Raquel Stecher

My good friends Erin, Diana and Jessica join me for a classic film chat. Shot in Atlanta, Georgia.
Erin - Miss Honey Hale on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/misshoneyhale/ and Twitter https://twitter.com/MissErinMcGee
Diana - Flickin Out Blog https://flickinoutblog.com @TheDameUpstairs on Twitter https://twitter.com/thedameups...

"We take care of our own."
Founded in 1921 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith, the Motion Picture and Television Fund Home (television was added later) seeks to care for members of the industry who were in need of full-time support. More than just a nursing home, the MPTF is a thriving community of retired visionaries. As Ted Witzer, former talent agent says, MPTF's community boasts "an incredible wealth of talent... just a little bit older."
Directed by U...

Hollywood screenwriters of the 1930s were predominately male but there were quite a few women behind the scenes writing original stories, adapting screenplays and contributing dialogue. Women screenwriters of the era included Adela Rogers St. Johns, Anita Loos, Frances Marion, Lois Weber, June Mathis and many others. About these writers, film historian Cari Beauchamp said, “women had always found a sanctuary in writing; it was accomplished in private and provided a creative vent when little was expected or accepted of a woman…”

I was at the SXSW premiere of Harmony Korine’s newest film The Beach Bum. Here are some photos of the film’s stars as they walked the red carpet.
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On May 18, 1926, celebrity evangelist Sister Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared. Presumed drowned in Ocean Park Beach, Santa Monica, the news of her disappearance caused a national frenzy. Just as her devoted followers were ready to mourn her death, she resurfaced over a month later claiming that a woman named Mexicali Rose and a man named Steve kidnapped her and held her hostage. When she returned, the story of her escape raised some eyebrows and while Sister Aimee stuck to her story there w...

Entrevista con Catalina Arroyave Restrepo, directora de la película Los días de la ballena
Letícia Magalhães
Mar 16
Este es un guest post de Raquel Stecher.
Los días de la ballena fue escrita, dirigida y producida por la cineasta colombiana Catalina Arroyave Restrepo. Este es un comienzo auspicioso para lo que espero sea una carrera larga y productiva. Arroyave estudió comunicación y cine en Colombia, Argentina y Cuba y ofrece una perspectiva nueva y fresca al cine latinoamericano.
Tuve la op...

“There’s this push for your faith to be fully integrated into your person, into your identity.”
David Bazan on being Evangelical Christian
In 2006, Christian Rock star David Bazan left his band Pedro the Lion to pursue a solo career. Bazan’s entire world had been deeply entrenched in Evangelical Christianity. When he begins to question his belief and ultimately loses his faith he struggles to find a way to maintain his music career and support his family.
Director Brandon Vedder’s documentary...

Dana (Noëlle Schönwald) is a prostitute living in Quito, Ecuador. She’s beautiful and smart and a favorite of her clients. But Dana harbors dark secrets. She sells her body to make enough money to support her terminally ill daughter and her own addiction to pharmaceutical drugs. And most of her funds go to her pimp, mob boss and human trafficker Nelson (Jaime Tamariz). On one visit to Nelson’s secret compound, Dana witnesses a child being transported from room to room. The young girl was kidn...

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of unforgettable singer, pianist and all-around entertainer Nat King Cole. A pioneer in the music industry, Cole was a trailblazer who paved the way for artists to follow. He overcame adversity and prejudice to become one of the most beloved musicians of his time. Even though his death at the age of 45 took him away far too soon, his legacy has made him immortal.

“These people have let you into their lives… to violate that trust is criminal.”
Jim Marshall (1936-2010)
In Jim Marshall’s illustrious career as the photographer to the stars, he captured some of the most enduring images of Rock-n-Roll legends. He elevated artists with quality photographs, capturing their images with a level of intimacy that required trust and an attention to detail that signaled respect. And that’s what these artists had with Jim Marshall, a mutual admiration. The musicians...

Relationships are messy. They’re not these uniform experience with clear beginnings, middles and ends. When you invest your emotions into another person and that partnerships ends, it’s not a clean break. Especially when children are involved.
Director Hilary Brougher’s South Mountain is a beautiful, quiet film about a couple’s break-up and its repercussions. It stays true to the messy nature of family dynamics. It follows the story of Lila (Talia Balsam), an artist living in the Catskills w...

“We are the hustlers.”
Director Ben Asamoah’s new documentary Sakawa explores the underground world of Ghanian internet scammers. They gather in a room sharing one source of internet and electricity and using smartphones and computer equipment that they’ve salvaged. The scammers work individually on different projects but advise each other on how to improve their techniques to get the most money out of their victims. By creating fake online personas and focusing on profile types, mostly cauca...

Ariel (Lucia Bedoya) is a Venezuelan woman going through an incredibly painful time in her life. Her day job as a dressmaker finds her surrounded by judgmental women in a stifling environment. At night she cares for her dying mother (Maria Elena Duque). The film opens with Ariel having her first sexual encounter, one that leaves her bleeding and in pain for days. With everything else that’s going on, why is her body betraying her?
What Ariel doesn’t know but something the audience learns with...

“All I want to do is race cars.”
Janet Guthrie
Adventurous and determined, Janet Guthrie is a trailblazer in the auto racing world. As the first woman to race the Indy 500, she faced an uphill battle to break the gender barrier in the late 1970s. Her career was plagued with setbacks; from mechanical failures, to lack of sponsorship that kept her out of races, to injuries and the biggest of all was the engrained belief that women could not physically be race car drivers.
Guthrie is a fearless ...

“She is a prophet for Mexican food.”
Cookbook author and chef Diana Kennedy is the leading expert on traditional Mexican cooking. For over 60 years, Kennedy has immersed herself in Mexican culture and food, learning and respecting the traditions of one of the most celebrated cuisines. This feisty and unapologetic British woman may be an outsider looking in but because she has lived in rural Mexico, in Zitácuaro, Michoacán, for most of her life and sticks to the tried and true approaches to di...