Cynthia Fuchs

Cynthia Fuchs is director of Film & Media Studies and Associate Professor of English, Film & Video Studies, African and African American Studies, Sport & American Culture, and Women and Gender Studies at George Mason University. She has published numerous articles on pop culture and politics, most recently, "'A few brief moments': Truth and Image in Sports Documentaries," in Gender and Genre: Critical Essays on Sports Documentaries. She edited Spike Lee: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press 2002), and co-edited both Iraq War Cultures (Peter Lang 2011) and Between the Sheets, In the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, and Gay Documentary (University of Minnesota 1997).
What Is Real in the YouTube World of ‘Presenting Princess Shaw’?

What Is Real in the YouTube World of ‘Presenting Princess Shaw’?

Presenting Princess Shaw simultaneously exposes and obscures the process of documentary-making.
Kathryn Bigelow’s Intense ‘Detroit’ Finds a Glimmer of Hope Amidst the Hopelessness

Kathryn Bigelow’s Intense ‘Detroit’ Finds a Glimmer of Hope Amidst the Hopelessness

This is no one's neighborhood. Detroit doesn’t help anyone to feel at home, least of all viewers.
Understanding Formula in Martin Provost’s ‘The Midwife’

Understanding Formula in Martin Provost’s ‘The Midwife’

Your view of the protagonist's view is not frightening, but heartening. It's good to go off script, especially in a way that adheres to formula.
‘Dunkirk’: “The Bodies Come Back”

‘Dunkirk’: “The Bodies Come Back”

Dunkirk turns war movie tropes inside out to articulate a broader theme, not only the truism that war is excruciating, but more profoundly, that war is always the same, that it repeats, that it cannot be won.
‘A Ghost Story’ Is an Artful Prelude to Pattern

‘A Ghost Story’ Is an Artful Prelude to Pattern

Lowery's movie transforms all manner of ordinary actions into weird little bits, most often offered in long takes and long distances, immobile images or slow frame movements.

Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’ Shows We’re All Prisoners of the Past

‘Maudie’ Explores How Art Can Come From the Most Unlikely Places

‘Maudie’ Explores How Art Can Come From the Most Unlikely Places

Sally Hawkins lifts her complex role with a graceful energy, helped by Maudie's visual approach, which is sometimes delicately impressionistic and sometimes more artisanal.
‘Megan Leavey’: The Story of a Dog and His Girl

‘Megan Leavey’: The Story of a Dog and His Girl

Megan Leavey is not interested in the Iraq war as such. What it offers instead is the story of her journey, heartfelt and well-acted, but never surprising.
Listen to Your Own Heartbeat: Katell Quillévére‘s ‘Heal the Living’

Listen to Your Own Heartbeat: Katell Quillévére‘s ‘Heal the Living’

The film traces loss and what comes after, the process of acceding to pain and encountering fears and anguish, and the implacable order of hospitals.
‘Colossal’, Monsters, TV and You

‘Colossal’, Monsters, TV and You

Among other things, Colossal asks you to consider your own responsibility for what and how you watch.
Jazz, Loss, and Understanding in ‘I Called Him Morgan’

Jazz, Loss, and Understanding in ‘I Called Him Morgan’

While exposing the fragments and fault lines of memories, I Called Him Morgan tells the stories of Helen and Lee Morgan. It's also a story of storytelling.
‘Personal Shopper’ Dancing With the Camera

‘Personal Shopper’ Dancing With the Camera

Maureen's (Kristen Stewart) ongoing dance with the camera seduces you, because it is, after all, a dance with you.