News

Faces and Places is a nice telling of ordinary lives—but does it marginalise black people?

Director Agnes Varda and photographer JR travel around France and put up huge photographs of the people they meet

Towering architectural feats? Piano fails to hit the right note

Architect Renzo Piano has made a successful career out of designing buildings that ordinary people are largely excluded from using

Inspiring anti-racist message from 1978

The Northern Carnival against the Nazis—a rally and concert held on 15 July 1978 in Moss Side, Manchester—was a defining moment in establishing anti-racism in the city and beyond.

Dissent reinterpreted in new exhibition curated by Hislop

Powerful pieces are on display at British Museum’s latest big show but its eclecticism means their context is lacking, argues Hassan Mahamdallie

Music plays on in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, in documentary One Note At A Time

This is the story of struggling artists in New Orleans and their resilience

A hot romance for Cold War musicians in new Polish epic

Captivating performances and musical talent in a context of peasants and modernisation makes for interesting viewing

Idles’ new album is a lightning bolt against reaction

If someone forced you at gun point to describe Idles’ latest album in two words, you could do a lot worse than “angry” and “loud”.

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman film is a strong call to arms for anti-racists

There are some problems with Spike Lee’s new film, not least how it portrays the cops, but it redeems itself with its key message, says Antony Hamilton

Too much farming in The Guardians, a story of changing women’s lives

The Guardians is an interesting exploration— in the last 20 minutes— of how the First World War changed the role of women in the workplace and the family

Powerful pictures in south London exhibition of black achievement and resistance

An exhibition of photographs about black British life shows the gear change from first arrival to first resistance against racism

Reason in Revolt

“Revolutions would be a lot more successful if we could make them with the people of the future, not the flawed, self-centred specimens we have now,” says Bolshevik soldier Pavel in Alan Gibbons’s fictional account of the Russian Revolution.

Twisted images of a shattered society

The term “magical realism” is today generally used to describe a form of literature and is strongly associated with writers in South America.

Fascinating documentaries and discussions at the London Korean Film Festival

The London Korean Film Festival 2018 presents a series of screenings and events showcasing independent documentary filmmaking from Korea

Build a new society on moral foundations in Frostpunk

Frostpunk mixes beautifully designed steampunk visuals with a narrative that puts the player in charge of the last humans on Earth

Sicilian Ghost Story—a powerful warning against silence in face of an injustice

Heartbreak, tragedy and fantasy tell a story from the side of the silent victims and the people left behind in the wake of violence

Edinburgh offers a festival feast of elevating theatre

Theatre critic Mark Brown offers a guide to the forthcoming Edinburgh Festival—including spectacle, solo performances, Shakespeare and comedy

An analogue hangover or a contemporary triumph?

If you are in London this summer it is worth dropping in to Somerset House to an exhibition paying homage to magazines—Print! Tearing it up.

Culture round-up

This new exhibition places Rembrandt’s work alongside pieces by the British artists he inspired.

Path of Blood helps us understand contradictions of Al Qaeda

The mainstream media likes to portray Al Qaeda fighters simply as fanatical terrorists, but a new documentary shows how they live, says Harjeevan Gill