Issue Eight: Awe and Wonder

The Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is quoted as saying in an interview that "a good film is one that has a lasting power which you start to reconstruct right after you leave the theater." The films that have the greatest impact on us are often the ones alluded to by Kiarostami – stories that resonate on a deeper, subconscious level and that teach us something about our own, or the greater, human experience. Cinema, in effect, acting as an 'Empathy Machine' as famed film critic Roger Ebert so fittingly described it. 

To capture awe or wonder onscreen is one thing, but to instill it in the viewer through a deeper connection is something altogether different, and it's this unique perspective that we look to explore in the pages of issue 8. Larger-than-life 'performers' such as Muhammad Ali and Aretha Franklin, who's onscreen presence has been majestically and authentically captured. Directors like David Cronenberg, Sofia Coppola and Terence Malick who's films get beneath our skin in undeniable ways. Epic creatures that fill the widest of widescreens and city symphonies that embody a place's connection to its varied inhabitants in mysterious ways. All of these and more set us on a path of discovery and a search for meaning. 

Featuring words and images by Jez Conolly, Mario Damiano, Eilis Dart, Will Dodd, Alexandra Dzhiganskaya, Neil Fox, Matthew Frame, Georgina Guthrie, Daniel Hwang, Tommy James, Halil Karasu, Kamilla Krol, Canto Kun, Raphaelle Macaron, Beth Morris, Celine Moya, Elena Mompo, Daniel Nelson, Craig Oldham, Thomas Puhr, Callum Reid, Alexander Sayf Cummings, Camille Smithwick, Gabriel Solomons, Tony Stella, Akiko Stehrenberger, Ben Turner, Valentina Vinci, Viktoria Vladenovski, Aleksander Walijewski and James Yates.