In lieu of the normal two paragraphs on a movie this Thursday, we’re going to live dangerously and break the pattern in order to introduce Kanopy’s streaming service—since its a great resource for exploring film. Kanopy offer a truly incredible range of international cinema from a wide variety of geographies and distributors, including lots of Criterion Classics if you don’t have a Criterion membership. (To be clear, I have zero relationship with the good folks at Kanopy, just a bunch of admiration for the streaming service and its attempt to make complex, difficult, and compelling films available for free.)
This sounds like an infomercial because I think they’re cool and believe in the mission of good films for free. They’re particularly strong on contemporary documentaries, foreign film from the second half of the twentieth century until now, and independently produced and distributed American movies. In sum, Kanopy possesses a really neat, unique, and excellent catalog of films which offers the opportunity to idiosyncratically and independently explore the world of international cinema—which is way more fun than reading my musings on film anyway! Most importantly, it’s free if you have a US or UK library card from a participating library or if you have login credentials with an institution of higher learning, including alumni credentials. (This is true for a bunch of international universities as well.)
So head on over and watch something strange: https://www.kanopy.com/
Back at you next Monday with more films!