Kenna Wong Ghaill
i'm like if bigfoot had tits. Film Programmer at the Art Theatre of Long Beach. Monthly film column in The Ardent.

He Wants to Believe
Aliens exist. At least, they do for Steven Spielberg. This has remained constant across a career defined by restless movement. Spielberg has spent 60 years making films about different subjects,
Aliens exist. At least, they do for Steven Spielberg. This has remained constant across a career defined by restless movement. Spielberg has spent 60 years making films about different subjects, and just as long returning to the same questions. This fascination reaches back to 1964 in Phoenix, Arizona, when Firelight,

Gaysploitation Forever!
Do not let factoids, TikToks, Instagram reels, or neatly packaged retrospectives fool you: gay people have not always been represented in Hollywood, not in any legible way. They were present,
Do not let factoids, TikToks, Instagram reels, or neatly packaged retrospectives fool you: gay people have not always been represented in Hollywood, not in any legible way. They were present, of course, most commonly behind the camera. But on screen they flickered in and out like phantoms: suggested and coded,

Projecting Power
“I think it would be fun to run a newspaper,” Hollywood’s boy wonder, Orson Welles, casually quips in Citizen Kane. He is about to discover that controlling information means controlling
“I think it would be fun to run a newspaper,” Hollywood’s boy wonder, Orson Welles, casually quips in Citizen Kane. He is about to discover that controlling information means controlling reality, and he will wield it like an infinity stone. He will not report the news—he will author it. Manufacturing

Metropolis Divided
They spoke the same language but could not understand each other. Featured [in the Art Theatre of Long Beach and City Fabrick's Designing Resistance film week] alongside films about protest,
They spoke the same language but could not understand each other. Featured [in the Art Theatre of Long Beach and City Fabrick's Designing Resistance film week] alongside films about protest, architecture, and the ways artists confront authoritarian power, Metropolis occupies a strange place in this conversation. Few films have rendered

It Is Happening Again
It is happening again. It is happening again. The now iconic phrase first uttered on a Thursday night in 1990. Now repeated ad nauseam through Lynch-coded memes on social media,
It is happening again. It is happening again. The now iconic phrase first uttered on a Thursday night in 1990. Now repeated ad nauseam through Lynch-coded memes on social media, it first represented the return of a great darkness. A cry for help buried deep inside of David Lynch’s magnum