Intimate Appraisal

SAT 11/29 Hail the Big Art Openings for the Big Art Event. Miami’s galleries and museums are hanging up their top guns for the arrival of Art Basel — and for the Museum of Contemporary Art that means a solo show from William Cordova: “No More Lonely Nights.” He’s known…

All Around the Neighborhood

Andean Region On the great-grandfather clock of time, 500 years is about a second. And in that second, European mestizos have managed to plunder this region of nearly all its mineral wealth, subjugate the Indian populations, and force on them Western laws and the Catholic Church. But if the recent…

FTAA: Survival Guides

Miami is known for its combustible mix of people from all points on the sociopolitical spectrum. At Home Depot the wealthy former somocista bumps into the Sandinista commander who appropriated his Managua mansion. The retired Medellín cocaine kingpin lives in the same Key Biscayne condo as the attorney general who…

Mystery Meet

MON 10/6 Food. You love it. But is it better enjoyed alone in the privacy of your home? Or with a group of, say, 15 other possibly lonely, possibly gregarious, possibly gluttonous food lovers just like you? For the last couple of weeks Ortanique on the Mile (278 Miracle Mile,…

Viva La Mexican Film

No matter on which side of the border you sit, it’s a bit uncomfortable to hear the small mustachioed Mexicano in Herod’s Law tell the tall gringo, “Don’t worry, we Mexicans are men of our word.” As any fan of old Westerns knows, the lying, scheming Mexican is as much…

Hombres in the Hood

Hunting of Man was originally titled Last Night in Miami, which tells you a little about the local connections of this film, screening as part of the Miami Latin Film Festival. The writer/director Joe Menendez is a Hialeah boy, and others involved in the production also hail from here. But…

Judging During Wartime

The first image most of us had of music and the Third Reich was watching each von Trapp tyke sing “auf Wiedersehen, good night,” bow off the stage, slip into the night, surmount a few low hurdles, and climb a couple of mountains to freedom. Loosely based on a true…

Art Attack

One of the world’s biggest and most prestigious art fairs is splash-landing in town today, and its arrival will mean a lot to you and me. Yes, Miami has long been a convention and tourist destination, but this event’s different. Art Basel, named after the Swiss city in which it…

Artburst

Sights, sounds, and movements will spill out of galleries and homes next week in the biggest showing of local art in Miami history. More than 200 artists will cram their photographs, installations, and paintings, their words, music, and actions into four small spaces — all of it brought together for…

See Queerly Now

So the issue of identity as a theme in a gay and lesbian festival may seem redundant — aren’t all gay films by nature dealing with sexual identity? Well, here comes a surprise at this year’s fest: Identity in a much broader sense is indeed the theme, including what should…

Gender Vender

Seems like only yesterday Miami had no Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. And here comes the third one. Like the previous two, this festival is stacked with movies of all shapes and sizes: They come in the form of documentaries, Hollywood features, short series, gay-themed, lesbian-themed, animation, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish,…

Out from Under the Mullahs

The big screen in these parts keeps getting better. For discriminating fans of fine cinema, the local independent theaters have been offering real treasures lately. Take the beautiful French-Canadian film Set Me Free at the Cosford, the Miami Film Festival hit East-West at Absinthe House, and the amazing double-shot opening…

Oh Canada

Why is it that foreign directors master the coming-of-age story much better than Americans? Maybe it’s because subtlety seems very unchildlike in this nation’s eyes, but subtlety is exactly what this genre needs, and what foreign films often give it. Case in point: the 1999 French-Canadian film Set Me Free…

Curtains for the Alliance Cinema?

It’s Tuesday night, a good time to catch a foreign film on the Beach. Hmm, isn’t the Alliance Cinema tucked away in this alcove on Lincoln Road? Can’t see a sign. Looks like a lot of tourists dining here…. Maybe it’s the next block down. Used to be able to…