writer/director
east coast reporter @letterboxd
words in @PasteMagazine, @guardian
adesthomas16@gmail.com | she/her
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Articles by Adesola Thomas
Fugitive Filmmaking: Black Lions – Roman Wolves’ Haile Gerima on the 30-year journey behind his anti-colonial epic
“Liberation doesn’t come from inclusion into a system never built for us.
About Time: Every Christopher Nolan film, ranked by the Letterboxd community
“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” So says the scientist to the protagonist—or, more specifically, to the Protagonist (John David Washington)—in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.
Showgirls, Interrupted: John Early on the melo-comedic cinematic influences behind his directorial debut, Maddie’s Secret
John Early has played a lot of flagrantly narcissistic, psychotic gay guys. Elliot Goss of Search Party. Terry Goon of Stress Positions. A heightened version of himself in his and frequent collaborator/Maddie’s Secret co-star Kate Berlant’s comedy special, Would It Kill You to Laugh?. In season three of The Comeback, he branched out by playing a psychotic straight guy, then did it again in his recent stage debut: Wallace Shawn’s off-Broadway play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days.
Freedom Now!: a starter pack of 24 films about the Civil Rights Movement and Black liberation • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
The generally agreed upon span for the Civil Rights Movement is from 1954 to 1968. The years primarily correspond to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down the doctrine of “separate but equal,” and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.
The New World: Clint Bentley and Joel Edgerton on balancing the mythic and the intimate in Train Dreams • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Since the moment it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival nearly twelve months ago, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreamshas received praise across Letterboxd reviews including phrases such as “soul-igniting”, “therapeutic”, “sprawling, tender”, or as Chris succinctly puts it, “wow”.
The New World: Clint Bentley and Joel Edgerton on balancing the mythic and the intimate in Train Dreams • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Since the moment it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival nearly twelve months ago, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreamshas received praise across Letterboxd reviews including phrases such as “soul-igniting”, “therapeutic”, “sprawling, tender”, or as Chris succinctly puts it, “wow”.
Hearing for the First Time: Zeinabu irene Davis on the rejuvenation of Compensation • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Shot from a script left by her bedside as a gift from her husband, the long and winding journey of Zeinabu irene Davis to make Compensationcould be a film in and of itself. After playing a few festivals in 1999, the picture became an artifact of the hidden side of the ’90s indie boom. Where cinema obsessives like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh became household names, Davis joined a long list of Black women filmmakers who the industry outright ignored.
Lava Lamp: filmmaker Cauleen Smith on her experimental triptych, The Volcano Manifesto • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
While interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Cauleen Smith’s 1998 narrative feature Dylongso is rightfully heralded as a formative twentieth-century coming-of-age film (alongside Jessie Harris’s 1992 debut Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. and Ayoka Chenzira’s 1994 film Alma’s Rainbow), Smith’s contemporary oeuvre of experimental video works merits equally enthusiastic attention.
Chick Habit: But I’m a Cheerleader celebrates 25 years of candy-colored camp • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“I feel like But I’m a Cheerleader is the one that lives on,” Natasha Lyonne shares, correctly guessing which of her films is in the most Letterboxd members’ Four Faves. “It means something to people and it means something to me.” That ability to remain well appreciated is seen across Letterboxd. Jamie Babbit’s feature debut currently has a 4.0 rating, with 30 percent of raters awarding it a perfect five stars.
Get Into the Groove: the best party film you haven’t heard of • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Sometimes the petite grief of knowing I’ll never see every movie I might love surfaces. But that lamentation dissolves when I remember the equal and opposite truth: For all of us, any day now, something alchemical will transpire. Maybe at your local cinema or in your living room, you’ll watch a film for the first time and it will stay with you forever.
Two to Tango: Alice Wu opens up about the twenty-year legacy of her taboo-tackling rom-com, Saving Face • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
After all these years, Alice Wu remains astonished at the reach of her debut feature, Saving Face. “Usually, I imagine that the people who saw the movie are just, like, me and my friends, my friends’ girlfriends, maybe their ex-girlfriends and then a few random straight people,” the writer-director says with a laugh. Way more than a few random straight people have seen Saving Face.
