FOOD 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 MoreSEAGRASS – Movie Review
Canadian writer/director Meredith Hama-Brown’s debut feature, Seagrass, is a moody drama about a troubled interracial couple — Judy (Ally Maki) is Canadian-Japanese and Steve (Luke Roberts) is White — who vacation with their two young daughters — ages eleven and six — at a self-development retreat on a remote island off the coast of British […]
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 MoreNYAD – Movie Review
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. Tis is the dramatization of her story.
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 MoreSUSIE SEARCHES – Movie Review
Susie Searches is an enjoyably affable coming of age thriller about a teenage girl who is known for her uncanny ability to solve seemingly unsolvable crimes, and who shares the details of her her super sleuth searches and suspicions on her popular podcast. She’s also determined to further investigations by the local sheriff’s office where she is an intern. But, up close and personal, Susie is actually rather shy and, wrapped up in the coming of age issues of self esteem and teenage sexual curiosity, she hides her vulnerability behind a smile that shines through aqua-colored braces.
Read MoreWelcome to Cinema Citizen, an AWFJ Network Blog authored by Jennifer Merin
