1000 Women in Horror – Documentary Review
1000 Women in Horror is a fascinating feminist primer and analysis of the horror genre, chronicling its evolution from the earliest days of cinema to the present — 1895 to 2018, to be exact. The enlightening documentary covers the impressive history of women creatives who’ve focused on horror and have fully developed female-centered subgenres such as those base in experiences of abuse and rape revenge, challenging postpartem psysiological and psychological conditions, coming of age and dealing with aging, along with others that storytell about strictly female issues.
Read MoreNATCHEZ – Documentary Review
Natchez is filmmaker Suzannah Herbert’s documentary about the small Southern city with a huge history. The titular town is actually the oldest city on the Mississippi. Residents take pride in boasting their city’s two year seniority over New Orleans. Historically, Natchez has been a prosperous community, a Mississippi hub for cuture and the arts, endowed with an awesome array of beautiful historic mansions that have been cafrefully maintained through the ages. Today, Natchez is a popular destination for US and international tourists who want to view the historic mansions and experience the city’s legendary Southern charm and hospitality.
Read MorePina (2011) – Documentary Review
About Pina, By Pina, For Pina In subtitling this documentary A Film For Pina, filmmaker Wim Wenders clearly announces his intention to deliver a cinematic tribute to the brilliant German dancer and choreographer, Pina Bausch, who is its leading subject and character. Wenders and Bausch were in pre-production for the film in 2009 when Bausch […]
Read MoreMovie Review of ‘The September Issue’ – 2009
The September Issue covers the preparation of Vogue Magazine’s annual style-setting issue, and profiles the book’s prima fashionista, Anna Wintour, who is arguably the most influential taste-maker in the world. R.J. Cutler follows Wintour into editorial meetings, fashion shows in Europe and to her own home, where she asks her teenage daughter’s opinion about fashion […]
Read MoreUnBroken – Documentary Review
UnBroken is a compelling documentary that tells the story of the Weber siblings — six sisters and one brother — who, as a family, survived the holocaust by miraculously evading transport to Auschwitz, where their mother was incarcerated and murdered. A Unique Holocaust Survival Story The Weber children are the only set of seven Jewish […]
Read MorePORTRAIT OF JASON (1967, 2013) – Documentary Retroview
As part of its ongoing Shirley Clarke Project, Milestone Pictures has completely restored Portrait of Jason, and is re-releasing the film theatrically, on DVD and via broadcast. Portrait of Jason had its theatrical premiere on October 2, 1967 in New York. After a successful art house run, the masterful film was added to the inventory of several film archives and collections, including that of the Museum of Modern Art. However, the prints eventually became worn and/or damaged to the degree that the fine qualities of the film were obscured. And, the original master was lost for more than 45 years.
Read MoreORNETTE Made in America – Movie Retroview – 1986/2012
Filmmaker Shirley Clarke’s experimental approach to movie making matches up perfectly with jazz man Ornette Coleman’s experimental approach to music making in this classic documentary profile and tribute film. The project was initiated during the early 1980s in response to producer Kathelin Hoffman’s wish to document the debut performance of Ornette Coleman’s symphony, Skies of America, at the opening of Fort Worth’s new Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Center. As Clarke and crew worked on the film, ORNETTE Made in America developed into an experimental foray into the previously untried amalgamation of different film stocks and video format into a film that could be released theatrically.
Read MoreDocumentary Retroview: THE END OF AMERICA (2008)
The End Of America presents the ten step blueprint that Hitler and other dictators used to subvert democratic process and put an end to personal freedoms. It compares, step by step, events leading up to establishment of the Third Reich with what has happened in the United States in recent years. Very convincing. Very scary. Should be required viewing for anyone old enough to vote or join the army.
Read MoreTHE COMMANDANT’S SHADOW – Documentary Review
The Commandant’s Shadow is Daniela Volker’s revelatory Holocaust documentary about life after Auschwitz. More specifically, it focuses on Auschwitz Commandant Hoss’ son and daughter and grandson, delving into how they’ve come to terms with knowing that their beloved forebear mass murdered more humans than any other human in history. Hoss’ wife is also questioned about her husband’s ‘work,’ executing Adolf Hitler’s command for the death camp.
Read MoreFOOD INC (2008)- Documentary Review
Food, Inc. is an alarming expose of the way food is produced and distributed in the United States. Interviewing investigators, journalists and farmers, filmmaker Robert Kenner shows how almost everything we eat is produced and distributed by a very few huge multinational corporations, such as Monsanto and Tyson, and that quality of nutrition is secondary […]
Read MoreAmerica The Beautiful (2007) – Documentary Review
America Is Obsessed With An Unattainable Standard of Beauty America’s obsession with beauty is the subject of filmmaker Darryl Roberts wide-ranging investigative documentary. Using archival footage and interviews with image-makers and beauty battle victims, Roberts reveals how how media, marketers and retailers manipulate women into thinking they must be avid beauty product and service consumers […]
Read MoreSMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD – Documentary Review
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is an intimate, enlightening feminist documentary from Estonian filmmaker Anna Hints. We are invited to observe a group of women who’ve come together to cleanse their bodies, minds and spirits by celebrating the ritual of a traditional Estonian sauna
Read MoreBEYOND UTOPIA – Documentary Review
Beyond Utopia is Madeleine Gavin’s gripping documentary about North Koreans enduring the dangers of trying to escape their repressive country, risking their lives to reach Thailand, so they can eventually make their way to settlement in South Korea. We often hear reports of abusive and inhumane conditions in North Korea, bur rarely get an inside glimpse like the one provided by this galvanizing documentary. It it is very hard to watch, but it is essential viewing.
