documentary – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE NATURAL STATE (Telluride FF 2026) – Review by Diane carson

September 11, 2026 Diane Carson documentary, Julie Thayer, Matthew Dougherty, Telluride Film Festival 2026, The Natural State, U.G. Krishnamurti

At the heart of The Natural State, a decidedly unusual documentary, is the emphatically reluctant Indian anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti. And yet, in a daring endeavor, director Matthew Dougherty relentlessly probes the charismatic appeal of U.G. who repeatedly and adamantly tells his followers that he has no secrets or truths to share with them and that, moreover, he has no interest in changing them. Rejecting that pronouncement, in 1989, abandoning her family, Julie Thayer left New York City for the Swiss Alps, eventually attaching herself and her psychological wellbeing to U.G. Ignoring his periodic commands to go away, Julie filmed hundreds of hours of U.G. while also keeping a diary of her despair alternating with ecstasy. Drawing on Julie’s footage and writings, Dougherty interprets the curious and nonsensical events defining U.G. and his uninvited entourage.

Reviews

TWIGGY – Review by Diane Carson

September 10, 2026September 11, 2026 Diane Carson documentary, Fran Dresher, Joanne Lumley, Justin de Villeneuve, Leigh Lawson, Lesley Hornby, Michael Witney, paul mccartney, Sadie Frost, Tommy Tune, Twiggy

As engaging and straightforward as its title luminary, British director Sadie Frost’s documentary Twiggy skillfully explores this multitalented model, film, theater, and television star. Through candid interviews with Twiggy, her daughter Carly, husband Leigh Lawson, numerous friends, and others with whom she worked, a personal and professional profile emerges of a multifaceted, largely unaffected, vivacious talent. With a factually oriented approach to Twiggy’s life, Frost balances Twiggy’s good luck at 16 to be dubbed “The Face of ‘66” by London’s Daily Express and thereafter catapulted to stardom with her dedication and hard work for succeeding decades.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK Sept 11, 2026: DEAR MS.: A REVOLUTION IN PRINT (In Memoriam for Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan)

September 6, 2026September 6, 2026 Jennifer Merin alice gu, betsy bozcech, Cate Marquis, Cecilia Aldarondo, Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print, documentary, gloria steinem, jane fonda, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, liz whittemore, loren king, motw, Movie of the Week, Ms, nell minow, Pat Carbine, salima koroma, sandie angulo chen, sherin nicole, women's movement

In a time when what it means to be a feminist seems to be as hotly contested as it ever has been, it’s illuminating to look back at the 1970s, when the “women’s lib” movement was hitting the mainstream. By telling the story of the magazine that strove to support and further that movement, Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print reminds us of how much has changed since then…and how far we have to go. (AWFJ.org featured Dear Ms.: A Revolution in Print as our MOTW on July 2, 2025, we do so again to honor Ms. Magazine co-founders Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan, recently deceased.)

Reviews

BLACK ZOMBIE – Review by Beth Accomando

September 6, 2026September 7, 2026 Beth Accomando Black Zombie, canadian films., documentary, George A. Romero, Haitian independence debt, Haitian Vodou, horror films, Maya Annik Bedward, slavery, Tananarive Due, zombie mythology

Black Zombie is a fascinating and enlightening documentary that looks to the roots of zombie mythology in Haitian Vodou. When zombies invaded our pop consciousness, they grabbed hold with ferocious tenacity. Vampire, mummies, and werewolves have long engaged the imagination throughliterature and film but their popularity seems to ebb and low. Zombies, on the other hand, keep rising from the dead to entrench themselves deeper and deeper in our collective consciousness.

Reviews

SARA BAREILLES: GOOD GRIEF – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

September 3, 2026September 4, 2026 Valerie Kalfrin Butterfly Boucher, Charley Drayton, documentary, Jenna Rosher, Jonathan Low, Josh Alexander, Misty Boyce, Rob Moose, Sara Bareilles: Good Grief

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles says she believes music is “of the soul.” Her new documentary has so much music, heart, creativity, and love that viewers will feel privileged Bareilles has opened her soul to us. The often-self-deprecating performer likely would puncture that with a wry aside or an expletive—plenty of which are on display here. (“You know when you’re caffeinated and for ten minutes, everything is possible?” she says at one point.) In limited release, this roughly ninety-minute film follows about a week of recording sessions for her new album, titled Good Grief, at Dreamland Recording Studios in Hurley, New York. Yet it’s impossible to watch Sara Bareilles: Good Grief without feeling humbled not just by Bareilles’s vocal range and lyrical talents but her willingness to engage with the uncomfortable, painful subject of loss.

