We are excited about Grasshopper Film, a distribution company led by Cinema Guild’s former Director of Distribution, Ryan Krivoshey. Though very, very new, they’re already living up to the latter company’s sterling reputation for bringing the best, brightest, and most challenging in world cinema, first releasing Asghar Farhadi‘s Fireworks Wednesday and soon giving us Hong Sang-soo‘s Right Now, Wrong Then, Bi Gan‘s Kaili Blues, and Robert Greene‘s Kate Plays Christine, to name but a few works we can already vouch for. (A longer list of forthcoming theatrical releases can be found here. As the linked-to news story will evince, older titles will arrive via digital platforms and home video.)
As part of their engagement with film culture at large, Grasshopper have launched a new blog, Transmissions. Despite calling itself “a film blog broadcasting from the outer reaches of cinephilia,” the editorial and design choices give this project some palpable intimacy. Among key ideas is the launching of regular columns, including 10/10, a series where they “ask cinephiles to name their ten favorite films from the last ten years” — “cinephiles” such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul — and Single Takes, “One quick breathless appreciation of a work.” The first? Jonathan Demme singing Kaili Blues‘ praises.
And there are things to watch! They’ve premiered, and for free, Lav Diaz‘s new short film (oxymoron jokes were made around the world), The Day Before the End. Stream it by clicking the below image:
