Activist & Political · Documentaries · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
A grim intersection of homophobia and hysteria ruins two men’s lives America’s criminal justice system has been under increasing attack in the past few years, and it’s hardly surprising. The[…]
Documentaries · Experimental & Underground
The “moment” is both defined and celebrated in this exceptional documentary “I don’t know what truth is. Truth is something unattainable. We can’t think we’re creating truth with a camera.[…]
Documentaries · Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
Literal commodity fetishism in the far fringes of New York’s S&M scene In the mid-’70s, I spent some time in Los Angeles in the hetero s&m subculture. My best friend[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Reviews
Post-apartheid South Africa’s rituals of admission and absolution Civilized societies, an oxymoronic phrase to some observers, choose to deal with the aftermath of large-scale violence in different ways. Sometimes there[…]
Documentaries · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Rock’s aging bad boys finally give it up The 25-year hissy fit between Malcolm McLaren and the Sex Pistols continues to rage in Julian Temple’s engaging documentary about everybody’s favorite[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
Friendly Christians, bitter rent boys, and South Africa’s liberated queens are part of this year’s queer reality parade To some jaundiced eyes, documentaries have an inherent fascination and gravitas lacking[…]
Actors & Personalities · Documentaries · Exploitation & Erotica · Reviews
Liberated porn queen or psychological wreck? You be the judge. In a demimonde as duplicitous as the porn world, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find that some of its players[…]
Going down in San Francisco’s street-kid heroin underground Behind the image of San Francisco as a creative epicenter and ultimate party town drawing talented, disaffected kids from around the country[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Reviews
The eminent Swiss documentarian looks at saints and sinners of history – without saying which are which “My films revolve around absence,” Swiss documentarian Richard Dindo has said, but the[…]
An uneven new documentary looks at all things Beat. The Beats have returned with a vengeance. New editions of On the Road are rolling off the presses; interest in Allen[…]
Hitler’s hired hand and master filmmaker Riefenstahl is indeed both wonderful and horrible in Ray Muller’s 1993 documentary. Ray Müller’s monumental (3 hours-plus) The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl[…]
Documentaries · Writers & Critics
Yesteryear’s brilliant wags are apparently this year’s terminal bores Film historians and social anthropologists will applaud Kino Video’s recent release of Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin. Viewers[…]
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards · LGBT & Queer
Gendernauts, military drag queens, communist queers – and, oh yes, John Waters distinguish this year’s docs. Those who make them and those who follow them have long lamented the lack[…]
Documentaries · LGBT & Queer · Reviews · Visual Artists
The love in this film about the two lost boys of Eurotrash art is mostly self-love. The art of Pierre and Gilles, affectionately known as P&G, has always been a[…]
This beloved film artist was driven as much by self-doubt as by his belief in the power of the “little man” The rise of Frank Capra from sickly, abused, impoverished[…]
An arresting look at the limited lives of four New York singles, playing themselves British director Nicholas Barker’s New York cult hit Unmade Beds has an unintended effect that will[…]
Activist & Political · Documentaries · Reviews
The supreme masterpiece of the poetic documentary form Three recent views of Cuba: the repressive, fragmented, poverty-stricken last gasp of modern Communism offered by the U.S. media; the wonderland of[…]
Documentaries · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
Queer activism circa 1978 showed a diverse optimistic community moving ever closer to unity — before the body blow of AIDS. Porn directors aren’t usually known for their political consciousness;[…]
Directors · Documentaries · Experimental & Underground · Reviews
Barbara Hammer continues the groundbreaking investigations into gender that started with Nitrate Kisses – this time using autobiography to tell her truths. Barbara Hammer is best known for her groundbreaking[…]
Documentaries · Experimental & Underground · LGBT & Queer · Reviews
This grimy, exciting artifact from the ’60s shows how important beauty contests were to the queens who ruthlessly – and kind of sadly – mimicked their straight counterparts. The rank[…]
