Milestone – Stream On Demand

Seret Scott and Bill Gunn in the landmark feature film debut by Kathleen Collins

‘Losing Ground’ – The landmark American indie on Criterion Channel

!Featured, African-American filmmakers, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, Directed by Women, drama, DVD, Have You Seen...?, Milestone Video, socially aware cinema, SVOD 05/08/2022 Sean Axmaker

The sole feature directed by Kathleen Collins is a film of conversation and argument, of relationships and self-knowledge, and its sexual politics are as sophisticated as its personal odysseys.

Tommy Reynolds and Homer Nish in Kent Mackenzie's THE EXILES (1961). Charles Burnett and Sherman Alexie present a Milestone Films release. The film was restored from the original 35mm materials by Ross Lipman and the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

‘The Exiles’ on Criterion Channel and Kanopy

!Featured, American Independent Cinema, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, drama, DVD, Free, Kanopy, National Film Registry, socially aware cinema 11/16/2021 Sean Axmaker

Kent Mackenzie’s 1961 independently produced drama, chronicles the lives of urban American Indians (all of them non-actors drawing from their own lives) in the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles.

Anna Pavlova stars in the 1916 silent movie epic directed by Lois Weber

‘The Dumb Girl of Portici’ – Lois Weber’s silent blockbuster on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Blu-ray, Classic Movie, Criterion Channel, Directed by Women, DVD, historical, Milestone, Milestone Video, silent film 06/29/2021 Sean Axmaker

The first blockbuster helmed by a woman director in Hollywood, The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), based on the opera by Daniel Auber, presents the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova in her only feature film performance. It was not uncommon to cast luminaries of stage, opera, and other performing arts in movies as they evolved from […]

‘Araya’ – a landmark of poetic nonfiction on Criterion Channel

!Featured, Cannes winner, Criterion Channel, Documentary, DVD, Have You Seen...?, International Classics, socially aware cinema 04/26/2021 Sean Axmaker

This 1959 portrait of an ancient existence in the modern world is a beautiful tone poem with narration to match.

Shirley Clarke directs this pioneering American independent film

Shirley Clarke’s landmark ‘The Connection’ on Criterion Channel

!Featured, adapted from the stage, American Independent Cinema, Blu-ray, Criterion Channel, Cult Movies, Directed by Women, DVD, socially aware cinema, SVOD 02/02/2020 Sean Axmaker

The Connection (1962), the debut feature from Shirley Clarke, turns a stage play originally produced by New York’s revolutionary Living Theater as a play within a play into an innovative work of cinema. Clarke was a pioneering American independent filmmaker before that label was even invented and her work was unpreserved and largely unavailable until […]

Silents Please: Lois Weber restored and ‘The Covered Wagon’ on Blu-ray

Blu-ray, Directed by Women, DVD, Kino Lorber, Milestone, silent film 03/10/2018 Sean Axmaker 2 Comments

Shoes (Milestone, Blu-ray, DVD) The Dumb Girl of Portici (Milestone, Blu-ray, DVD) The Covered Wagon (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD) Lois Weber holds a place in film history as the first major woman film director in Hollywood. What’s often forgotten in that honor is the talent that gave her a successful 25 year making films for […]