Exposure

A little recap of my weekend at the 38th Annual Virginia Film Festival where I saw films like Hamnet, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, and more.

It’s September, which means it’s time for the Toronto International Film Festival! In this episode, I share my experience on the ground at TIFF — from the atmosphere of the festival to some of the highlights of the trip so far. I also dive into a few standout films I’ve seen, including Kahlil Joseph’s  BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions , which I had the chance to discuss with him (25:20). We talked a...

Mid-year dispatch time! In this episode I talk about my five favorite movies of 2025... at least so far.

In this episode, I sit down with my friends from the Hard Light Cinema crew, Lewis Peterson and Kyle Mayo-Blake, to talk about two landmark works of the L.A. Rebellion: Charles Burnett’s  Killer of Sheep  and Zeinabu Irene Davis’ Compensation . We dig into the visceral and poetic realism of Burnett’s vision, the radical tenderness of Davis’ storytelling, and how the L.A. Rebellion reimagines Black...

In this episode, we're talking about June's series of films, In Bloom , a series of films from around the world that I want us to use to reframe and explore the complexities of the coming-of-age experience. The series explores the transformative power of these periods in our lives to uncover narrative, visual, and sonic connections that run through each of them. We're often told that c...

In this episode, we sink our teeth into the haunting, cryptic, and ever-engaging lineage of the Black vampire in cinema. From Ganja & Hess  to  Blade, from Def By Temptation to Suicide by Sunlight, we explore how Black filmmakers and actors have reimagined, reframed, and reconfigured the vampire—not just as monster or metaphor, but as a site of inheritance, reckoning, resistance, and transform...

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Abby Giuseppe to discuss our new collaborative series, Teknoerotica. In an era where technology touches every aspect of human life, the intersection of sex, identity, and automation raises pressing questions: How does technology reshape desire? What happens when the boundary between human and machine blurs? Can intimacy persist in a world mediated by ar...

In this episode, we’re diving into the world of Bong Joon-ho ahead of the release of  Mickey 17 . We’ll explore his incisive class commentary, visual language and iconography, and approach to genre storytelling—plus, what exactly makes his films stand out in an era where auteur-driven mainstream filmmaking has struggled to thrive. We’ll also dive into his early career in the 2000s Korean film scen...

Welcome back! In this episode, we're diving deep into the L.A. Rebellion—a groundbreaking movement that redefined Black independent cinema. This episode comes ahead of  Foundations: The L.A. Rebellion and the Birth of a New Black Cinema , our Black History Month screening series at Ours in Richmond, Virginia, running throughout February. We’ll explore the origins of the movement, the visionary...

2024 has come to a close, and that means it's time to look back at the best films from this past year. We start with a quick recap of this past weekend's Golden Globes (1:16), followed by a discussion about the best cinema from the last 12 months (7:30).

In this belated episode, I talk about some of the most noteworthy releases from this past October and November (1:03). Plus, it’s time for our very first film festival dispatch! Join me as I spotlight some of the best films from the 2024 Virginia Film Festival (31:12).

In this episode I talk about some of my favorite films of the Summer (and a few that weren't so good but still need some attention). Also... a quick Fall 2024 preview!

Welcome back. As part of our continuing 90's Neo-noir series, we're taking a look at Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1997 masterpiece, CURE, staring Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara, Tsuyoshi Ujiki, and Anna Nakagawa. Yakusho stars as Takabe, a detective unraveling a series of brutal murders, each marked by an "X" carved into the victims' bodies. The only link: a mysterious drifter. Kuro...

In this mid-year dispatch I talk a bit about some of my favorite films of the year.

Welcome to the Exposure Cinema Podcast. In this episode, the first in our 90's Neo-noir series, we'll be talking a bit about Hype Williams' 1998 classic BELLY. The film has now been rightfully reclaimed as challenging, complex, and undeniable piece within both Black and Neo-noir cinema, but it hasn't always been that way. We'll talk about the film's style, narrative structu...