film

“The Little Mermaid” was mired in controversy when it was announced that singer and actress Halle Bailey was cast as Disney’s new Ariel last year. Critics and internet trolls were enraged that the fantasy creature and former animated character was played by an African American actress. The sad thing is the trolls took the movie more seriously than necessary.

“Stonebreakers” by Italian director Valerio Ciriaci is a documentary chronicling the toppling of statues and monuments during the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election.

The Independent Film Festival Boston (IFFBoston) is back for its 20th year and is celebrating the milestone with its opening night film, “Love to Love You, Donna Summer,” directed by Oscar-winner Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, Donna Summer’s daughter. 

A.V. Rockwell wrote and directed her debut feature film “A Thousand and One,” which won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year. The film opens nationwide March 31.

“James Baldwin Abroad: A Program of 3 Films” opens at the Coolidge Corner Theatre on March 24. The digitally remastered short documentaries reveal snippets of the writer’s life and his personal reflections during his time abroad in Istanbul, Paris and London.

On Jan. 27, the Coolidge Corner Theatre awarded groundbreaking filmmaker Elegance Bratton the inaugural Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award for his visionary film “The Inspection.”

“Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space,” premieres on PBS Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 9 p.m. as part of the network’s “American Experience” series. A major writer and anthropologist, Hurston was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s.

Art historian, Flamenco dancer and cinematographer María Aliaga fell in love with the painter Remedios Varo 10 years ago. After a decade of research and creative devotion, she has channeled her feelings into a performative letter to the artist. “Querida Remedios” is a love letter written in Flamenco dance from Aliaga to Varo, and on Dec. 1, audiences can experience it on film at the Dance Complex in Cambridge.

In the wake of the recent news story of migrants shuttled unknowingly from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Emilio Rojas’s show “Emilio Rojas: tracing a wound through my body,” on view through Nov. 6 at Emerson College’s Emerson Contemporary, feels extremely timely.

This fall, the team behind the Boston Latino International Film Festival will debut CineFest Latino Boston, a new festival with similar goals to celebrate Latin American filmmakers and educate moviegoers about the diversity of the Latinx experience.

The Boston Ballet’s ÜNI public art installation will pop up in Grove Hall on Aug. 6 as part of the Boston Open Streets Initiative. The installation presents in a dome structure dance films and audio-visual artworks created by the ballet.

The Roxbury International Film Festival is back in person for its 24th year bringing independent films by diverse and underrepresented filmmakers to Boston.