Nell Minow – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

SUNLIGHT – Review by Nell Minow

May 29, 2025May 30, 2025 Nell Minow Bill Wise, Monkey, monkey suit, Nina Conti, Shenoah Allen, Sunlight, ventriloquism

The excellent documentary Dumbstruck shows us that many ventriloquists feel that they can make more unfiltered, even outrageous comments as their puppets than they can as themselves. We can think of narrative filmmaking as a kind of ventriloquism, with the actors who may look and sound very different expressing the words and emotions imagined by the writer and director. Sunlight is directed by Nina Conti, a British comedian and ventriloquist who made a documentary in 2012 about inheriting her mentor’s puppets, documents, and equipment, and attending the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention in Kentucky. In her first narrative feature, Conti also stars as a sort of ventriloquist, appearing almost entirely dressed as a monkey, with a distinctly different – and more unfiltered and outrageous – voice than the one we finally hear as “herself.”

Interviews

JAZMIN JONES on SEEKING MAVIS BEACON, the Digital Age and Deep Fakes – Nell Minow interviews

August 21, 2024August 27, 2024 Nell Minow Black women, computer program icon, computer softwear typing, deep fakes, documentary, humanization of the artificial intelligence, Jazmin Jones, Olivia McKayla Ross, Renee L’esperance, Seeking Mavis Beacon

In the 1980s, when the ability to use a keyboard went from a clerical skill to an essential proficiency for accessing the Internet, the most popular software for learning how to type came in a box with a picture of a beautiful Black woman in a business suit, looking like a supremely confident and capable professional. The program featured a figure using the limited technology of the time presented as this woman, leading users through games to help them learn the keyboard. The model for the box and the pixilated avatar was named Mavis Beacon.

Reviews

AIR – Review by Nell Minow

December 20, 2023December 24, 2023 Nell Minow Air, amazon studios, ben affleck, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker, jason bateman, matt damon, Michael Jordan, Nike, truth-based, viola davis, Warner Bros.

2023 will be remembered as the year of the movies that are consumer product origin stories. We’re used to seeing heroic stories of military figures, musicians, political leaders and activists, and, because movies are written by writers — writers. But in 2023 we had a remarkable number of movies with heroes or anti-heroes who were, well, capitalists. We saw the origin stories of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, Blackberrys, Beanie Babies, and the proto-computer game Tetris, By far the best of the group, though, was the story of a sneaker, a shoe that would become so popular it would have, well, a massive cultural footprint.

Festivals

Middleburg Film Festival 2023 Wrap – Nell Minow reports

October 30, 2023October 30, 2023 Nell Minow film festivals, Michael Giacchino, Middleburg Film Festival, Noora Niasari, sheila johnson, Ukrainian filmmakers

The highlight of the Middleburg Film Festival every year is not a movie. It is the annual tribute to a film composer, with the Loudoun Symphony’s full orchestra playing the music. Festival founder Sheila Johnson was a music major in college, and she always reminds attendees of the vital importance of a score in guiding the emotions of the film audience. This year’s awardee, Michael Giacchino, attracted such an enthusiastic crowd that the staff of the festival had to rush to bring in several more rows of chairs.

Reviews

SUBJECT – Review by Nell Minow

October 10, 2023December 17, 2023 Nell Minow Camilla Hall, documentary filmmaking, Hoop Dreams, Jennifer Tiexiera, Subject, The Square, The Staircase, the wolfpack, true crime

Over the past 25 years, documentaries have become not just a vital part of the world of film but an essential category of journalism, covering every possible aspect of culture, society, law, crime, politics, education, sports, history, science, and family life. While some documentaries are more explicitly presented as the perspective of the filmmaker, other ‘fly on the wall’ observational documentaries attempt to be objective. However, in reality every documentary is an edited version of reality.

Festivals

DC/DOX 2023: Wrap of the Inaugural Festival – Nell Minow reports

June 19, 2023September 4, 2023 Nell Minow AFI Docs Fest, DC/Dox 2023, documentaries, film festivals, Jamie Shor, Sky Sitney, Washington DC

When the Washington DC-based AFI Docs festival was merged with the LA festival, PR Collaborative’s Jamie Shor and Sky Sitney, director of the film and media studies program at Georgetown, created DC/Dox, which had its premiere festival from June 15 to 18, 2023. The first festival’s program included 31 features and 21 shorts from eight countries, screening in venues including the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the National Archives’ William G. McGowan Theater, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

Reviews

AWFJ Presents: REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD – Review by Nell Minow

February 8, 2023February 12, 2023 Nell Minow awfj presents, Chagall, documentaries, Film Movement, Kandinsky, Margy Kinmonth, Revolution: New Art for a New World, Sergei Eisenstein, Stalin

“Victims or vanguards?” That is the challenge faced by the artists in Revolution: New Art for a New World, a documentary about the freedom-seeking artists who helped overthrow Russia’s repressive tsarist regime, only to find themselves repressed by its totalitarian replacement, Stalin. And the answer, sadly, was both. Down with abstraction. Up with realist monuments to revolutionary leaders, “monumental propaganda.” An artist who capitulated found one kind of success. A copy of his portrait of Lenin was hung in every Soviet schoolroom. Another ended up designing textiles for tractors.

Reviews

AWFJ Presents: REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD – Review by Nell Minow

August 26, 2022February 9, 2023 Nell Minow awfj presents, Chagall, documentaries, Film Movement, Kandinsky, Margy Kinmonth, Revolution: New Art for a New World, Sergei Eisenstein, Stalin

Interviews

Katie Aselton on MACK & RITA, Diane Keaton and Collaboration – Nell Minow interviews

August 10, 2022August 14, 2022 Nell Minow book club, diane keaton, Elizabeth Lail, Katie Aselton, Mack & Rita, Paul Welsh, Taylour Paige

Katie Aselton is the director of the body-switching comedy Mack & Rita, about a 30-year-old who wishes she was 70 and is somehow transformed into Diane Keaton. In an interview she talked about how old she feels, directing Keaton (who played her mother in the film, Book Club), and why her favorite part of making movies is collaboration.

Reviews

SO YOU’VE GROWN ATTACHED – Review by Nell Minow

August 10, 2022August 14, 2022 Nell Minow Judith Viorst, kate tsang, Madeleine Conner, Necessary Losses, Short films

In this charming and wise short film, writer/director Kate Tsang tells a story of the first steps into growing up with captivating wit and charm, and with a quality that is even more rare, genuine whimsy. The black and white cinematography gives it a timeless, fairy tale quality that perfectly suits the mood of the story. Judith Viorst’s book, Necessary Losses, describes the often-wrenching pain that humans experience as we mature. That theme is brought to life in this film, as a young, sci-fi comics-loving girl named Izzy (Madeleine Conner) has a best friend who is sympathetic, supportive, fun, and always has time to play with her.

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