2024 Almeria Western Film Festival
Western film fans and curious onlookers gathered last week in Tabernas for the 14th Almeria Western Film Festival.
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Studio Visit Caochangdi and Songzhuang
10 Years ago, thanks to the China Culture Center in Beijing, I had the opportunity to join a series of visits to artist studios in Caochangdi and Songzhuang. The artwork and spaces pictured here include those of photographer Wang Qingsong, painters Huang Yin and Huo Qing, and sculptor Wang Yiqiong, […]
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Spartacus in Spain
At a time when Hollywood studios and independent producers were looking to shoot overseas to save costs and highlight exotic locations, Spartacus was supposed to show that an epic film could be made without leaving California. But Director Stanley Kubrick insisted on shooting the battle scenes in Spain. Kubrick envisioned […]
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A Day at the Shanghai Film Studio
Several years ago while visiting the Shanghai Film Studio, I photographed these actors on their lunch break. All dressed in identical black suits, they were part of a gangster film set in 1930s Shanghai. On this day, the studio was buzzing with activity. The gangster film was shooting a car […]
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125 Years of Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca was born in 1898, and earlier this year marked the 125th anniversary of his birth. When he was 30 years old, Spanish newspapers covered a sensational story from a remote corner of Andalucia. Twenty six year old bride Francisca Cañadas Morales was due to marry a local […]
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Anthropology of the Moving Image
A new book looks at movie landscapes: Arnd Schneider, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo has published widely on contemporary art and anthropology. His latest book, Expanded Visions: A New Anthropology of the Moving Image, brings together a set of essays on anthropology, ethnography and film. One […]
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The Story of El Condor
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I put together this short video about one of my favorite film sets in Almería, which appears in “Once Upon a Time in Almeria: The Legacy of Hollywood in Spain” (Daylight Books 2017).
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WW84 in Spain
In Wonder Woman 1984, Diana Prince appears to be in semi-retirement, working at the Smithsonian Institution as an expert in ancient civilizations while playing mall cop in her spare time. But she is soon faced with a new challenge when an ancient Dreamstone shows up, granting wishes while creating havoc. […]
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El Astronauta
This 1970 Spanish comedy follows Pepe (Tony LeBlanc), a small town dreamer who, after watching the US moon landing on television, decides to build his own rocket to the moon. Amazingly, after numerous setbacks, he finally blasts off into space before coming to a rough landing in a desolate lunar […]
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Shanghai Film Studio’s ‘Nanjing Road’
If you’ve seen a film or TV show set in period Shanghai, you’ve probably seen this three block long stretch of 1930s-era Nanjing Road. Originally constructed with Taiwanese financing for Chen Kaige’s “Temptress Moon” in 1995, it’s been reused for numerous films from Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution” to future science fiction film “Looper.” I created a brief video retrospective on the many lives of this movie set. Click on the viewer above to watch.
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