General David Petraeus is a details man. Over the course of two hours at Town Hall last night, the former Commanding General in Iraq spat out more names, dates, facts, and figures than we knew what to do with. This is why we have to make an concerted effort to remember a new acquaintance’s name while Petraeus currently serves as the Commander of U.S. Central Command. more ›

We'll preface this review by saying that we absolutely loved Ali Sethi's debut novel The Wish Maker. The fact that he is only 24 years old and could produce such a well-written, excellent debut novel is just outstanding. more ›

It took filmmaker Jennifer Fox four years, seventeen countries, and 1,600 hours of footage (which she whittled down to 6 hours of film) to fully cover the cross-cultural confusion of modern womanhood. The project didn't start out that high-minded; Jennifer was dating two men and not entirely happy with either, which led to an identity crisis that inspired her travels exploring what it means to be a woman today. The result is her sweeping, compelling tour de force Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman. Along her journey, there’s a lot of girl-talk over food and drinks, and in that way, Flying is a slow-moving and much smarter version of Sex and the City, where Carrie Bradshaw eschews the contrivance of writing a newspaper column and just addresses the camera directly. But at the same time, it’s a state of the union on the current female experience, covering everything from physical and sexual abuse, orgasm, sex trafficking, honor killing, female genital mutilation, in vitro fertilization, abortion, and marriage. more ›

And then there was Downloading Nancy. Whether you loved it or had serious issues with it (we fell into the latter camp), everyone agreed that the film is beyond "difficult" to watch. Deliberately so: loosely based on a true story, the topic is a wretched woman (Maria Bello, fearless as always), full of pain and desperate for a way out of her current situation. The film delves into Nancy's mental illness and the tenuous relationship that comes to exist between her husband (Rufus Sewell) and the new man in her life (Jason Patric). Downloading Nancy is provocative, and the violent images of cutting and other self-inflicted sadism caused quite a few audience members to walk out, some in tears. The entire film is bruised--master cinematographer Christopher Doyle provided sallow tones of yellow and blue. Sure, it's well-made, but with its dark tone and subject matter (and shades of misogyny), how exactly do you market such a downer? more ›

SIFF enters its second full week with a slew of great documentaries, including the final screening of fair trade coffee doc Black Gold (Tuesday, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian). The directors, Marc and Nick Francis, will be in attendance, as will Tadesse Meskela, an Ethiopian Farm Cooperative Organizer featured in the film. The SIFF screenings mark the first time the directors and subject have been together since the making of the film---and the first time Meskela has seen the film on the big screen. more ›