What does it mean to taste sound, or connect it to other senses besides hearing? Some individuals have synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon, in which music, for example, allows the listener to see musical notes in different shades of colors. Scientists also believe that even individuals who do not have synesthesia actually can experience similar effects … Read more
The ambitious objectives for all the student film teams participating in this year’s 17th annual PitchNic project for Spy Hop Productions paid handsomely in a solid quartet of short films, all of which are worthy to submit to competitive film festivals nationally and even internationally. The films premiered Nov. 7 at a sold-out house in … Read more
Cameron Baer, 19, a Provo High School graduate, nearly quit the PitchNic class at Spy Hop Productions this year. He had successfully pitched the concept for one of the short films to be made in the year-long class. It is a fictional narrative based in part about obsessions and anxieties that can skew one’s perceptions … Read more
At the center of Cole Sax’s short documentary Second Sight, the story of Virgilio and Joanly Lahioan and their four children in the Philippines eloquently conveys the human impact of broad questions that researchers have sought to answer by empirical evidence. Does poverty perpetuate poor health? Does poor eye health deepen poverty? How and why? … Read more
Continuing a month of free, public screenings dealing with big issues, two documentary films along with talkback sessions – one on white nationalism and the other about the traumatic impacts of child abuse – will be presented by the Utah Film Center. They are the award-winning White Right: Meeting the Enemy (2017), directed by Deeyah … Read more
Thirty years ago, in an issue of The Lancet medical research journal, the results of a 10-year study by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley were published on the effects of group therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer in terms of their survival rates. They found that those patients … Read more
When the documentary Anthropocene: The Human Epoch premiered last year at the Toronto International Film Festival and then was screened last January at the Sundance Film Festival, it attracted much attention for its incredible cinematography capturing the immense scope of what humans have wrought on the planet. Since then the documentary has been picked up … Read more
Cinema always has been viewed as one of the most potential media to transport audiences to new landscapes, characters, identities and truths. With the addition of virtual reality, the individual audience member is immersed in a different person’s world that compels an intensified sense of empathetic connection. The Camden International Film Festival, for example, has … Read more
The 16th Utah Film Center’s Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival will feature a world premiere of Gracefully, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Arash Eshaghi, which has been banned in Iran. The Utah Review was privileged to screen this documentary, as mentioned last week in the preview of the film festival, which is set in rural Iran and … Read more
A Zen poem from Chinese literature by Sengcan: The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. If you wish to see the truth, then hold … Read more