Benjamin

New article by Phil A. Neel examining the post-2020 political order, arguing that liberal myths about law, elections, and restraint function as counterinsurgency in an era of open state violence.

illwill.com/lies

some exciting news!

a hero and a martyr

finally got my hands on the complete Narrow Margin (so far), a v cool new magazine containing some of the best recent writing on film out there. Vol 1 on Luc Moullet and Vittorio Cottafavi, and vol 2 on the supremely underrated cinema of Diagonale. grab a copy!!

My film “Redwood Souvenirs” included @benjamincrais.bsky.social’s top ten of 2025 for Screen Slate: www.screenslate.com/articles/bes...

João César Monteiro: Symphonies of a Libertine A brief account of a three-minute film: A spindly, well-dressed man strolls down a lamp-lit Lisbon street. As he reaches his apartment, the soundtrack of the most romantic scene from Nicholas Ray’s Jo...

@benjamincrais.bsky.social on the greatest of all cinephilic perverts, João César Monteiro: www.screenslate.com/articles/joa...

my recent film Redwood Souvenirs premieres at RPM festival on Oct. 11! it's a film i assembled from old footage from my time house-sitting for Fred from 2020-22, made after his death as a memento for myself and others
revolutionsperminutefest.org/2025_10_11_P...

Made a film with @benjamincrais.bsky.social—something like a re-staging of Ray's On Dangerous Ground that traverses some of Ray's actual haunts (nyc in the 30s, upstate ny in the 70s). premiering sep. 12 at I Mille Occhi, truly wild programming: www.imilleocchi.com/1000occhi_programma25_online.pdf

it’s never “let me tell you how things are” but rather “where am I? where are we (in history)?”

Whitney Strub and Benjamin Crais correspond on Robert Kramer and John Douglas’ MILESTONES

”I saw a film by… who is the official British film director?”
“…Mike Leigh?”
“Yes, him.”

cannot express how excited I am for this special issue of SAQ that @pietrobianch1.bsky.social & I edited to be in the world!!! filled to the brim with brilliant pieces by brilliant people! coming in october!! hope the world is still around to see it!

Genevieve Yue reviewing this year’s Cosmic Rays film fest, with some remarks on Ode to R.G. Springsteen!
cosmicraysfilmfest.com/reviews-of-t...

♥️

tfw you go uptown to the Jameson memorial but you also get to stop by your old apt to get the issue of Parapraxis on Economies you accidentally mailed there 💅

* also @benjamincrais.bsky.social did a fantastic job !!

courtesy of @vuernica.bsky.social , currently working on his archives)

some of jameson’s impressions of israel (“and then it came to me: that israel is california”)

MECW 1: 215

Gushing Prayer In the summer of 1949, several months after joining the youth wing of the national communist party, the 17-year-old poet Nagasawa Nobuko took her own life with poison. Two decades later, Nagasawa’s po...

a few words on masao adachi’s gushing prayer for @screenslate.bsky.social

www.screenslate.com/articles/gus...

The Film Comment Podcast: The Films of Robert Kramer Starting places: critics Erika Balsom and Benjamin Crais join to discuss the undersung filmmaker’s richly heterogenous, and endlessly fascinating, body of work

In this episode of Film Comment, Clinton Krute and Michael Blair invited Erika Balsom and Benjamin Crais, two noted critics who each proudly own original Milestones posters, to discuss Robert Kramer’s life and work. https://buff.ly/408Szf3 #ListenUP

Wasn't on bluesky when it came out, so I didn't advertise it over here but looking back on 2024 I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on a special issue of Polygraph 29, "Narrative and Crisis," together with my colleagues & friends benjamincrais.bsky.social and carsonw.bsky.social

favorite first watches of 2024

wrote about the cinema of the portuguese revolution for film comment