American Fiction 2023
A novelist fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
A novelist fed up with the establishment profiting from "Black" entertainment uses a pen name to write a book that propels him into the heart of hypocrisy and the madness he claims to disdain.
Thad Beaumont is the author of a highly successful series of violent pulp thrillers written under the pseudonym of ‘George Stark’, but when he decides to ‘kill-off’ his alter-ego in a mock ceremony, it precipitates a string of sadistic murders matching those in his pulp novels, which are soon discovered to be the work of Stark himself. Looking like a maniacal version of his counterpart, Stark is not so willing to quit the writing game – even if it means coming after Thad's wife and their baby.
Published in Paris in 1954, Story of O was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994 Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered, dowdy editor for France’s prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her authorship. Pola Rapaport explores Aury's inspiration, recreating the world of '50s literary Paris and setting it against dramatic sequences that bring the infamous book to life. The author as well as various French intellectuals expound on the thorny relationship between sexuality and power, submission and freedom, liberation and non-being.
Alma regrets not having touched the person she loves, but nevertheless, maybe that was the best thing. If they were together, the kiss that she seeks would have been lost. In the short film, the image narrates some facts and the sounds illustrate others – two possible paths from a gesture that changes everything. By image: Alma dared to speak with Duna, they started a relationship, they were together. But after a while they argue and separate. Alma ends alone. By sound: Alma regrets not having dared to speak with Duna, believing that they had been together forever. Alma still has the memory of Duna in her memory, but one day she meets a person who really loves her.