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SPOTLIGHT's Film Curation Archives

Spotlight: Youssef Chahine

This week, we explore the work of Youssef Chahine. This legendary Egyptian filmmaker's career spanned five decades and countless social and political changes in Egypt and across the Arab world. His themes run the gamut from political revolution to psychological torment to queer identities, with the latter making him a pioneer in Arab cinema and in 20th-century film overall.

SEE ALL: Youssef Chahine

Spotlight: Found Family

The films in this week’s Spotlight celebrate finding kinship in unlikely places. They feature characters who have lost or left behind their biological families to build their own. Some temporary, some permanent, these chosen families prove that the bonds of family go beyond blood.

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Spotlight: Stuck

At what moment do you realize that you have been stuck in one place for too long? These are the films that focus on women struggling in the stagnant waters of life, trying to find their way to a more fulfilling and liberating existence.

SEE ALL: Stuck

Spotlight: Summer in the City

The heat has set in and there's no escape. You drift through sweltering crowds searching for relief. While these films showcase different urban landscapes across the globe, they all capture one distinct feeling: there's nothing like summer in the city.

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Spotlight: Childhood Nostalgia

The filmmakers featured in this week’s Spotlight turn a nostalgic lens on childhood. Often semi-autobiographical, these films lovingly recreate the bygone times and places of youth. Warm, melancholic, sometimes tragic, these films offer a portal into our pasts.

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Spotlight: Trainspotting

Films about trains date from the earliest days of the medium, with Auguste Lumière’s 1895 short documentary, Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat. In these films, the setting of the train serves as both a world unto itself as well as a means of transportation from one place to another, literally and otherwise.

SEE ALL: Trainspotting

Spotlight: Hit the Road

Summer is here, and with it, a Spotlight on a favorite summer pastime: road trips. With films from every decade starting in the 1950s, ride along on different journeys made in films from across the globe.

SEE ALL: Hit the Road

Spotlight: Food Glorious Food!

One of the irreducible necessities of life, food commands an enormous share of human attention. This week’s films all explore the experience of food – from growing it, to cooking it, to eating it -- and how its tastes and textures can have powerful impacts on our lives.

SEE ALL: Food Glorious Food!

Spotlight: Jean-Louis Trintignant

The career of French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant spanned seven decades and included an astonishing 124 films, from his breakout role in And God Created Woman in 1956, to the career-capping Amour, for which he won a César for Best Actor in 2013, with several of the great auteur films of the 20th century along the way.

SEE ALL: Jean-Louis Trintignant