Dir. Raymonde Provencher (2010, Canada, 73 mins.) Grace, Milly, Lucy . . . Child Soldiers is a film that has a major challenge. It broaches a painful subject, that of child soldiers in Uganda, who are kidnapped and forced into warfare and sexual slavery by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Compounding the film’s challenge is the …
Very few people have had a great movie made about them. Fewer still have been the subject of a great documentary, mostly because docs about famous people are usually of the A&E variety or produced by those people as promotion. However, one man, the self-proclaimed Greatest Ever, has been the subject of nearly a dozen …
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Dir. Alex Gibney (2010, USA, 117 mins.) It is a mistake to think of this documentary as the story of one politician’s personal indiscretion. Client 9 is much more – it is the story of corrupt Wall Street bankers and traders, of a crusading Attorney General, …
——— Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Directed by Alex Gibney 2010, USA One of the rare moments of levity in Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job comes with the appearance of embattled ex-NY governor Eliot Spitzer, whose history with the high-end escort services also frequented by the movie’s high-finance villains made for a …
Art as Therapy has become a sort of short-hand for pretentious vanity projects where sincerity trumps ability. In the hands of director Jeff Malmberg however, the therapeutic power of art is the starting point for a compelling and refreshing glimpse into another man’s life. In Marwencol, the man in question is Mark Hogencamp, a man …
American Meth Directed by Justin Hunt 2008, USA American Meth focuses its lens on frighteningly darkening view of methamphetamine, (a.k.a. meth) addiction in United States’ rural areas. Including interviews of social workers, addicts, families, kids at risk, and law enforcement representatives, with a minimalistic narration by Val Kilmer, this documentary paints the rapidly decaying landscape …
“An honest and intriguing look into the evolution of Canada’s greatest rock band.” Directed by Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen 2010, Canada Generally, people either love Rush or just don’t get them, but no one can dispute the band’s integrity, commitment to craft and artistic evolution. Such is the picture painted by directors Scot McFadyen and …
“Initially appearing quite lightweight, Tabloid’s comedic pulse masks a faintly disturbing treatise on the gutter press…” Tabloid Directed by Errol Morris In his new film Tabloid, acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris turns his intellect to a seemingly frivolous subject, especially given his previous works’ predilection for scrutinizing cold war architects and battlefield torturers, as well as …
Nénette Directed by Nicolas Philibert Nénette begins by confronting the audience with a familiar gaze: it’s not human, but we are still almost immediately drawn in, struck by pathos for something like but unlike ourselves. The camera never leaves the orangutan cage located at the Paris Menagerie. Voice-overs from various authorities and backgrounds, offering multiple …
Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide is set for release on DVD November 1st, 2010. Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon – one of the most extraordinary and scandalous eras in the history of British film. For the first time ever on …
Machete Maidens Unleashed Directed by Mark Hartley – If you’ve seen Mark Hartley’s neat little 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood, you’ll have some idea of what to expect with Machete Maidens Unleashed. While Hollywood explores the fascinating world of Ozploitation films and Unleashed focuses on the exploitative and unique phase of American-Filipino film production, both …
Autumn Gold Dir. Jan Tenhaven (2010, Germany/Austria, 94 mins.) This much should be clear: watching five athletes, aged eighty-three to one hundred, compete in a world track and field event is impressive. Their stories are moving. Their aspirations are inspiring. They put more effort into living life to the fullest than most of us put …
Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story Dir. Peter Miller (2010, Canada/USA, 91 mins.) In 1934, following Hank Greenburg’s decision not to play baseball on Yom Kippur, in a time when there weren’t many Jewish baseball players and when most baseball fans did not really understand Judaism, a poem appeared in the Detroit Free Press …
Waiting for Armageddon Dir. Kate Davis (2010, USA, 74 mins.) Rapture, tribulation, millennialism, Armageddon – Director Kate Davis has her work cut out. Waiting for Armageddon attempts to shine light onto one of the most nebulous and convoluted social movements of recent history: Armageddon theology as prescribed by American Christian fundamentalists. Davis achieves this by …
Waiting for Armageddon Dir. Kate Davis (2010, USA, 74 mins.) Rapture, tribulation, millennialism, Armageddon – Director Kate Davis has her work cut out. Waiting for Armageddon attempts to shine light onto one of the most nebulous and convoluted social movements of recent history: Armageddon theology as prescribed by American Christian fundamentalists. Davis achieves this by …
8: The Mormon Proposition Dir. Reed Cowan, Steven Greenstreet If you are the type of person who watches documentaries like 8: The Mormon Proposition, then it is likely that you already have an opinion on the subject of homosexuality, Mormonism, and California’s Proposition 8. In this case, you are in good company: it is clear …
For the Love of Movies: The History of American Film Criticism charts the evolution of film criticism as a means of discussing its changing face and potential non-future. Using historical context, the film offers, in particular, its opinion on the downfall of the print critic. Most of the biggest names in popular film criticism make …
Adam Yauch best know as one of the “Beastie Boys” and founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories is up in arms with the MPAA’s decision to hand down a “R rating” for the Holocaust documentary A Film Unfinished, due to it’s disturbing images of holocaust atrocities including graphic nudity. He has responded in saying, “This is too …
Pulling John Directed by Vassiliki Khonsari If the name John Brzenk doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry: he’s just an airline mechanic for Delta. But since 1983, he has also developed and cemented his legendary status as the greatest professional arm wrestler of all-time (as certified by the Guinness Book of Records). His utter dominance …
“Fuel is successful despite Ticknell’s self-aggrandizement. The subject is too important to ignore, and, with the Gulf of Mexico becoming the USA’s new national embarrassment, there is no time like the present to reconsider our society’s addiction to fossil fuels” Fuel Directed by Josh Ticknell Energy is one of the defining issues of our time …
Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s Oscilloscope Laboratories has picked up first time filmmaker Yony Leyser’s documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within for distribution. The film, narrated by Peter Weller follows the life of the legendary beat author with never-before-seen archival footage of Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and confidants including John Waters, …
Exit Through the Gift Shop Directed by Banksy “Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash – the triumphs, the frauds. The treasures, and the …
And Everything Is Going Fine Directed by Steven Soderbergh It’s strange, the effect stories have when you know that they are true. They feel more immediate. That’s the power of non-fiction: the images are somehow more vivid, the blood somehow wetter. There is no disbelief in need of suspension. These things happened. They exist. It goes without …