As always when I talk about Shakespeare's Othello, I recall the first performance I ever saw, a 1980 Royal Shakespeare Company production at London's Aldwych Theatre, with the late Sir Donald Sinden dressed in black as Shakespeare's moor. (Sinden's slow, deliberate pronunciation of "Des-daaay-muu-naaa" still resonates with me 45 years later.) Thankfully, since the 1980s, it has become the norm for Black actors to play Othello, although at least initially they were overwhelmingly the only non-white figure in an all-white cast. While not ideal in 2026, this would underscore the play's racism (at least in the early scenes) and Othello's growing isolation once this is set aside, and it is doubts about Desdemona's infidelity that completely unsettle him, leading to tragedy. There would have been ethnic diversity in late 16th-century Venice, and this was reflected in Tom Morris's cast for his production, which featured modern costumes. David Harewoo...
The Indonesian horror film Shutter revolves around a photographer and the ghost from his past that continues to haunt him. The film spends considerable time explaining why Darwin loved analog photography and how there's hardly any room for editing on film, ultimately concluding that if you capture a ghost on film, it can be confirmed that you've actually seen a ghost! On the way home from a wedding, Pia accidentally hit a woman on a deserted road. She suggested they go check on her, but Darwin advised her to just leave. Pia didn't know what to do, so she ended up following Darwin's advice. After the accident, Pia and Darwin began seeing the ghost of the woman they had hit. Pia wasn't afraid; instead, she felt a need to understand what the spirit was trying to tell her. As the ghost continued to haunt them, Pia felt compelled to find out what had happened to the woman they had hit. She and Darwin returned to the same spot and spoke with a shopkeeper. They were surpri...