Articles by Alisha Mughal

Toronto's Sahara Celebrate the Good Times with a Hint of Melancholy on 'Pure Glass'

PUBLISHED Jun 25, 2020

Taking '80s synthpop and filtering it through a glittering shoegaze veil, Toronto-based band Sahara's debut full-length album, Pure Glass,...

Hot Docs Review: 'Consuming Contemporary' Shows How Culture Is Safe-Guarded by the Upper Class

Directed by Ana Aleksovska

PUBLISHED Jun 10, 2020

On the face of it, Macedonian short documentary Consuming Contemporary is about an older woman, Sunchica, enriching herself through coordin...

Hot Docs Review: 'All Her Dying Lovers' Tells the Haunting Story of a Unique Form of Nazi Resistance

Directed by Anna Benner and Eluned Zoe Aiano

PUBLISHED Jun 10, 2020

Short film All Her Dying Lovers tells the story of an unnamed Czech nurse who put up a unique but tragic form of resistance against Nazi oc...

Hot Docs Review: 'The Chimney Swift' Shows Inhumane Labour from a Child's Perspective

Directed by Frédéric Schuld

PUBLISHED Jun 10, 2020

The Chimney Swift is simultaneously two different tales. The narration is a story gleaned from the actual accounts of adult chimney sweeps...

CFF Review: Cringe-Inducing Documentary 'Shoot to Marry' Learns Nothing from Its Own Mistakes

Directed by Steve Markle

PUBLISHED Jun 5, 2020

Shoot to Marry is only about 70 minutes long, but it should be shorter. Ostensibly a comedic documentary about finding love, this film is d...

CFF Review: 'Hazy Little Thing' Exposes the Darkness Behind the Glamour of Social Media

PUBLISHED Jun 3, 2020

We all know the repetitive cycle of social media — the way we scroll through Instagram, not because we're looking for something in particul...

Hannah Gadsby's 'Douglas' Is Hilarious, Even as It Gets Bogged Down by the Weight of Expectations

PUBLISHED May 26, 2020

Hannah Gadsby's latest Netflix special, Douglas, is rigidly controlled, in a way diametrically opposed to the organic build and flow of her...

'Easy Land' Tenderly Explores the Canadian Immigrant Experience

Directed by Sanja Zivkovic

PUBLISHED May 20, 2020

Watching Easy Land, viewers will find themselves wanting to protect each character in it — but at the same time, there's something about it...