How to Lose Control: Understanding Children and Insecurity with ‘The New Man’
Ella Kemp Interviews ‘The New Man’ Filmmakers/Subjects Devorah Baum and Josh Appignanesi
Review: Josh Appignanesi’s ‘Female Human Animal’
“It’s a confusing enterprise all around, but — at the very least — ‘Female Human Animal’ is unlike anything else out there, for better or worse.”
Outside the Frame: On ‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’
“‘Hale County This Morning, This Evening’ is a cinema of living and breathing freedom: a poetry in light and sound that is bridling at the constraints of the very documentary form itself.”
You Want It Darker: A MoMI Series Depicts Vladimir Putin’s Russia as Violent and Corrupt
“MoMI’s series is an unflattering depiction of Mother Russia that isn’t new, but these films in particular — and this series in general — provide narratives that illustrate the specifics of Putin’s disorderly government…”
NoBudge Breakdown: June 18-24, 2018
NoBudge Breakdown is a weekly round-up of featured films at NoBudge.
VV NOBUDGE PICK OF THE WEEK: Parker Hill’s ‘Homing In’
An Interview with ‘California Dreams’ Director Mike Ott
Yoana Pavlova Interviews Filmmaker Mike Ott
Tribeca Film Festival Review: Assia Boundaoui’s ‘The Feeling of Being Watched’
“Unlike many documentaries of its ilk, ‘The Feeling of Being Watched’ is not weighed down by doomsaying or sensationalism; instead, the picture it paints of community organization is genuinely hopeful.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Weekend Vibes 4.6.18
Weekend Vibes is a Friday column about streaming recommendations, new release hype and entertainment events.
True/False 2018 Review: Khalik Allah’s ‘Black Mother’
“Even if you do not believe in the soul, the film makes it impossible to deny the soul of a country, that which births us, grooms us, and to which we add as we live and die inside it.”
True/False 2018 Review: Cristina Hanes’ ‘António and Catarina’
“In ‘António and Catarina,’ the potential of youth contrasts the accumulated regrets of age.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer on Agnès Varda’s ‘Mur murs’
“New York might have the physical structure where one can project themselves onto a city, but Los Angeles’ mutability allows people to graft their life into its cultural fabric.”
Documenting the Afterlife: Carol Salter’s ‘Almost Heaven’
“Even death can become tedious when one deals with it every day.”
Murray Lerner’s ‘Festival’: A Prototype for the Music Documentary
“‘Festival’ challenges our preconceptions about the past – in this case, that of folk music and of music documentaries themselves.”
The Song of the Cloud-Capped Mountain: Anushka Meenakshi and Iswar Srikumar’s ‘Kho ki pa lü’
“‘Kho ki pa lü’ is about a lot of things, but it’s mostly about music. It is about Li, the songs that people sing when they cultivate rice in small müles.”
Review: Kazik Radwanski’s ‘Scaffold’
“Out of a fractured, tentative world, Kazik Radwanski created a strong and whole short film.”
‘Rat Film’: Light and Dirt, Cinema and Rodents
“The past informs the present.”
TIFF 2017 Review (Wavelengths): Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel’s ‘Caniba’
“Have they never heard of negative space?”
TIFF 2017 Review (Wavelengths): Denis Côté’s ‘A Skin So Soft’
“There’s an odd fraternity in their grease rubdowns and muscle worship.”
Fantasia Film Festival 2017 Review: Federica Di Giacomo’s ‘Libera Nos’
“It’s an unconventional perspective, making ‘Libera Nos’ a riveting new lens on a familiar topic.”
Review: Albert Maysles’ ‘In Transit’
“‘In Transit’ attests to the possibility of human connection and serves as a reminder to the insights Albert Maysles has given us over the last 50 years.”