“End of the Line: The Women of Standing Rock’ belongs to a tradition of activist filmmaking that draws from investigative journalism as well as from artistic principles and techniques.”
“The utter sadness of Little and Big Edie’s story is why ‘Grey Gardens’ is so moving — direct cinema allowed this story to be explored with a level of intimacy previously unavailable.”
“Too often, the tongue-in-cheek tone veers into the empty calorie territory of VH1’s cable television time-filler ‘I Love the ‘80s,’ as subjects like Doug Benson and Ron Funches can’t resist using their screen time to test what feels like standup material.”
“It’s unrealistic to expect every queer film to tackle all aspects of queer life and history, but ‘Cured’ presents its narrative in a way that’s too clean and neat, too much of a happily-ever-after.”
“Bryan Fogel’s new documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi is unsurprisingly hard-hitting, but it’s the context for macro-scale geopolitics that ‘The Dissident’ communicates so well.”
“‘Reality fiction’ contours everything in ‘City Hall,’ from the microscopic level of scene transitions to the macroscopic level of entire sequences given deliberate framings…”
“The most powerful aspect of ‘Lost Course’ is how it portrays the struggle of the Wukan citizens as a general metaphor for political corruption and the futility of activism.”
Yoana Pavlova Interviews ‘Dad Made Dirty Movies’ Author-Director Jordan Todorov
“When viewed as a character study, ‘Made You Look’ is the rare art documentary that has a re-watchable quality.”
“Despite Stalking Chernobyl’s clear position on the dangers of expanding nuclear power, Lee does not shrink from the otherworldly allure that draws so many to Chernobyl and Pripyat.”
“Nearly 40 years after its release, ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ continues to send signals.”
Greg Carlson Reviews Rodney Ascher’s ‘A Glitch in the Matrix’
“Only 37 years old, Alberdi is a dynamic figure in documentary studies and practice.”
“In ‘Orquil Burn,’ an internalised inquiry meets external spaces with a quiet yet insistent beauty.”
“For a film about anger — both that of the social movements animated in protest and that belonging to the state which will brook no challenge to its authority — ‘A Grin Without a Cat’ is surprisingly without its own anger.”
“Some of the movie’s most intriguing scenes veer from their intended goal.”
“Johnson brilliantly arranges and organizes the vignettes that account for her unique ‘living obituary.'”
Dipankar Sarkar Interviews ‘Tales from Our Childhood’ Director Mukul Haloi
“The appeal and popularity of the Action Park documentary and book, along with eager anticipation for the upcoming TV series, evidences a shared human proclivity to embellish one’s “street cred.”
“The manipulation of popular characters outside the control of original creators has existed for hundreds of years, but what makes ‘Feels Good Man’ especially significant is the entanglement with ‘fake news’ during the era of Trump…”