not physically attracted to each other; they very much are, but their chemistry is born from this shared love of these folk songs, and it extends from there.' A MUBI release, 'The History of Sound' opens in theaters on Friday, September 12. Watch the trailer below. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
The National
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Lost traditional wheat varieties feature in film shot around Oban
Now, 14 years later, the wheat grown by his sustainable charity is featuring in a new film which has been shot around Oban with support from local craftspeople and businesses. Alongside being a stunning, genre-defying visual experience, Harvest involves Scotland The Bread, a sustainable food charity which grows some of the varieties of wheat traditionally grown here. Their expert input helped bring to life the striking wheat fields featured throughout the film, rooting the visuals in Scotland's agricultural past, adding depth to themes of harvest and renewal. Based on Jim Crace's Booker Prize short-listed novel of the same name, Harvest has just opened in cinemas in the UK and Ireland before being released exclusively on streaming service MUBI on August 8. The film was shot entirely within the Argyllshire countryside, including the picturesque glen of Inverlonan, and drew extensively on local talent, with members of the community joining the film's cast as villagers and supporting crew. It's hoped the film will also help bring Scotland The Bread to the public's attention. The Fife-based sustainable food charity is a collaborative project to establish a Scottish flour and bread supply that is healthy, locally controlled and sustainable – in other words, to promote and develop a 'People's Bread'. 'Our idea is simple – grow nutritious wheat and bake it properly close to home,' the charity's co-founder Andrew Whitley, below, told the Sunday National. 'Working together, we can change the entire system for the better – fair deals for local farmers growing nourishing food for people, fewer damaging food miles, more nutrition in every slice of bread and more jobs per loaf as we skill up community bakers to bring out the best in our local grains.' The charity was founded in 2016 by Whitley and Veronica Burke who worked with scientists in leading institutions to research heritage Scottish and Nordic wheats to find nutrient-rich varieties that do well in local conditions. In November 2017, the charity launched its first three fine wholemeal flours and began selling them online and from markets. For Whitley, the charity was a natural progression from his long career as a baker. He was the first breadmaker to supply genuine sourdough bread to supermarkets – even though he thought it wouldn't sell. However, it 'flew off the shelves' because many people had begun to suffer digestive complaints from mass-produced supermarket bread. Curious about what was causing this reaction, Whitley began to investigate further and was appalled at what was being used to make supermarket bread. 'It's pretty horrifying when you actually see it laid out page after page, all the additives, emulsifiers, fats, crumb-softening enzymes and so on,' he said. He concluded that it wasn't just the additives that were the problem but also the modern varieties of wheat that were being used, which were often less nutritious than the wheat grown in Scotland in the past. Not only that but he found Scottish farmers had been hit by cheap imports so had stopped growing wheat for bread and switched to growing wheat for booze or animal feed instead. 'In the 1990s, when I started getting interested in this, it became obvious that there were significant differences between traditional and modern varieties of wheat in terms of their mineral density and their goodness for eating as food,' said Whitley. 'I wanted to make bread that nourished people, not bread that just filled a supermarket slot. We're all struggling with diet and ill health because our food system has been completely hijacked by money interests. So that's why we started a campaign. 'That's what gets me up in the morning, the feeling that we've gone too far towards a new version of the kind of oppression that began with the emerging capitalist system where people were cleared off the land to work in factories and when the only bread that starvation wages could buy was adulterated with chalk and alum to make it look whiter.' Whitely said it wasn't just human health that was suffering by eating 'rubbish' as the system was also 'trashing' the environment. 'We have to sweat the land to grow vast weights of crops, much of which are wasted at the mill end and by the supermarket system,' he said. 'They travel massive distances and their production causes massive amounts of emissions. 'We have to fight against the system because it's killing us.' Whitley said this was why the charity is working on the concept of 'the People's Bread'. 'It's a bread for everybody that meets the needs of our times,' he said. 'We can do this if we just do it together and get the corporations off our backs. 'I would also add that we should challenge those public servants, for example, in the Scottish Government and Food Standards Scotland, who have responsibilities for health and nutrition. They seem reluctant to stand up to food industry interests. 'Take the so-called 'reformulation project' – removing a little bit of sugar from Irn-Bru, replacing it with artificial sweeteners and calling this a public health gain – you don't have to be a policy guru to realise that's nonsense. 'We could do so much better. So let's start with a really good loaf of bread, ideally made with wholemeal flour and fermented with sourdough, because that keeps everything good in it, rather than substituting the good harvest with rubbish,' said Whitley.