Reviews

LEARNING TO FLY – Review by Diane Carson

August 28, 2026August 30, 2026 Diane Carson Aiesha McAdams, documentary, Eszter Csillag, Jim Walmsley, Learning to Fly, Rod Farvard, ultramarathon runners, Western States Endurance Run

Watching the pain and fortitude required for 100-plus mile ultramarathoners, the question that recurs is “Why?” The daunting challenge of the grueling distance (almost four traditional marathons back to back) is compounded in several races that require running uneven, gravel trails through the night with a total elevation gain of over 18,000 feet. The most difficult 108 mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) involves a loop around that 15,781 foot mountain with an elevation gain of 32,800 feet and an equivalent elevation descent. Runners must finish in under forty seven hours. Painfully and reluctantly, some will have to withdraw. Others will complete the course to their incalculable delight, even as they collapse at the finish line.

Reviews

A CHILD OF MY OWN- Review by April Neale

August 6, 2026 April Neale A Child of My Own, Alejandra Marín Mendoza, documentary, maite alberdi

There are true crime documentaries that ask who did it? Others ask why? Maite Alberdi’s unsettling A Child of My Own asks something far more intriguing, especially for female viewers: What kind of society creates the conditions where a lie becomes easier to live than the truth? The Chilean filmmaker, whose exquisite documentaries The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory demonstrated extraordinary empathy without sacrificing journalistic rigor, turns her lens toward a recent and disturbing child abduction case in Mexico. Yet this is not another sensationalized Netflix true crime binge. It is a nuanced examination, laced with humorous moments, of identity, womanhood, fertility, shame, and cultural expectation. Bottom line: Visually inventive, emotionally layered, and ethically rigorous, A Child of My Own blends the emotional excess of a telenovela with the investigative discipline of documentary filmmaking. The result is one of the year’s most thought-provoking nonfiction films.

Reviews

A PARADISE LOST – Review by Betsy Pickle

July 24, 2026July 25, 2026 Betsy Pickle A Paradise Lost, animation, Big Island of Hawaii, documentary, endangered species, Laurie Sumiye, palila bird

A Paradise Lost starts with a shocking murder, but it’s not a whodunnit. It’s a tale of myths and magic, of passing time and inevitable “progress,” of legal maneuvers and moral justice, of humans vs. nature — and nature vs. nature. It’s a documentary that is whimsical and pedantic, spiritual and practical. The paradise of the title is Hawaii, specifically the Big Island of Hawaii, home to the volcano Mauna Kea and a small bird called a palila. With a vibrant yellow head and neck, a white belly and gray wings, the palila is noted for the beauty of its plumage and its song. It’s also an endangered species.

Reviews

BRUNELLO: THE GRACIOUS VISIONARY – Review by T.J. Callahan

July 22, 2026July 20, 2026 T. J. Callahan Brunello Cucinelli, Brunello: The Gracious Visionary, documentary, Giuseppe Tornatore, King of Cashmere

We need to talk about Brunello. Brunello Cucinelli. The King of Cashmere. Have you heard of him? I hadn’t. I shop at Marshall’s, but I am glad I know him now. Thanks to the creatively inspirational filmmaking of Academy Award-winning writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), Brunello: The Gracious Visionary gives us an inside and insightful look at the extraordinary life of the man who rose from poverty in a small Italian village to build a billion dollar luxury fashion empire by breaking all the business rules.

Movie of the Week

MOVIE OF THE WEEK July 24, 2026: A LIFE ILLUMINATED

July 19, 2026 Jennifer Merin A Life Illuminated, betsy bozdech, bioluminescence, Cate Marquis, documentary, Edith Widder, jennifer merin, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, monique jones, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, oceanography, sandie angulo chen, Tasha Van Zandt

If most people spent as much time thinking about what’s below the waves as they do what’s beyond the stars, chances are that more of them would know who Dr. Edith Widder is. But since that’s not the case, we can all be grateful to filmmaker Tasha Van Zandt for the excellent job she does presenting the pioneering oceanographer/marine biologist and her fascinating life’s work in the documentary A Life Illuminated.

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