By Already we’re a month deep into the new year and the slew of programming from the Criterion Channel isn’t slowing down for February. With an eye on celebrating Black History Month, the Channel has a particularly excellent look at the work of renaissance man Gordon Parks. Besides being one of America’s greatest photographers, Parks’ work in motion pictures gave Black voices an outlet in the cinemas. Though Shaft, his landmark 1971 crime film would become a cinematic icon and among the most influential releases on the blaxploitation movement of films, the Criterion Channel is looking to highlight some of his less-bombastic works for the month of February.
Other highlights for me include Jim Jarmusch’s excellent Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, which in itself is a celebration of Black and Japanese culture by way of Jarmusch’s idiosyncratic mash-up of hitman and mob movie tropes. It’s a riot, and some of the film’s chief inspiration (including Seijun Suzuki’s 1967 classic Branded to Kill, overtly paid homage by Ghost Dog) is available to stream on the Channel now, in the Japanese Noir series.
But as always, whether you’re looking for hitmen or heartthrobs, there’s an array of good stuff to check out this month from the Criterion Channel. Get to it!
February 1st
Criterion Collection Edition #1057–Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999)
Celebration (Olivier Meyrou, 2007)
February 2nd
Streaming premiere: The Killing Floor (Bill Duke, 1984)
Short + Feature: The Right Touch
The Touch Retouched and The Touch
February 3rd
Three by Madeline Anderson
Integration Report 1 (1960), A Tribute to Malcolm X (1967), I Am Somebody (1970)
February 4th
Directed by Gordon Parks
The Learning Tree (1969), Leadbelly (1976), Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984), Moments Without Proper Names (1987)
February 5th
Double Feature: Come On Pilgrim
A Canterbury Tale (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1944) and The Ornithologist (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2016)
February 6th
Saturday Matinee: The Last Unicorn (Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr, 1982)
February 7th
Marlene Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg
The Blue Angel (1930), Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
February 8th
Three Starring Lana Turner
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), A Life of Her Own (1950), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
February 9th
Short + Feature: Fellini of the Spirits
The Rabbit Hunters (Guy Maddin, 2020) and 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
February 10th
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
February 11th
Starring Ruby Dee
The Tall Target (1951), Edge of the City (1957)*, St. Louis Blues (1958), Take a Giant Step (1959), The Balcony (1963), Uptight (1968), Buck and the Preacher (1972)
February 12th
Double Feature: Cool Killers
Le samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
February 13th
Saturday Matinee: A Story of Children and Film (Mark Cousins, 2013)
February 14th
Lovers on the Run
You Only Live Once (1937), They Live by Night (1948), Gun Crazy (1950)*, Where Danger Lives (1950), Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951), Pierrot le fou (1965), The Honeymoon Killers (1970), Badlands (1973), Thomasine and Bushrod (1974), One False Move (1992), The Living End (1992), Deep Crimson (1996), Sun Don’t Shine (2012), Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (2013)
February 15th
Exclusive streaming premiere: Park Lanes (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2015)
February 16th
Three Short Films by Ramin Bahrani
Plastic Bag (2009), Lift You Up (2014), Blood Kin (2018)
February 17th
Short Films by Akosua Adoma Owusu
Featuring a new introduction by the filmmaker
Ajube Kete (2005), Tea 4 Two (2006), Intermittent Delight (2007), Boyant (2008), Me broni ba (2009), Drexciya (2010), Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful (2012), Kwaku Ananse (2013), Bus Nut (2015), Reluctantly Queer (2016), Mahogany Too (2018), On Monday of Last Week (2018), Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care About Us (2019)
February 18th
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project: After the Curfew (Usmar Ismail, 1954)
February 19th
Double Feature: Oh My Godfrey!
Watermelon Man (Melvin Van Peebles, 1970) and Cotton Comes to Harlem (Ossie Davis, 1970)
February 20th
Saturday Matinee: Journey to the Beginning of Time (Karel Zeman, 1955)
February 21st
Wyatt Cenac’s Adventures in Moviegoing
All Night Long (1962), Playtime (1967), Putney Swope (1969), Trafic (1971), Pressure (1976), Mur Murs (1981), Bamboozled (2000), In the Mood for Love (2000)
And the short Borom sarret (1963)
February 22nd
Exclusive streaming premiere Nationtime (William Greaves, 1972)
February 23rd
Black Fire
Featuring a new introduction by the filmmakers
Sugarcoated Arsenic (2014), We Demand (2016), Fastest Man in the State (2017), How Can I Ever Be Late (2017), Black Bus Stop (2019)
February 24th
Directed by Nina Menkes
Featuring a new introduction by the filmmaker
Queen of Diamonds (1991), Phantom Love (2007), Dissolution (2010)
And the short The Great Sadness of Zohara (1983)
February 25th
Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Featuring a new introduction by the filmmaker
Abouna (2002), Daratt (2006), A Screaming Man (2010), Grigris (2013), A Season in France (2017)
February 26th
Double Feature: The Holy Trintignant
The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970) and Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969)
February 27th
Saturday Matinee: The Ghost Goes West (René Clair, 1935)
February 28th
Directed by Guy Maddin
Featuring a new conversation between Maddin and critic Robert Enright
Archangel (1990)**, Careful (1992)**, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)**, Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)**, The Saddest Music in the World (2003), My Winnipeg (2007), The Forbidden Room (2015)
And the shorts My Dad Is 100 Years Old (2005), Glorious (2008), Spanky: To the Pier and Back (2008), How to Take a Bath (2009), Night Mayor (2009), Sinclair (2010), Louis Riel for Dinner (2012), Only Dream Things (2012), The Hall Runner (2014), Lines of the Hand (2015), The Green Fog (2017), Accidence (2018), The Rabbit Hunters (2020), Stump the Guesser (2020)
Plus: Now Playing in 30 Years of The Film Foundation
A Farewell to Arms (1932), Putney Swope (1969), Queen of Diamonds (1991)