For Memorial Day: War is not the Answer
On Memorial Day, as a way of honoring fallen heros and those who’ve returned hone from war, take time to watch these emotion-filled documentaries — most of them telling the true stories of combat veterans — that remind us that conflict resolution through peaceful negotiation is the better choice.
Read MoreL’Amour Fou (2011) – Documentary Retroview
Yves Saint-Laurent was a talented and troubled man, and nobody knew him better than his longtime business partner and lover, Pierre Berge. Interviewed after Saint-Laurent’s death for L’Amour Fou, Berge tells all — about the brilliant and beloved designer’s reaction to fame and to failure, about his shyness and deep depressions, about his psychotic episodes and seeking seclusion
Read MoreFANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK – Documentary Review
Fanny: The Right to Rock is filmmaker Bobbi Jo Hart’s completely captivating documentary about the first all-girl hard rock band, Fanny, and how this sisterhood of talented and tenacious Filipina women musicians almost became the female equivalent of The Beatles.
Read MoreTO WHICH WE BELONG – Documentary Review
To Which We Belong is an informative and encouraging advocacy documentary from filmmakers Pamela Tanner Boll and Lindsay Richardson. The subject is climate change, and the fundamental message is that we humans can actually manage the use of our land to protect our planet from its demise and, ultimately, our own. As illustrated in the film, what is most immediately needed is restoration of healthy soil. which is not all that difficult to accomplish.
Read MoreMEAT LOAF: IN SEARCH OF PARADISE (2007) – Documentary Retroview
At age 59, legendary rocker Meat Loaf launched a worldwide tour to promote his new album, Bat Out Of Hell III, with new stagings of some of his most popular songs. This is the first time the iconic star had given a film crew access to his grueling artistic process.
Read MoreTHE CONDUCTOR – Documentary Review
The Conductor is documentary filmmaker Bernadette Wegenstein’s joyful biodoc about Maestra Marin Alsop, the first female conductor to direct a major American symphony orchestra. Marin Alsop is currently the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as well as chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Filmmaker Bernadette Wegenstein hails from Vienna, but now […]
Read MoreLADY BUDS – Documentary Review
Chris J. Russo’s engaging and informative first feature documentary, Lady Buds, is an enlightening and exasperating tell all about the troubles currently impacting the lives and careers of women who are working in the weed trade in Northern California. The film chronicles the struggles of six independent female cannabis growers and distributors who were once […]
Read MoreDocumentary Retroview: Taxi To The Dark Side (2007)
Alex Gibney’s new film, Taxi To The Dark Side, released on January 18, 2008, is a shocking expose about the American military’s use of torture to get confessions–not always truthful ones–from prisoners suspected of terrorism. Meet the prisoners and the perps.
Read MoreMovie Review: LANGUAGE LESSONS
Language Lessons is a pandemic inspired two-character, two-location, two-screen, zoom-tech, dramedy born of the pandemic and imposed isolation, and produced during the lockdown. It is a film that reflects many of the personal issues brought on by the pandemic, but it is not about the pandemic per se — and that makes it a very special and utterly engaging entertainment.
Read MoreDocumentary Retroview: SHADOW OF AFGHANISTAN 1959-2012 – (2006, 2012)bauman
There seems to be no end to the strife and anguish experienced by the people of Afghanistan during recent history. Except for a brief period of peace and democracy, the nation has been subjected to continuous foreign influence and invasions, civil war and discord that have maimed the Afghan people and threatened their culture
Read MoreWelcome to Cinema Citizen, an AWFJ Network Blog authored by Jennifer Merin