Read MoreINVISIBLE BEAUTY – Documentary Review
Invisible Beauty is a thoroughly engaging autobiography documentary by and about Bethann Hardison, the Black fashion model, modeling agency owner and activist who challenged racist attitudes and practices in the fashion industry and changed ‘the look’ of runway shows, magazine spreads and other platforms for fashion marketing.
Read MoreJOYCE CAROL OATES: A BODY IN SERVICE OF MIND – Documentary Review
Filmmaker Stig Bjorkman. a longstanding friend of Joyce Carol Oates. gives us a respectful and intimate documentary that spends its hour and a half on current interviews with Oates, as well as clips from her past interviews with Dick Cavitt and other broadcast presenters and select readings from her writings that are voiced by Laura […]
Read MoreBELLA! – Documentary Review
Bella! And, yes, be sure to include the exclamation point in the film’s title because the subject of Jeff L. Leiberman’s well researched and beautifully crafted documentary deserves emphatic punctuation. Bella Abzug (1920-1998) was a champion of civil rights for women in every aspect of our lives. She was the feminist activist politician who fought fiercely to enact laws to establish and protect equity in the workplace, in government representation, in family matters — all of the women’s civil rights that we are now at such high risk of losing in our nation’s current regressive climate.
Read MoreLAKOTA NATION Vs UNITED STATES – Documentary Review
Lakota Nation Vs. United States is a compelling advocacy documentary that chronicles the United States’ government’s ongoing land grab of Lakota territory in Northeastern Wyoming in violation of the Black Hills Treaty of 1868. At this moment in US history, when the Constitution — our government’s essential treaty with our nation’s citizens — is being challenged and our civil rights are being eroded, Lakota Nation Vs. United States is an effective cry for justice. It is an essential watch.
Read MoreGIRL MODEL (2012) – Documentary Review
The commonplace perception about modeling is that it is a glamorous career that pays extremely well and offers fabulous opportunities for travel to exotic destinations where you get to hang out with the world’s most beautiful people in the world’s best hotels, dining at the best restaurants and wearing fabulous clothing and accessories. With all that in the offering, the job has allure, to say the least. And, that’s especially true for girls who’ve grown up under difficult circumstances and are looking for a way to work their way towards a better life.
Read MoreUSERS – Documentary Review
Mexican-American filmmaker Natalia Almada’s documentary, Users, is a poetic and profoundly provocative delve into the complex intersection of nature and technology in human civilization, present and future. The film presents itself as 81-minute meditation on the ways in which our increasing dependence on technology will impact our future generations, and those who are being birthed […]
Read MoreHITLER’S HOLLYWOOD (2017) – Documentary Retroview
Filmmaker Rudiger Suchsland’s Hitler’s Hollywood is a compilation documentary that uses clips from films produced during the Nazi regime to show how the movies were used to indoctrinate the masses and influence their behavior. Subtitled German Cinema in the Age of Propaganda: 1933-45, the film is more analysis than homage, presenting a fascinating profile of […]
Read MoreShakespeare High (2011) – Documentary Retroview
In Southern California, a mixed demographic of high school drama student teams from several schools scattered across the areas diverse neighborhoods, prepare to compete in the Drama Teachers Association of Southern California Shakespeare Festival, held each April. Over the years since its inception, the annual Shakespeare competition has become just as popular as local and national sports events, and members of the participating schools’ drama groups are campus stars.
Read MoreSweetgrass (2010) – Documentary Retroview
Filmmakers Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor follow Montana sheep herders as they drive 3,000 sheep through the Beartooth Mountains of Montana during the summer of 2003. This challenging and dangerous journey was the final annual sheep drive along a trail that has been followed since the early 1900s. The documentary is cinema verite in its purest form. There is no use of voice over narration to tell the story, no graphics are used during the film to establish location or explain images. Sweetgrass is an exquisite example of what the directors call ‘visual antropology.’
Read MoreSTORIES WE TELL (2012) – Documentary Retroview
Acclaimed Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley documents her own search to find out the truth about her parentage, trying to track down the truth about whether the man she’s known as dad for her entire life is or is not her biological father.
Read MoreWaste Land (2010) – Documentary Review
Acclaimed Brooklyn, NY-based artist Vik Muniz returns to his native country of Brazil, where he embarks upon a remarkable creative journey with a group of men and women who toil as catadores (garbage pickers) at Jardim Gramacho, a Rio de Janiero landfill.
Read MoreMARWENCOL – Movie Review – 2010
In April 2000, Mark Hogancamp lost his life, and got it back. He was literally beaten to death in a drunken brawl in a Kingston, NY bar. When paramedics resuscitated him, he had no recollection of anything about his identity or personal past.
Gradually, as a form of therapy, he began to construct a model town in his back yard. It was called Marwencol, and it was the replica of an imaginary French community during World War II.
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