Can You Dig It?: a starter pack of twenty features to get you into the Blaxploitation subgenre • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
What exactly is Blaxploitation? Similar to film noir, Blaxploitation, a genre that dominated American theaters for a decade, doesn’t have a strict definition. You just sort of know it when you see it. These films locate interest in Black empowerment, and feature a set of stock characters: private dicks, slick pimps and pushers, and foxy women seeking revenge. Often Whitey receives the bulk of the ire, though anyone who undermines the community—no matter their race—is severely punished.
Removing the Wool: Killer of Sheep’s Charles Burnett on Watts storytelling, LA Rebellion and Black domestic life on film • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Maybe you’ve seen it: that black-and-white footage of Black boys leaping between apartment buildings, soaring across the Los Angeles sky. Charles Burnett captured these low-shot acrobatics on 16mm for his UCLA master’s thesis film, 1978’s Killer of Sheep,which he wrote, directed, shot and edited himself.
E-Girl Detectives: filmmakers Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross are Seeking Mavis Beacon in new cyber-documentary • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
When you first crossed the threshold from reality into cyberspace, who was waiting to greet you? Did those figures imagine themselves as digital pioneers, or did they aspire to dwell in some self-possessed elsewhere, beyond the omniscient gaze and flimsy promises of immortality the internet dangles before us?
Best of BlackStar 2024 • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
In their more commercial iterations, film festivals can feel like a marketplace where people buzz around buying, selling and witnessing the day’s cinematic wares. At their best, festivals can feel like a watering hole, a natural gathering space where the body is nourished, where novel interactions can occur, where this mutually craved life-giving thing (trade cinema for water) can be collectively enjoyed.
Prison Drama: Sing Sing’s Colman Domingo on the rehabilitating power of theater • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Rikers. Alcatraz. Devil’s Island. Sing Sing. These are infamous carceral spaces with names that can instantly arouse a feeling of fear in a listening ear. Fear of incarcerated people and their ostensible legal transgressions, fear of confined space, stolen time and distance from a material reality spurred by selective intimacy and self-control. “Whether we will admit it or not, we all have unconscious bias towards people who are in prison,” says Colman Domingo, the lead of Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing.
Pure Cinema Pals: podcasters Elric and Brian celebrate 2,000 movie recommendations with 101 more overlooked films we should see • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“I don’t think one time in seven years have we picked the same film.” Elric Kane is reflecting on the 2,000-odd movies he and his Pure Cinema Pod co-host Brian Saur have recommended to each other, and to listeners, since they started podcasting together in 2017.
Summer Daze: Annie Baker and Julianne Nicholson take us to the inner world of Janet Planet • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
If you were often outdoors as a child in the summers, you likely remember a series of keen sensations: having your palms licked by blades of grass, the soft scrape of tree bark against flesh, sinking fingers into soil. Memories of aimless warm days in July might conjure a sense of unblemished bliss. But in Janet Planet, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s 1991-set debut feature film, these lilting moments are complicated with one child’s formative, tender bummer summer.
Bad Influence: John Waters reflects on his unabashedly filthy filmography • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“Is this the cocksucker residence? Isn’t this 4251 Pussy Way?” Murderous suburbanite mother Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) grunts through these scandalizing inquiries during a targeted prank call to a despised neighbor in Serial Mom(1994), one of writer-director John Waters’ classic crime comedies. Many film lovers know Waters for creating Hairspray (1988) and the high-drama rockabilly world of Cry-Baby (1990).
Braiding Into Being: Ava DuVernay on the strands of humanity in Origin • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Ava DuVernay is practiced in carefully adapting the lived experiences of Black figures across narrative film, documentary and television. She’s captured SCLC and SNCC leaders organizing alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, the Central Park Five’s prosecution in When They See Us, and the reflections of activists and prison abolitionists like Angela Davis in 13th, DuVernay’s documentary about the transmutation of racialized chattel slavery to codified mass incarceration.
