Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · War
Dispatch #1 from 2019 Doc NYC: Barbara Kopple’s Desert One
This is the first in a series of reviews by our New York correspondent Claire Baiz of entries in this year’s Doc NYC, the Big Apple’s – and one of[…]
Category: Documentaries
Dispatch from Tribeca #6: Framing John DeLorean
Why hasn’t there been a biopic of John DeLorean, whose life, as his son Zachary says in the documentary Framing John DeLorean, has all the elements for a rip-snorter: “It’s[…]
African American · Documentaries · Sports
Dispatch from Tribeca #3: What’s My Name (on Muhammad Ali)
Muhammad Ali was one of the great cultural figures of the 20th century, and of course, one of its most brilliant and inspiring sports figures, equally adept in the ring[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries
Dispatch from Tribeca 2019 #2: Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project
Herewith (we love that word) is our second dispatch from the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, brought to you by our correspondent Claire Baiz, who will be filing dispatches on some[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · Sound & Language
Dispatch from Tribeca 2019 #1: Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Herewith we begin our coverage of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, courtesy of our intrepid reporter Claire Baiz, who will be filing dispatches on some of the more worthy entries[…]
Counterculture · Documentaries · Music & Musicals
Marc Bolan and Born to Boogie: The Great Unsung Rock ’n’ Roll Film
A roar grew in the wrestling room of daybreak . . . And now where once stood solid water stood the reptile king, Tyrannosaurus Rex, reborn and bopping. – Marc[…]
Actors & Personalities · Documentaries
Making Montgomery Clift: An Intimate Exploration of a Hollywood Enigma
As Robert Clift states in the film: “The people in my life who loved Monty lost him twice: in his death, and then again when they couldn’t find him in[…]
Directors · Documentaries · Essays
But It Did Happen! Werner Herzog and the Ecstatic Truth
I think that this delicate line between reality, and fact, and truth needs to be more clearly defined. We have to redefine reality.1 – Werner Herzog There are dignified stupidities.[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Medical
Dispatch from Tribeca #3: The Bleeding Edge Premieres on Netflix
We’re reposting this review of The Bleeding Edge today, July 27, as it debuts on Netflix. See this important documentary. * * * This is the kind of cogent, well-researched exposé[…]
Documentaries · Philosophy · TV & Streaming
A Not So Beautiful Day: Morgan Neville’s Documentary on Fred Rogers
The film’s childhood-centric poignancy is underscored by the depravity of today’s kindergarteners having to be concerned more with the logistics of hardened desks or evacuation drills thanks in part to[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
Dispatch from Tribeca #4: Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie
“I’m grateful I didn’t grow up with Barbie.” – Gloria Steinem * * * Gloria Steinem isn’t alone. Lisa Simpson hates Barbie. Feminist writer Roxanne Gay wishes Barbie had never[…]
Comedy · Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
Dispatch from Tribeca #1: If you loved Gilda, you’ll Love, Gilda
The effect is intimate, but not particularly enlightening. Love, Gilda offers a lot of reminiscing, some sweet (and a few heavy) insights, but very little new information about Radner’s life.[…]
Meat for the Machine: On the Hidden Horrors of Alain Resnais’ Documentary Shorts
Covering topics as banal as the production of plastics and as profound as cultural appropriation, these films aren’t workaday projects so much as serious visual essays that extend Resnais’ preoccupation[…]
Documentaries · Philosophy · Religion & Spirituality
So, “What Is Reality?” The E8 Lattice Theory and the Angel of History
“All time exists all the time” – from the documentary What Is Reality? * * * Emancipate yourself from the tunnel-visioned timekeeper! Return the unbending arrow of time to its[…]
Still Life with Cannibal: On Issei Sagawa and the Documentary Caniba (2017)
The notion of the body as entry to the soul becomes a fallacy: penetration is not a portal to another person’s psyche – just as Sagawa’s cannibalism of Hartevelt could[…]
Directors · Documentaries · Experimental & Underground
Memories and Confessions: On the Filmography of Terence Davies
Davies – who can be described as a cultural conservative but never a simple nostalgist – wears his affection for his forgotten eras on his sleeve, generally eschewing close-ups in[…]
Actors & Personalities · Documentaries
Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words Gets Up Close and Personal
Ingrid Bergman In Her Own Words makes clear that her life was messy and episodic, but she earned great love from her directors, co-stars, and family. Don’t wait for Mommie[…]
Documentaries · Religion & Spirituality
The Native Eye: Re-Embracing the Serpent with “Chullachaqui”
Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (2016) can be read as a brilliant subversion of the colonising role that the camera plays in appropriating native cultures in favour of Western[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · War
Casualties of the Spirit: Liberating John Huston’s Let There Be Light (1946)
Naturally, Huston was furious about the film’s suppression and remained so all through the intervening years. In his words, “I think it boils down to the fact that they wanted[…]
Activist & Political · Biopic · Documentaries
Dispatch from Tribeca: Get Me Roger Stone (Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro, and Morgan Pehme, 2017)
Jeffrey Toobin, whose 2008 New Yorker article inspired this film, describes Roger Stone as “a malevolent Forrest Gump.” Stone is more than okay with that. He’s happy for people to[…]
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