If you’ve had to watch a film for a class, you’re probably familiar with the streaming service Kanopy. But did you know there’s more to the site than old French cinema and niche documentaries? No offense if that’s your vibe, but for anyone looking for something fresh to watch or a topical documentary to learn from, look no further.
- in the mood for love (2000)
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This iconic work of Hong Kong cinema can be described in three words: gorgeous, tender, and heartbreaking. In the Mood For Love tells the story of two people kept apart by their own restraint, while edging closer and closer to each other. Tony Leung plays a wistful yet cautious man, and Maggie Cheung stars opposite as a similarly cautious but curious woman. The beautiful camera work is never showy but reveals the pair’s underlying intimacy with barely a shot of them touching.
Bonus: For Chinese speakers, there’s a interesting mix of Cantonese, Mandarin, and Shanghainese used among various characters!
- holding ground: the rebirth of dudley street (1996)
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Moving on to a documentary, this film is a showcase of Boston’s own history in the Roxbury neighborhood around Dudley Street. The grassroots campaign to revitalize the neighborhood arose from a demand of the people who live there to control their own fates, fighting against the top-down approach city hall attempts to take. The documentary interviews the residents who doubled as activists, along with urban planners and government officials to break down how the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) and their work came to be.
Bonus: The DSNI is still active in Boston, and you can find their current work here.
- toni morrison: the pieces I am (2019)
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As I’m sure is the case with many others, reading Toni Morrison’s work was a pivotal moment of my life. The Pieces I Am is an honest and expansive look at Morrison’s life and work, detailing her childhood, writing process, and thoughts to show just how her great novels came into existence. Watching this feels like taking a walk with Morrison, as her own words make up much of the dialogue.
Bonus: Many other prolific writers and poets are featured throughout the documentary, so look up some of these authors to find your next read.
- parasite (2019)
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Parasite, the Oscar-winning film by director Bong Joon-Ho is available on a laptop near you. We follow the Kim family and their scheme to work for the wealthy Park family, while an unsettling current runs under this relationship. This drama is an unflinching, meticulous stream of consciousness, hitting all the right beats at exactly the right second. With no time to be bored, every second of Parasite demands attention yet maintains the eerie and peaceful tension of an exhilarating psychological drama.
Bonus: Look for the symbols of levels and lines on your second screening to really be impressed with Bong’s crowning achievement.
- the central park five (2012)
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An excerpt from Kanopy’s synopsis: “THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. This Peabody Award winning film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.”
Check out Kanopy from time to time, as the library adds to their collection every semester!
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