Best of BlackStar 2025: five standout features championing cultural work and legacy • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Cinema for Liberation was the theme of the fourteenth annual BlackStar Film Festival, the Philadelphia-based summer maypole for independent filmmakers, artists and audiences of the global majority who gather across three Broad Street venues for a lively weekend of film programming, panels and parties. The expression “cinema for liberation,” like cubed sugar, has melted in the mouths of a myriad of filmmakers and programmers in recent years.
Scoping Out Sundance 2024: the debut delights and sophomore surprises we’re excited for at this year’s festival • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
With 2023 in the rearview (have you perused our Year in Review yet?), the first pages are turned on a fresh calendar: twelve months of enticing new features for us to open our hearts and souls to. The frigid air of Park City, Utah is never more inviting than in late January, when the independent-forward Sundance Film Festival rolls into town. The Letterboxd mic will be on the ground, so if you’re also there keep an eye out for us in a chilly queue, an early morning bistro or late-night club.
Lovable Grump: Cord Jefferson and Jeffrey Wright on the family ties and buoyant satire of American Fiction • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
For people who feel internally motivated to make, be it improvisational jazz or fiction that sings, there is the sometimes less gratifying external pressure to make it—to produce work considered prescient, marketable or authentic according to the waymakers in their chosen field. What could otherwise be a generative creative practice becomes a footrace with resources and relevance awaiting those who cross the finish line. What happens, then, for artists who refuse that race?
Float to the Surface: Raven Jackson on rendering domestic life and bending time in All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“If our lives were to flood, what are the moments that would float to the surface?” This poetic query of Lucille Clifton’s opens and situates All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, the debut feature from filmmaker, photographer and poet Raven Jackson. It was a Grand Jury prize nominee at Sundance earlier this year, and Montclair Film Festival named Jackson their breakthrough director of 2023.
A Marriage on Ice: Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet on the intimate intricacies of her courtroom drama • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
The French procedural is having a moment right now. Earlier this year, France’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar was Alice Diop’s Saint Omer,and Dominik Moll’s The Night of the 12thwon six César Awards, including Best Film. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet became the third woman to win the prestigious festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, for her courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall.
Hispanic Heritage Celebration: Presented by La Candela Flamenco and Roswell Cultural Arts
Date: Time: Event Category: Entertainment Event Regions: Spain 950 Forrest Street Roswell, GA 30075 United States Explore the cultural exchange between Spain and Latin America through the language of flamenco. La Candela Flamenco takes you on a musical journey from Spain to the New World and back, allowing you to discover the rich musical and dance history of flamenco in connection with the music of Latin America.
Love and Memory: Chilean filmmaker Maite Alberdi on living many lives through her documentaries • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
When I first meet Maite Alberdi, we are both wiggling our way onto tall stools, her at five feet, me just a couple of inches taller. The confidence with which the director moves, however, towers way above her height. She doesn’t bat an eyelid when I ask her about life post-becoming the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Oscar with her non-fiction retirement home thriller, The Mole Agent, in 2021: “Not that much has changed. What I do have now is visibility.
Testing, Testing: the stars of Oppenheimer on the complexities of their megaton blockbuster • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
There’s an insidiousness quietly gnashing at the joy of the double feature, even while the box office receipts confirm the wisdom of new IP rather than a seventh installment; of big, important, fun and star-studded stories; of blockbusters made by women.
Innovate your Data Strategy with Informatica by MJV
Register Online MJV invites you to attend Innovate your Data Strategy with Informatica – a two-hour meeting, in which you will have the opportunity to see how its approach can help business with: + Building a tailor-made and holistic data governance strategy + Modernizing your data architecture to enhance productivity + Migrating from PowerCenter to Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud + Integrating your data sources, generating actionable insights + Visualizing information in a...
