Throughout the past three years, since the end of my first term, I have had the pleasure of writing for this paper, and the privilege of contributing to this film column. Now, in my fourth year and last month of university, I write this final issue and wonder, Where did the years go? When did I write any of these? How did time slip by? What should this theme be? Why do I still prioritise my articles over my assignments? and other thoughts of the sort. 

As a soon-to-be-grad, which also means a soon-to-be-no-longer-contributor-to-this-publication, I believe it is only fitting to dedicate this endmost piece to the most important lesson that I learnt during my post-secondary journey: life looks different for everyone, but regardless, life is not easy for anyone. 

We need films that encapsulate our moods, capture the everyday, and represent human experiences, embracing both the frightening and the fascinating in life, reminding us of not only the worthiness of living, but also the different ways living may look. 

Without further ado, a movie critic (avid Letterboxd user) and a film scholar (undergraduate with a Cinema Studies minor) presents the twelfth issue and concluding edition of Sam’s Showtime Schedule:

STORIES ABOUT LIVING.

PERFECT DAYS (2023) Dir. Wim Wenders

“Next time is next time. Now is now.” 

Oftentimes, it feels as if there is so much ahead, yet somehow not much to look forward to. German filmmaker Wim Wenders and Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho team up to create a charming film which poetically depicts this sentiment, and does so by depicting the ordinary. Specifically, the ordinary on a daily basis–its challenges and sense of routine. However, rather than mundaneness, Perfect Days portrays reality, from being alone or being around others, to working nonstop or having days off, as not only simple but also lovely. Meet Hirayama, a closed-off man in his solitary late 60s, who spends his days always in the same way–from waking up pre-dawn to cleaning the public toilets of Tokyo by day–and is content. The rich colour, personable soundtrack, and calm story takes a weight off of my shoulders, and reminds me that no matter how small or simple life may seem, we as humans are never truly small nor simple.

 

SCARBOROUGH (2021) Dir. Rich Williamson, Shasha Nakhai

“Community members are always in need.”

Three young children who reside in a low-income, tight-knit Toronto neighbourhood, in an adaptation of Catherine Hernandez’s 2017 novel by the same name, struggle with stability yet find friendship, build community, and radiate resilience over the course of a school year through an after-school program led by a supportive educator.

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES (2002) Dir. Patricia Cardoso

“I didn’t ask for you to give birth to me.”

A first-generation Mexican-American high school graduate receives a scholarship to move out of her home to study at university but must spend the summer stuck with parents who prefer that she stay at home to support the family, learning lessons along the way that teach her how to choose her future, from dealing with mother-daughter issues, to being a part of a working-class family, to accepting her body.  

THE BREADWINNER (2017) Dir. Nora Twomey

“Raise your words, not your voice.”

An eleven-year-old girl lives under Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2001, and upon the wrongful arrest of her father, cuts off her hair to disguise herself as a boy in order to provide for her family, discovering a world outside of her home full of freedom and simultaneous danger as she begins navigating her quest, relying on determination and hope. 

RICEBOY SLEEPS (2022) Dir. Anthony Shim

“If you cry or show weakness to people they will walk all over you.”

An immigrant single Korean mother moves to suburban Vancouver and raises her teenage son during the 90s in an effort to bring him a better life than the one she left behind, and while the family of two finds relationships to cherish and overcomes challenges of assimilation, they are not immune to the humiliations and miscommunications of marginalisation that cultural otherness consists of.  

 MOONLIGHT (2016) Dir. Barry Jenkins

“At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be.”

To tell a raw tale of the journey from boyhood to manhood, and do its complexities justice, is difficult. Much less in the context of intersecting masculinity with identities of poorness, queerness, and blackness to further resonate with the main themes of identity, sexuality, and community. However, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award Best Picture winner Moonlight, adapting Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unproduced play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, chronicles the life of a poor gay black man, and in so doing powerfully portrays a significant coming-of-age. Meet young “Little,” adolescent Chiron, and adult “Black” as they withstand poor socioeconomic status, domestic violence, drug abuse, the school-to-prison pipeline, queer identity struggles, and systemic racial norms in Miami. The story sheds light on the intersectionality of living in Florida during the late 80s by cleverly mixing music, geography, and cinematic elements–most notably colour theory and sound design–intertextually in a visual and narrative masterpiece that is careful and craftful. 

YI YI (2000) Dir. Edward Yang

“Life is a mixture of happy and sad things. Movies are so lifelike–that’s why we love them.”

Each member of the three generations of a middle-class Taiwanese family in Taipei, the Jian family–a father, a teenage daughter, and a young son–reconcile their relationships from both the past and present, on a daily basis, all in search of the meaning of what the modern world means, from careers to youthhood.

5 BROKEN CAMERAS (2012) Dir. Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi

“By healing, you resist oppression […] Forgotten wounds can’t be healed, so I film to heal.”

A Palestinian farmer buys his first camera in 2005 to record the birth of his youngest son, and following the violent destruction of each one of his cameras over five years of village turmoil, the filmmaker records his family’s evolution through first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil’in, a West Bank village under threat by encroaching Israeli settlements.

PARIAH (2011) Dir. Dee Rees

“I am not running. I am choosing.”

A seventeen-year-old black butch lesbian lives in Brooklyn as she firmly comes to terms with her identity and not only embraces herself, but also her desire for a first lover–however, at the same time, she lacks an ability to live freely as she cannot confide in her family, who do not approve of her clothes nor mannerisms nor friends, on top of being an already-strained household. 

KILLER OF SHEEP (1978) Dir. Charles Burnett

“Start learning what life is about now.”

A Watts resident in an urban African-American district of Los Angeles works exhaustive hours at a local slaughterhouse, then goes home to his unnamed wife and their two children where stress continues, and while the quiet lives of the family lack opportunity, such is showcased through episodic events of struggling to keep the family afloat and alive and wondering whether a better quality of life is possible.