Author Spotlight

Girish Shambu

Girish Shambu teaches at Canisius College, in Buffalo, New York, and writes about film culture. He is the author of The New Cinephilia and the editor of Film Quarterly’s online column Quorum.

11 Results
Ratcatcher: A Flashlight Cinema

In her astonishing debut feature, Lynne Ramsay synthesizes narrative drama and poetic exploration, the social and the surreal.

By Girish Shambu

ImagineNATIVE Cinema: A Conversation with Niki Little

The artistic director of the groundbreaking Canadian film festival discusses its evolution and the road ahead for Indigenous cinema.

By Girish Shambu

Indigenous Cinema and the Limits of Auteurism

The world’s largest Indigenous film festival challenges the individualist ethos of the dominant cinema culture—and invites us to think outside the exclusionary box.

By Girish Shambu

Beau travail: A Cinema of Sensation

Grafted together from a wide array of sources, Claire Denis’s most acclaimed film combines cerebral rigor, sensorial intensity, and a powerful meditation on masculinity and foreignness.

By Girish Shambu

Hidden Histories: The Story of Women Film Editors

A new web resource spearheaded by Su Friedrich celebrates women editors from around the world, highlighting work that has long been obscured by the masculinism of auteurist film culture.

By Girish Shambu

Cold Water: Dancing on the Ruins

Fueled by the rebellious sounds of rock and roll, Olivier Assayas’s long-unavailable breakthrough film is a remarkably unsentimental journey through the memories of youth.

By Girish Shambu

The Other Side of Hope: No-Home Movie

In the singular world of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, auteurist homage and social consciousness are joined by some of the most lovingly filmed dogs in contemporary cinema.

By Girish Shambu

I, Daniel Blake: An Authentic Cinema

The ravages of poverty in contemporary Britain are translated with vivid authenticity in this drama from celebrated filmmaker Ken Loach.


By Girish Shambu

Returnings to Life: The Apu Trilogy in Buffalo
One refrain often heard in discussions of twenty-first-century film culture is a lament for the loss of social film viewing. While we celebrate the fact that digital technologies have given us convenient access to unprecedented numbers of movies, old…

By Girish Shambu

The Apu Trilogy: Behind the Universal

Satyajit Ray’s long-heralded cinematic achievement was influenced by European cinema but also grew out of long-standing Indian artistic tradition.


By Girish Shambu

Two Days, One Night: Economics Is Emotion

In Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s moving and humane critique of capitalism, true interpersonal communication is the only thing that can save us.

By Girish Shambu