Tablao Flamenco - Global Atlanta
Register Online Berdolé returns to Red Light Café to present a live Tablao Flamenco performance. In the spirit of back rooms and taverns of southern Spain, this showcase of flamenco is raw, unrehearsed, and fully improvised to create an electricity that audiences say sends chills through the air and brings tears to the eyes.
Mother Courage: the cast and director of Earth Mama talk music, movies and maternity • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
The Oakland rapper’s experience as a mother and birth worker also became essential parts of her work to embody Gia. “My doula shit and being a mom, yes, that was my source of everything as far as bringing Gia to life and full-body fleshing her out,” Nomore says. “It was very much core-rooted here in the Bay and core-rooted with my kids. A lot of the longing you see in my eyes is for my daughter. I want to be home but I’m missing things for her.
Fritz Paul Zimmer, 50th Anniversary Exhibition
Register Online This exhibition of plaster and bronze sculptures, architectural drawings, set designs, working tools and personal ephemera comes from the artist Fritz P. Zimmer (1884-1975), a former Oglethorpe Professor of Fine and Applied Arts. Zimmer’s sculptures and architectural work were at one time found in dozens of churches, private collections, university campuses, local government buildings, and post offices across the South.
Flamenco Lunch Concert
Register Online Don’t miss the grand finale of Inspiración on the Boardwalk – a captivating series of free flamenco lecture performances presented by La Candela Flamenco. Immerse yourself in the rich traditions of flamenco dance and music, infused with influences from around the world and classical compositions.
American Union of Swedish Singers Concert
THE CHORUS EVENT OF THE YEAR with Scandinavian Songs and Music Come and experience a concert featuring one of Scandinavia’s best choruses, the Akademiska Kören, Stockholm, led by world renown conductor Håkan Sund; as well as the 150-member American Union of Swedish Singers (AUSS) conducted by Jeff Wressell and Jennifer Wagner. Also presented in this riveting program of Swedish culture and song is tenor Niklas Björling Rygert, from the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.
AI-Driven Trends & Opportunities in CPG & Retail: Using Agile for Success
Register Online MJV Technology and Innovation presents: AI is bringing big changes to every industry imaginable. Instead of fearing artificial intelligence, we see it as an opportunity for improvement. That is why MJV created AI Talks, a live event series to discuss the changes and opportunities brought on by this technology. In this first edition, we’re looking at AI applications in CPG and retail.
Ecstatic Pursuit: Danielle Scruggs highlights films by five Black women directors for your Juneteenth watchlists • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Miss Juneteenth Written and directed by Channing Godfrey Peoples There’s a scene in that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since I first saw it. Nicole Beharie, playing former beauty queen Turquoise Jones, sits on a porch, staring off into the distance, smoking a cigarette while wearing a red dress and a tiara. The camera slowly pushes in on her face, revealing an entire world—sadness, apprehension, wistfulness—without a single word. It’s magic.
2023 Atlanta Swiss Social
Register Online Together with European Cellars we organize the ATLANTA SWISS SOCIAL event series for the third time in a row! Join the Consulate General of Switzerland in Atlanta for a week-long celebration of Swiss wine, food, culture, and community! The 2023 Atlanta Swiss Social will take place June 3-11 with three different events: 1. Saturday, June 3rd, starting at 8 AM: Swiss 5K & FUN RUN with On Running at Fleet Feet Decatur. The event is free and open to the public.
Diplomatic Dialogue: A meeting with Anne-Laure Desjonquères, Consul General of France
Diplomatic Dialogue reception with Anne-Laure Desjonquères, Consul General of France in Atlanta Join for a Diplomatic Dialogue reception with Anne-Laure Desjonquères, Consul General of France in Atlanta. After an hour of networking, Consul General Anne-Laure Desjonquères will discuss the work of the French Consulate, her experiences during her career postings and her observations on global affairs with Mark Pierson, ACIR’s Director of Diplomatic Outreach and Strategic Development.
