Cinema Citizen – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 8, 2025: HOLA FRIDA

August 1, 2025August 3, 2025 Jennifer Merin Andre Kadi, animation, Annie Girard, betsy bozdech, biopics, Cate Marquis, Cinema Citizen, Diego Rivera, Emma Rodriguez, Frida Kahlo, Hola Frida, jennifer merin, Karine Vezina, leslie combemale, Level 33 Entertainment, liz whittemore, loren king, Manuel Tadros, nell minow, Olivia Ruiz, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, truth-based

Like the lovingly illustrated picture book it’s based on (Frida, C’est Moi), Karine Vézina and André Kadi’s charming Frida Kahlo biopic Hola Frida brings the famous artist’s early years to life in a colorful, creative, accessible way. It’s simple enough for even young children to understand, yet it has enough layers that it will still be appreciated by those who are already familiar with the story of Kahlo’s path to becoming an icon of both feminism and international art.

Reviews

HOLA FRIDA – Review by Jennifer Merin

July 28, 2025July 31, 2025 Jennifer Merin Andre Kadi, animation, biopics, Cinema Citizen, Frida Kahlo, Hola Frida, Karine Vezina, Level 33 Entertainment, truth-based

Hola Frida is a charming, beautifully animated biopic about artist Frida Kahlo’s childhood. Co-directors Karine Vezina and Andre Kadi focus on young Frida, the smart and curious girl whose indominable spirit gives her the strength to soar past her physical afflictions and imagine a world of wonders. The storytelling is deceptively simple in its understated delivery of wise advice. It leads to an understand of why Frida Kahlo became a painter.

Reviews

EARTH DAYS – Retroview by Jennifer Merin

April 20, 2024April 21, 2024 Jennifer Merin Cinema Citizen, documentaries, earth days, environmental movement, Richard Nixon, robert stone, ronald reagan, stewart brand, stewart udall

Why, if we were nearing environmental sustainability thirty years ago, do we now find ourselves on the brink of ecological disaster? Documentary director Robert Stone assembled and interviewed a special tribe of the environmental movement’s elders — Stuart Udall, Denis Hayes, Paul Ehrlich, Pete McCloskey and Rusty Schweickart among other activists, politicians and forecasters — who give testimony about conservation advances made during the 1960s and 70s, and lead us to understanding what has happened beginning with the Nixon administration to bring us to the brink of environmental disaster.

Reviews

NICKY’S FAMILY – Retroview by Jennifer Merin

March 11, 2024March 12, 2024 Jennifer Merin Cinema Citizen, documentaries, holocaust, Matej Minac, nicky's family, Patrik Pass, sir nicholas winton

Just before the outbreak of World War II, an unassuming English businessman named Nicholas Winton traveled to Czechoslovakia and witnessed conditions that compelled him to organize the transport of 669 Czech and Slovak children — many of them Jewish — from their homeland to the safety of England. With careful planning and tremendous courage, he rescued them from suffering and death at the hands of Nazi invaders who eventually killed many of the children’s parents, siblings and extended family members.

Reviews

NYAD – Review by T.J. Callahan

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 T. J. Callahan annette bening, bonnie stoller, Cinema Citizen, diana nyad, jodie foster, julia cox, netflix, nyad, Rhys Ifans, truth-based

Academy Award nominee Annette Bening makes a splash as the tenacious, outspoken, record breaking swimmer with a superiority complex. Bening keeps this flick afloat with her willingness to go the extra mile in and out of the ocean. Co-star and Oscar Winner Jodie Foster matches Bening stroke for stroke as her best friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll. As NYAD kicks into gear, so do Bening and Foster with an effortless relay exchange of dialogue that helped keep this two hour aquatic tale from going under.

Reviews

NYAD – Review by Jennifer Merin

October 10, 2023October 16, 2023 Jennifer Merin annette bening, bonnie stoller, Cinema Citizen, diana nyad, jodie foster, julia cox, netflix, nyad, Rhys Ifans, truth-based

Anyone age five or older in 2023 most likely knows of the exploits of Diana Nyad, the legendary long distance swimmer who at long last conquered her long-standing goal of swimming the 110 miles of open sea from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. She was age 64 when she dove into her fifth attempt to swim the distance and, despite daunting odds, reached Key West after some 53 hours in the water. Directing their first narrative feature, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin effectively tell the story of Nyad’s triumph.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK August 11, 2023: KING COAL

August 7, 2023August 21, 2023 Jennifer Merin appalachia, betsy bozdech, Bobak Lotfipour, Cinema Citizen, curran sheldon, documentaries, elaine mcmillion sheldon, jennifer merin, king coal, motw, Movie of the Week, Requisite Media

It’s very tempting to dismiss the coal-mining industry of Appalachia as the stubborn relic of an outdated era — the last gasp of the original Industrial Revolution that refuses to make way for newer, more environmentally friendly options like solar and wind energy. But to do so is to ignore the reality that coal still plays a major role in many Americans’ lives, a fact that Elaine McMillion Sheldon conveys powerfully in her lyrical documentary King Coal.

Reviews

KING COAL – Review by Jennifer Merin

August 1, 2023August 8, 2023 Jennifer Merin appalachia, Cinema Citizen, curran sheldon, documentaries, elaine mcmillion sheldon, king coal, motw, Movie of the Week

King Coal is a serenely meditative, exquisitely lyrical cinematic celebration of a specific American community and culture that is oft misunderstood. Appalachian filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon’s hybrid documentary is a personal memoire in which she combines archival and current observational footage with creative storytelling to take us deep into the region where she spent her childhood and still has family roots. It is an area where coal mining rules the economy, the politics and local tradition. As the film’s title indicates, coal is king.

Lists Reviews

Cinema Citizen’s Memorial Day Watch List – Reviews by Jennifer Merin

May 26, 2023May 27, 2023 Jennifer Merin Cinema Citizen, documentaries, memorial day watch list

On Memorial Day, as a way of honoring fallen heroes and those who’ve returned hone from war, take time to watch these emotion-filled documentaries that tell the true stories of combat veterans, ranging in age from newly recruited teens to seasoned career warriors, from all branches of the military, from across the United States and beyond. Listed in alphabetical order, this selection of impactful documentaries chronicle the experiences and emotions of men at war and show how those who return home struggle to reenter society and relate normally to their families. In their own words, these military men and women remind us that conflict resolution through peaceful negotiation is the better choice.

Reviews

DESERT OF FORBIDDEN ART (2011) – Retroview by Jennifer Merin

August 8, 2022August 18, 2022 Jennifer Merin Amanda Pope, Ben Kingsley, Cinema Citizen, Desert of Forbidden Art, documentaries, Edward Azner, Igor Savitsky, Sally Field, Tchavdar Georgiev

In remote Uzbekistan, documentary filmmakers Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev find an unknown museum in which a single collector, Igor Savitsky, managed to save 44,000 world class art works from sure destruction by the repressive Soviet regime that deemed them anti-Soviet and had banned them. If you love art and history and heros, you will love The Desert of Forbidden Art.

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