New episode + the latest New Essentials screening + Tubi!
Dear Last Thing I Sawfolk,
This week I talk to the director of Ukraine war documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his video journalism during the murderous Russian siege of the city. His feature-length documentary debut is an incredible film that you should see on the big screen if you can. I talk to Chernov about the challenges of making a feature documentary about the subject. He also shares some very interesting influences from fiction and documentary filmmaking.
It’s also time to announce the latest New Essentials screening at the Roxy Cinema in New York: Headless Woman, the beguiling 2008 drama from Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel. Link provided below, so come on out!
And finally it’s been a busy week for writing, including a feature about Tubi. Thanks as always to all my supporters!
Yours,
Nic
THE PODCAST
Mstyslav Chernov on Ukraine documentary 20 Days in Mariupol (Ep. 190)
Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol, was a video journalist for the Associated Press who stayed in the city when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. The AP journalists were the last from an international organization to remain in the city, and Chernov and his team were able to film the people and the streets during Russia’s brutal siege and bombardment, which killed civilians. Chernov and his colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting, but 20 Days in Mariupol goes beyond news clips to give an even fuller, tense chronicle of these days. Winner of a Sundance audience award, 20 Days in Mariupol is playing at Film Forum as part of a national tour.
Episodes of The Last Thing I Saw are also available at other podcast places such as Spotify.
For more information on the podcast’s opening and closing music by The Minarets (gratefully used with permission), follow the band on Instagram:
@theminaretsmusic
RECENT WORK
For The New York Times, I wrote about Tubi and its wealth of low-budget independent films showcasing Black talent, including some no-holds-barred melodramas and a new initiative called Black Noir Cinema. I highlight a couple of titles like Cinnamon and Locked In.
For W Magazine, I chatted with Paula Beer, a star of Afire, Christian Petzold’s acclaimed new film, a kind of summer comedy where reality intrudes.
Also for the Times, I reviewed Black Ice, a documentary about Black hockey players in Canada, their achievements, and the history of discrimination they’ve experienced.
And at the Roxy Cinema in August, I’ll be presenting another New Essentials screening: Headless Woman, a haunting drama directed by Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel and starring the late Maria Onetto. Come on out!
THIS CRITIC’S PICKS
Buffalo 66 (MUBI)
Time Without Pity (Criterion)
California Split (MUBI)
Mother of George (Criterion)
The Human Surge (Metrograph)
THE END
Here I may end with a song. Starring Sofia Coppola.
ABOUT ME
Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw! I’m your host, Nicolas Rapold.
Besides hosting the podcast, I’m a writer and an editor. My features, interviews, festival reports, and reviews are published in The New York Times, Screen Slate, Sight & Sound, Filmmaker, Air Mail, and W Magazine. (Plus dearly departed publications such as The Village Voice, Stop Smiling, The New York Sun, and The L Magazine.) For notes on past programming, drop me a line.
On the editorial side, I worked as editor-in-chief of Film Comment magazine, where I was in editorial for 15 years in all. There I assigned and edited both web and print, hosted The Film Comment Podcast and Talks, curated and hosted Film Comment Selects screenings, learned from brilliant writers, and wrote a lot, including interviews with Spike Lee, Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Pedro Costa, and Frederick Wiseman. Film Comment received the Film Heritage Award from the National Society of Film Critics.
Feel free to get in touch re: writing, editing, moderating, programming, podcasting, etc.
nicolas.rapold@gmail.com