Global Outlook, Local Impact: The Transatlantic Potential for Citizen Engagement
Register Online The panel discussion on “Global Outlook, Local Impact: The Transatlantic Potential for Citizen Engagement” will take place on June 26, 2023, 11:00am-12:30pm EDT in a hybrid format with on-site participation in Atlanta as well as virtual participation from Berlin and Los Angeles.
Inspiración - Flamenco Lunch Performance
Register Online Inspiración is a series of flamenco lecture performances that are free to the public and feature traditional flamenco dance and music infused with the world and classical music. Join on Wednesday, May 24th, for an unforgettable flamenco performance as we continue our celebration of spring and the Spanish Spring Fairs on the iconic Broad Street Boardwalk. This is the third of five fiery performances that will transport you to the vibrant streets of Spain.
Rugby ATL vs Old Glory DC Watch Party
Rugby ATL vs Old Glory DC Watch Party Join at The wing Cafe & Tap House to cheer on Rugby ATL in their road match against the Old Glory DC! Join in on the fun and enter the raffle to win an exclusive Rugby ATL prize!
Rugby ATL vs. New York Ironworkers (Home Match)
Rugby ATL vs. New York Ironworkers (Home Match) Register Online Join for International Night and cheer on Rugby ATL as they take on the New York Ironworkers at 8:00pm ET for the final home game of the season! Register Online
Rugby ATL vs. New England Free Jacks
Rugby ATL vs. New England Free Jacks Register Online Join in Dress Your Decade Night and cheer on Rugby ATL as they take on the New England Free Jacks at Silverbacks Park at 7:00pm ET! Register Online
Rugby ATL vs. Toronto Watch Party
Rugby ATL vs. Toronto Watch Party Rugby ATL heads to Toronto for an away match! Join in cheering on Rugby ATL at the official watch party at the Terrapin Taproom (located inside of the Battery) as the team faces off against the Toronto Arrows. Fans can sip on the Try City Pale Ale, enter to win a team-signed flag, and so much more while rooting for Rugby ATL!
2023 Taiwanese American Heritage Week Atlanta
Register Online Join the Atlanta Taiwanese Association of America for 2023 Taiwanese American Heritage Week Atlanta. Taiwan’s beautiful traditions has been a great influence to Americans’ rich diversity. Taiwanese Americans have been celebrating their heritage with other fellow Georgians since 2000. This year will be no exception. Join for a plethora of performances such as Taiwanese songs, folk dances, and a special treat from Taiwan. FREE ADMISSION! 1:00PM Taste of Taiwan.
Are Economic Sanctions Still Effective?: National Security and the Dollar's Future as the Global Reserve Currency
American economic sanctions have been a major component of American Foreign Policy for decades. They have reflected not only its economic power, but also its moral force, when wielded to isolate despotic regimes. In a changing international universe, do America’s adversaries still fear the historic power of American sanctions?
European Film Festival of Atlanta EFFA
Register Online The Goethe-Zentrum, the Alliance Francaise d’Atlanta and no less than 20 local European consulates and organizations, are proud to present the 2nd annual EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL of ATLANTA (EFFA) from May 12th through 14th, 2023 at The Plaza Theater Atlanta.
The Curatorial Connoisseurship of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
The Curatorial Connoisseurship of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Register Online This lecture by Oglethorpe University Museum of Art Curator of Collections, John Daniel Tilford, will examine numerous works in the exhibition “Indian Miniatures from the Mehta Collection,” which were once in the collection of the great curator and scholar, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Register Online
GACC 27th Annual Gala
Register Online SAVE THE DATE – On October 28 GACC South is returning to the beautiful St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta for their 27th Annual Gala! The Annual Gala, is one of GACC South’s largest events of the year, brings together German and American leaders and executives from various industries. For the 27th time, this year, they will bring our German-American business community together to reignite the dialogue between the U.S. and Germany across all sectors.
Atlanta Stammtisch - Halfway Crooks
Atlanta Stammtisch – Halfway Crooks Register Online Join GACC South for Atlanta Stammtisch at Halfway Crooks this August for a beer and networking with the local German American business community. Light appetizers and a free drink along with your registration will be provided. Register Online
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