Scroll.in
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Start the week with a film: Bhutan-set ‘The Monk and the Gun' is a charming comedy about modernity
Given everything that is going on in the world (Israel's carnage in Gaza, Russia's never-ending invasion of Ukraine, America's war on itself), the anti-violence message of The Monk and the Gun (2023) seems naive. But better that than cynical. Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji's film takes place against the backdrop of the Himalayan kingdom's first democratic election. A mock election is taking place to train citizens in democracy. They are instructed to choose between three fictitious parties. Blue symbolises freedom and equality. Red represents industrial development. Yellow preserves the status quo. Government officials earnestly get to work, but the people are sceptical. Look at our neighbour India – they are pulling each other's beards and throwing chairs at each other, one man observes. Meanwhile, an elderly monk asks his disciple to fetch him guns. The country is changing, the monk laments. The younger monk doesn't know even what a gun looks like. But he is bound to serve his master, and so he sets out to look for the weapons. In the third strand, an American turns up in Bhutan to buy an antique rifle. These intersecting stories provide a fascinating glimpse into a sheltered country's tentative steps towards an imported value system. The film is a charmer, folding into a cheeky satire about democracy a philosophical inquiry into the merits of Western modernity. Director Dorji, who has previously made Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, sprinkles wry humour, sly critique and Buddhist wisdom over his story. The observational drama features a mix of professional and non-professional actors. Democracy might promise equality for all, but it's flawed in several ways too. Already, the mock election is turning neighbour against neighbour. It's not right to pit candidates against one other, why are you teaching us rudeness, a granny wants to know. To be democratic is to be modern, one of the electoral officers says. But what is progress if it represents instruments of death, chewing gum and American films on television? The gentle satire is available on MUBI. The Monk and the Gun has lovely performances, a playful tone and a judicious pace that allow viewers to feast on Bhutan's unending beauty. Like Khyentse Norbu's The Cup (1999), The Monk and the Gun seeks a middle ground between East and West, the comforts of tradition with the knowledge that change cannot be put off forever. The extended climax is idealistic but convincing too. The meshing of ancient wisdom with a current understanding of how guns ruin civilisations is exactly the kind of simplistic but basic truth that the world needs at the moment. Play
Indian Express
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
What to watch on OTT: Vir Das: Fool Volume, The Monk and the Gun, Rematch and more
What to watch on OTT: Vir Das is back with a new Netflix special and the final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, here's you watch list for this weekend. Vir Das: Fool Volume Netflix Vir Das's brand-new special, Vir Das: Fool Volume, is filmed across Mumbai, New Delhi and London. With his signature cocktail of wit, wisdom, and total nonsense, he's here to remind us: in a world that takes itself too seriously, maybe being the fool is the smartest move. Reflecting on the journey behind his most personal special yet, Vir shares, 'This is a show rewritten in silence and performed without rehearsal across the world. Turns out the voice in your head is way crazier than the one in your throat.' This marks Vir's fifth Netflix special. The Monk and the Gun Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, The Monk and the Gun is a playful ensemble drama that explores the clash between embracing modernity while holding on to the past. Set in 2006, as the Kingdom of Bhutan was at the brink of transition to democracy, the film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. 'As the Kingdom of Bhutan is to become a democracy, a mock election is held as a training exercise. In the town of Ura, an old lama orders a monk to get a gun to face the imminent change in the kingdom. Meanwhile, an American collector is in search of a valuable gun that falls in the lama's hands,' reads its synopsis on MUBI. Dorji earlier directed the 2019 Academy Award-nominated Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. Untamed Netflix This limited series is a character-driven mystery thriller that follows Kyle Turner (Eric Bana), a special agent in an elite branch of the National Parks Service who works to enforce human law in nature's vast wilderness. The investigation of a brutal death sends Turner on a collision course with the dark secrets within the park, and in his own past. Created by Mark L. Smith (American Primeval, The Revenant) and Elle Smith (The Marsh King's Daughter), the mystery thriller follows a murder on the grounds of Yosemite. 'Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery, but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that,' co-showrunner Mark L. Smith tells Tudum. The Summer I Turned Pretty S3 Prime Video It's the end of the junior year of college, and Belly (Lola Tung) is looking forward to another summer in Cousins with her soulmate, Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno). Her future seems set, until some core-shaking events bring her first love Conrad (Christopher Briney) back into her life. Now on the brink of adulthood, Belly finds herself at a crossroads and must decide which brother has her heart. Based on the best-selling book trilogy from Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty is a multigenerational drama centered around a love triangle involving one girl and two brothers. The series premiered with the first two episodes on July 16, followed by weekly releases every Thursday until September 17. Rematch Lionsgate Play In 1997, the unthinkable happened: a supercomputer beat the greatest chess mind alive. Rematch recreates the historic showdown between world champion Garry Kasparov and IBM's pioneering supercomputer Deep Blue, in a gripping psychological drama that explores the limits of human intellect in an age of rising machines. This six-episode miniseries is directed by Yan England and stars Christian Cooke as Kasparov.
