Cauleen Smith’s 1998 debut about a California girl who takes Polaroids of young black men as an endangered-species record, is captivating
The title is an African American term from the US south meaning “ordinary” or “ordinariness” – but there’s nothing ordinary about this 1998 indie from artist and film-maker Cauleen Smith, rereleased for its 25th anniversary. Smith shot it in her 20s while still in grad school at UCLA, and maybe the film does have a distinctive film-school project feel with its DIY aesthetic. But there is a captivating kind of innocence in its walking-pace narrative, its indifference to the irony and self-awareness that was fashionable in independent cinema at the time, and in the unaffected charm and guilelessness of its performances.
Toby Smith plays Pica, a girl who lives with her mother and grandmother in a chaotic house near Oakland, California, where she is enrolled in a photography class; instead...
The title is an African American term from the US south meaning “ordinary” or “ordinariness” – but there’s nothing ordinary about this 1998 indie from artist and film-maker Cauleen Smith, rereleased for its 25th anniversary. Smith shot it in her 20s while still in grad school at UCLA, and maybe the film does have a distinctive film-school project feel with its DIY aesthetic. But there is a captivating kind of innocence in its walking-pace narrative, its indifference to the irony and self-awareness that was fashionable in independent cinema at the time, and in the unaffected charm and guilelessness of its performances.
Toby Smith plays Pica, a girl who lives with her mother and grandmother in a chaotic house near Oakland, California, where she is enrolled in a photography class; instead...
- 5/6/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In Drylongso, Pica (Toby Smith) coughs her way through each day. She goes to photography class at the local college, works nights putting up posters for various missing persons and political organizers, and survives in a household with her mother and grandmother, along with an open-door assortment of the former’s friends. Her sickness becomes an afterthought, a part of her character that cannot be fixed, treated, or resolved.
Pica documents the Black men in her neighborhood in Oakland, several of which have gone missing or have been murdered by an anonymous serial killer. She asks them, “Can I take your picture?” pulls out her Polaroid camera, and snaps a shot, keeping them in a rubber-banded stack in her backpack. Her photography, and her extended art, can be seen as a way of documentation, but also as remembrance. Funerals keep happening, but at least these young Black men dying have this “evidence of existence,...
Pica documents the Black men in her neighborhood in Oakland, several of which have gone missing or have been murdered by an anonymous serial killer. She asks them, “Can I take your picture?” pulls out her Polaroid camera, and snaps a shot, keeping them in a rubber-banded stack in her backpack. Her photography, and her extended art, can be seen as a way of documentation, but also as remembrance. Funerals keep happening, but at least these young Black men dying have this “evidence of existence,...
- 3/16/2023
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
One of the long-overlooked gems of 1990s indie filmmaking, Cauleen Smith’s Drylongso has now been restored in 4K from The Criterion Collection, Janus Films, and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A poignant and vibrant look at the life of an art student as she deals with academia, friendship, romance, and death circling around her, every frame of the dazzling new restoration pops. Now set for a theatrical release kicking off at Film at Lincoln Center on March 17, the new trailer and poster have arrived.
“A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Afrofuturist art star Cauleen Smith’s film embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie-murder mystery-romance,” reads the official synopsis. “Observing the alarming rate at which the young Black men around her are dying—indeed, “becoming extinct,” as she sees it—brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) begins preserving their existence in Polaroid snapshots,...
“A lost treasure of 1990s DIY filmmaking, Afrofuturist art star Cauleen Smith’s film embeds an incisive look at racial injustice within a lovingly handmade buddy movie-murder mystery-romance,” reads the official synopsis. “Observing the alarming rate at which the young Black men around her are dying—indeed, “becoming extinct,” as she sees it—brash Oakland art student Pica (Toby Smith) begins preserving their existence in Polaroid snapshots,...
- 3/1/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Florida-based global esports and entertainment company Misfits Gaming Group has signed Twitch streamers Ranboo and Tubbo, expanding its roster of Minecraft content creators.
Ranboo, who keeps his real name private, boasts 4.2 million followers on Twitch, 2 million followers on Instagram and 2.7 followers on Twitter. U.K.-based Tubbo, whose real name is Toby Smith, touts 4.8 million followers on the streaming platforms, 2.3 million followers on Instagram and 3.2 million Twitter followers.
“[Tubbo] and [Ranboo] are amazing entertainers but even better humans with incredible core values that match me and my company,” tweeted Misfits Founder and CEO Ben Spoont.
Additional Minecraft content creators on Misfits’ roster are Aimsey, Snifferish and Seapeekay.
Misfits Gaming Group also boasts esports leagues for titles including League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Fortnite. Mgg was founded by Spoont in partnership with Syfy Channel founders Laurie Silvers and Mitch Rubenstein.
Such a huge day for @MisfitsGG — @TubboLive and @Ranboosaysstuff are...
Ranboo, who keeps his real name private, boasts 4.2 million followers on Twitch, 2 million followers on Instagram and 2.7 followers on Twitter. U.K.-based Tubbo, whose real name is Toby Smith, touts 4.8 million followers on the streaming platforms, 2.3 million followers on Instagram and 3.2 million Twitter followers.
“[Tubbo] and [Ranboo] are amazing entertainers but even better humans with incredible core values that match me and my company,” tweeted Misfits Founder and CEO Ben Spoont.
Additional Minecraft content creators on Misfits’ roster are Aimsey, Snifferish and Seapeekay.
Misfits Gaming Group also boasts esports leagues for titles including League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Fortnite. Mgg was founded by Spoont in partnership with Syfy Channel founders Laurie Silvers and Mitch Rubenstein.
Such a huge day for @MisfitsGG — @TubboLive and @Ranboosaysstuff are...
- 2/3/2022
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- Deadline Film + TV
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