The mere dichotomy between these two (of many) opinions showcases just how complicated one decolonial effort can be. Dahomey captures this effectively by incorporating long scenes of pure discussion. We see the faces that speak these ideas, the hands that created these objects, and the objects' spirits and how they impact the their diverse audiences. Although the film captures the “superficial” and immediate effects of one case of repatriation, it makes us think about the long-lasting effects of how museums try to decolonize. To me, the film says, if these are the conversations sprouting from repatriation at this moment, to what extent will they be in the next ten, fifty, or one hundred years? What is the future of museums, and how do we decolonize them properly and sensitively?

Regardless of their age, the Maya women are the fighters of Guatemala, and will not let a corrupt government nor genocide eliminate their power. From these women, we can learn how sacred values manifest themselves in their quotidian. This ancestral connection is something unique to indigenous cultures across the Americas. They continue to utilize their ideologies, ones untainted by Western cultures, to possess the power to be activists and defend their rights in society. We learn that this indigenous fight is an eternal one that will continue to prove indestructible.

Una pregunta que me sigo preguntando es ¿qué puedo aprender si un día, no lo puedo aprender en clase? Con el ayudo de Alberto y Profe, encontré la respuesta: la cultura. Ya sea el baile, los idiomas o recetas de cocina, todo puede ser transmitido por voz. Y esto lo sabemos porque nosotros somos prueba viviente de su éxito. 

Queens native Adrien Brody is an actor with decades of experience under his belt. Being of Polish and Jewish descent helped him land many of the roles for which he has become famous. His trajectory as an actor, however, is not as satisfying as one might think. Brody began his acting career at the age of 15 when he got his role in a low-budget short film Home at Last. As he started to get noticed by other filmmakers, Brody had been cast in smaller roles in less notable movies. It was in the late 90s when Brody finally got consistent roles in a variety of films that, for the most part, people enjoyed. For example, Steven Soderbergh’s 1993 King of the Hill and Terrence Malick’s 1998 The Thin Red Line, have an average of 3.9 stars on film-enthusiast app, Letterboxd. On March 28th, 2003, Brody’s whole world changed. He was cast to be the protagonist of a Roman Polanski Holocaust movie titled The Pianist. No one could have expected the grandeur of Brody’s performance in this film. The film did spectacularly well and won three Oscars at the 75th Academy Awards—one of them being Adrien Brody winning Best Actor. With its timeless success as a film accompanied by astonishing visuals and musical representations of an important history, one would think that the name Adrien Brody would be widely recognized like those of greats like Brad Pitt or Leo DiCaprio. To everyone’s surprise, just as quickly as Brody gained fame, he fell out of it.

Although seemingly not a petrifying or, for that matter, new narrative, what makes this film so successful is its use of imagination. Although the idea that the house was haunted was established early in the film, the demon’s screen presence totals only about ten minutes. Every other time the demon is mentioned, or is a part of the scene, it is not shown. This strategy makes imagination the real fear factor. Through showcasing the demon's evil capabilities, like possessing a body, destroying the house, and physically abusing people, we can only imagine what it looks like. In the case of The Conjuring, less is more. And frankly, once we see the demon, it disappoints. Not only is the demon not scary, but it also so closely resembles a human that some may even sympathize. The anxiety felt throughout the film is based on the fear of the unknown. We are forced to wonder how a demon with little physical presence can cause so much harm, running our imagination to its limits, inevitably making the movie as a whole successfully scary. 

EN QUE IDIOMA ESCRIBO? LOS DOS SON IDIOMAS COLONIALES am I better off drawing? ¡WHY do I still not know Quechua? Que barbarie. Yo no sé ninguno de los idiomas correctos. Solamente hablo español e ingles. Of what use am I? To only know the most foul languages of the world. The languages that ----- my grandmothers. NUNA RUNA QAMALLUKUY 

The Representing the Unseen exhibition captures the many foundational themes and histories of Latin American art. The several bodies of land that make up what we consider Latin America today were built on perspectives and traditions from different parts of the world. From Indigenous and African ideas to women of marginalized communities, Representing the Unseen dissects who and why certain groups are historically omitted from artistic narratives. By shining light on the exact art pieces and voices that are perpetually shunned, audiences are exposed to certain ideologies that, although seemingly new and innovative, have existed throughout Latin America for centuries. Curated to mirror the Andean Indigenous cyclical understanding of space, time, and life, each piece and theme in Representing the Unseen is in conversation with one another. There is no linearity or precision within the art and belongings because the principles of influence do not manifest themselves in that way. Representation of the unseen immerses you in Latin American art history: the real one.

The 18th century was full of exciting new changes and “discoveries” for the Spanish, and to ensure that these “newfound” ideas and societal changes were being documented, it was imperative that they be captured. According to the preservation of certain artifacts, it is clear that the Spanish prioritized the class system of their people. They wanted the structure of their society—a society that took centuries of murder and enslavement to achieve—to go down in history as one of the most formulaic and ideal ways of living. The way they documented this structure was through the power of art. Pinturas de castas, otherwise translated as caste paintings, are works of art whose purpose was to showcase how people of different ethnicities, or in the case of visual art, blocks of color, were perceived in the quotidian. As appealing as these paintings are, their foundations lie deeply in the gruesome and eternally racist history and perspective of the 18th-century Spanish colonizers. (10 min read)

Amidst the provocation-driven and anecdotal claims, there is some truth behind Trump’s words: American film is dying. In a short span of time, Hollywood has suffered a dire loss in creativity, profit, and passion. In 2024, U.S. box office earnings totaled approximately $8.7 billion, marking a 3% decrease from 2023 and remaining over 30% below pre-pandemic levels, which consistently exceeded $11 billion annually (Sidiqi). Evidently, due to the compounding factors that, in some cases, cannot be controlled, the American film industry and its reputation have significantly declined in the span of half a decade. However, claims that feed into the bigoted narrative that subjects all nations outside of the United States as malicious only lead to nationwide ignorance. In order to form a proper and critical perspective on proposed policies, it is important to explore them and what they could mean if realized on a global scale. (10 min read)

your finger transcends my melodic soma / among the unconscious hearts do we lay / your palm melts into my last rib (1 min read)

Upon entering a place of worship, I feel. My stomach loops and my lungs expand over my heart. As I try to locate the ceiling, I am entrapped by a force. A force that makes me question whether my position on this earth is true or compelled. What is this feeling? Is there a God? Why Him? (9 min read)

Stanley Kubrick’s transformative ability to illustrate emotion, depth, and dramatics in his 1975 film Barry Lyndon is what challenges Aristotle’s extensive criteria for a tragedy. Kubrick not only creates a film that incorporates each of Aristotle's six tragic elements: plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody but explores other realms of storytelling through acute artistic expression and philosophical narratives. Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon pioneers a new standard for tragedy, deeming him the Aristotle of the 20th century. (11 min read)