Telluride and After

FQ editor-in-chief B. Ruby Rich reports from the 48th edition of the Telluride Film Festival. Unlike most of its peer festivals, Telluride opted not to hold a virtual edition in 2020, a decision entirely in keeping with its emphasis on the tactile and experiential aspects of cinema, and which made its return in 2021 all the more giddy for first-time attendees and long-term devotees alike. Rich reviews the many festival highlights, from Jane Campion’s reinvention of the Western in The Power of the Dog to Todd Haynes’ archival documentary The Velvet Underground. Childhood takes center stage in new films from Céline Sciamma and Kenneth Branagh while misunderstood masculinity emerges as a theme in Michael Pearce’s Encounter, Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero, and Mike Mills’s C’mon C’mon. Including a coda on the New York Film Festival, Rich concludes that the masterful riches of the two festivals augur well for the fall 2021 season.

High-performance freestanding thermoelectric membrane by intact exfoliation of van der Waals epitaxial bismuth antimony telluride film

Separation of epitaxial thin films on growth substrate and transferring onto other materials for functional heterostructures have boosted the transformative impact on science and technology. However, this scheme has proved challenging in thin film thermoelectrics, but promised a vast range of applications beyond the limited device configurations of bulk thermoelectrics. Here, we demonstrate that the Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 (BST) epitaxial thin film on sapphire substrate grown by spontaneous van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) is exfoliated and transferred onto versatile materials, creating the high-quality freestanding thermoelectric membranes. Unprecedented millimeter-size vdWE BST membranes are produced by etching pseudomorphic Te monolayer on the surface of sapphire substrate in dilute HF solution. The intact exfoliation and direct transfer for vdWE BST membranes ensures a high thermoelectric performance, maintaining the high-quality crystallinity and subsequently showing the remarkable zT value (~0.9 at 300 K) in thin film thermoelectrics. These results represent the realization of long pursued but yet to be demonstrated high-performance thin film thermoelectrics, paving the way for design and fabrication of arbitrary shaped thermoelectric devices.

The Aftermath

This chapter mentions Paweł Pawlikowski's acceptance speech after Ida won the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which was the first time that a film from Poland had won the award. It analyses Pawlikowski's description of Ida as a film in black-and-white that stresses the need for contemplation and silence from the world. It also recounts Ida's world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado on August 30, 2013 and its rise to recognition by 2014. The chapter details how Ida received positive reviews in Western Europe and North America from the time of its premiere. It looks at Kenneth Turan's review of Ida in The Los Angeles Times, which described Ida as a film of exceptional artistry whose emotions are as potent and persuasive as its images are indelibly beautiful.

Lights, Camera, Library

Providing public library services to a resort community whose members range from service industry workers to Hollywood moguls positions Wilkinson Public Library in Telluride, CO, as an institution bridging economic disparities. Community partnerships form the foundation for free library-based film series hosted by international festivals, including the acclaimed Telluride Film Festival and eclectic Mountainfilm. Both festivals enjoy a long history in this remote western ski town, and as a result of their national success, risk being disconnected from the average local. Through year-long partnerships with the public library, both festivals are strengthening ties with their home base. In turn, the library is fulfilling its role as the great equalizer and enhancing its facility through the benevolence of the festival organizations.