World Tour of Cinema

Introduction

Progress list at bottom. Last updated: Mar 12, 2022.

The goal of this project is to watch a movie from every country. I will not reach this goal, but that’s okay. Google lists 195 countries in the world. There are also territories, political entities, or other non-countries that I want to include because they make unique, dope movies (e.g., Hong Kong, Taiwan, Palestine, Puerto Rico, etc). Each movie should be new to me, and somehow representative of the place. Representative is an amorphous, open-ended term. Ideally, the movie should be made in that place, feature creators or actors from there, and/or teach me something about that place.

I came up with this quarantine project in July 2020 while stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. While terrible, the pandemic has allowed me a lot more free, indoor time. Like many people, I am motivated to take on a fun, ambitious, and long-term project such as this. In the world of Covid-19, the situation is fluid and our future is uncertain. I may soon be no longer working from home; I may soon give up on this project due to lack of time or motivation (probably like a lot of other people’s covid-projects). Invariably, there will be countries I don’t reach. Invariably, my choice title will be too difficult to find, and we will have to bend the rules. Most of the titles I will try to find on a streaming platform; I’ll also utilize my public library (shout-out to the Arlington Public Library!). Finally, this whole thing is JUST FOR FUN, so the “rules” will be flexible. I hope you readers online will give feedback or participate along with me. That most of the movies will be available on streaming should make it easier.

An important consideration in the watching order/sequence is to space out those countries with fully-developed, functioning film industries and a rich historical library of movies to choose from, with those countries featuring a small (or lack of a) film industry and tradition of film-making. If someone says “Cinema of ______,” the average cinephile can easily think of different eras of cinematic history, actors, directors, and many movie titles. For example, “Cinema of Germany” recalls to me the Weimar silent era, films like Nosferatu and Metropolis, actors like Marlene Dietrich; the New German Cinema era of the 1970s, directors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, films like Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and Fitzcarraldo; and 21st century movies like Toni Erdmann (so good!), The Lives of Others, Victoria, and Good Bye Lenin. (Disclaimer: I’m not as familiar with most other countries as I am with Germany.) The struggle with these countries will not be finding a movie, but rather picking just one and excluding a host of other choices.

I counted 14 such “major cinema” countries, as follows: The US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. As a rule of thumb I’ll try to adhere to, I will limit 1 major cinema country every 10 films. This way, I would be on track to complete 140 countries before exhausting all 14 major ones.

Sidebar: It isn’t lost on me that these “major cinema” countries skew to be Western, Euro-centric, and “First World.” Filmmaking is an expensive endeavor (more so than other arts like writing or music), and as a productive industry it requires significant public and private investment and infrastructure. Like other fine arts, the “First World” can afford to subsidize, incubate, market, and eventually profit off its pursuit, whereas the developing world of cinema struggles to tell its stories. Nevertheless, even the smallest, poorest places in the world have much to offer in terms of unique insight and storytelling, and perhaps more so in many ways than the developed world. I know this to be true from having tried to expand my horizons and watching many international films in my life. One of the main reasons for doing this project is to further expand my horizons and enrich my own life and understanding of the world through movies. After all, movies are, as Roger Ebert poignantly described, “powerful empathy machines.”

Progress Report

1. Senegal — Atlantics
2. Macedonia — Honeyland
3. Vietnam — Furie
4. Mali/Maurtania — Timbuktu
5. Turkey — Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
6. Iran — A Separation; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
7. Chile — No
8. The Netherlands — The Vanishing
9. Kenya — Rafiki
10. Hong Kong — Ten Years; Hard Boiled
11. Romania — 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
12. Yemen — 10 Days Before the Wedding
13. Jamaica — The Harder They Come
14. Denmark — Another Round
15. Thailand — Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
16. New Zealand — The Piano