Back in November we got stoked on the third annual Athena Film Festival coming to New York this February. Now we’re extra stoked because the lineup has finally been released! In case you missed our post about this year’s festival, the Athena Film Festival is an event dedicated to exploring female leadership. Leading ladies on and off screen come together to raise questions about what it means to be a leader, in reality ... Read More

It’s the perfect time for Jack Kerouac’s iconic autobio- graphical novel On the Road to come to the big screen, despite skepticism that this singular staple of beat liter- ature has finally been sold out. Today we find ourselves in an era of uncertain futures populated by emasculated, cigarette-smoking young men with thick-framed glasses and the women who love them—not unlike the late ’40s. Screenwriter Jose ... Read More

Things are not good for Sweetness O’Hara. A shy, studious girl in a rough neighborhood, Sweetness (the captivating Zöe Kravitz) is bullied at school and alternately abused and ignored by her alcoholic father and mentally ill mother. When she finally hits her breaking point, things get even worse—if you can believe it. Director Victoria Mahoney has cast a talented ensemble, featuring Precious star Gabourey Sidibe, Tim Blake ... Read More

In rural India, over 80 percent of women use rags, often ripped from old clothing, to manage their monthly visit from good ol’ Aunt Flo. Though we’re all about environmentally friendly period solutions here at BUST, the statistics tell a different story: the often unsanitary rag cloths that women use during their periods can cause infections and even infertility, cancer, and death.   When inventor Muruganantham found out ... Read More

Unofficial Icelandic national hero (and sometime Brooklynite) Björk is back, baby. Her new MOCA-commissioned video for “Mutual Core,” from her 2011 album-cum-educational art installation Biophilia, is just as odd and visually stunning as you’d expect: the singer, decked out in an Ursula-esque blue wig, directs a cast of gravity-defying humanoid crustaceans in a cycle of colliding, kissing, and pushing each other ... Read More