Men in Black: a sci-fi comedy sending up intel agencies and immigration issues
Barry Sonnenfeld, “Men in Black” (1997) Very loosely based on the original comic series of the same name, in which a secret organisation called The Men…
Comedy
Bad Black: car chases, kung fu, vengeance, the plight of orphans in poverty and social injustice all rolled into one film
Isaac G G Nabwana, “Bad Black” (2016) Despite the tiny budget – even less than its predecessor, “Who Killed Captain Alex?”, apparently being about US$85 –…
Elite commandos, Tiger Mafia gangsters and Ugandan Shaolin Temple monks go head to head in “Who Killed Captain Alex?”
Isaac G G Nabwana, “Who Killed Captain Alex?” (2010) Reputedly made on a budget of US$200 (though American-born Ugandan producer Alan Ssali Hofmanis admits the budget…
Attack on Nyege Nyege Island: mini action thriller short featuring killer King Kong kung-fu kicks
Isaac G G Nabwana, “Attack on Nyege Nyege Island” (2016) The tiny but already globally famous Ugandan film industry (known as Ugawood, taking after the manner…
Malacostraca: personal and career inadequacy, family breakdown and resentment leading to tragedy
Charles A Pieper, “Malacostraca” (2018) Playing like a conventional creature-feature horror flick with all the inconsistencies the genre often attracts – how on earth does the…
The Replacement: an inquiry into the nature-versus-nurture dilemma
Sean Miller, “The Replacement” (2018) What starts out as an investigation of the consequences of cloning in this sci-fi comedy short turns out almost to be…
Slut: a highly accomplished student film on teenage sexual awareness and the danger it attracts
Chloe Okuno, “Slut” (2014) Set in the 1970s, this cheesy morality tale is a meeting of Little Red Riding Hood and Southern US small-town Gothica in…
Bad Peter: the panopticon police state controlling an individual life to an astonishing degree
Zach Strauss, “Bad Peter” (2017) At first rather amusing but then quickly becoming sinister and horrific, this nine-minute short presents smart-home artificial intelligence (AI) as an…
French and French-language Films, Japanese Films
The Truth: where lies and deception are as important as truth in keeping families together
Hirokazu Kore-eda, “The Truth” (2019) Ironically truth is the one thing going missing in this gentle French comedy about a family whose members use lies and…
Apocalypse Now Now: where superstition and technology create monsters in a post-apocalyptic urban dystopia
Michael Mathews, “Apocalypse Now Now” (2017) Made as a proof-of-concept film on which a television series or a feature film will be based, “Apocalypse Now Now”…