Reviews - Page 88

Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.

Fantasia Film Festival Review: ‘Morgana’

Morgana (Australia, 71 Min.) Dir. Isabel Peppard & Josie Hess The internet was set ablaze last month when Martha Stewart posted a photo of herself looking cute by the poolside. While many praised her “thirst trap” photo, the viral reaction it received said more about society than Stewart herself. It inadvertently exposed how little society views women of a certain age as sexual beings. However, there are those who are fighting to change this perception. In the surprisingly inspiring documentary Morgana, directors Isabel Peppard and Josie Hess remind viewers that it is never too late to embrace one’s own sexuality. In charting the

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The Original Music Festival Documentary

Jazz on a Summer’s Day (USA, 85 min; 1959) Dir. Bert Stern and Aram Avakian Featuring: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Anita O’Day, Thelonious Monk, Jack Teagarden, Chuck Berry, Dinah Washington, Chico Hamilton, Eric Dolphy, Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Giuffre, Gerry Mulligan, Big Maybelle Let’s dispense with the suspense, all you cats and kittens. Jazz on a Summer’s Day is not only the first documentary made about a music festival, it still stands up as one of the most beautifully made films ever made in this ever-popular genre. Bert Stern, whose exquisite photos of Marilyn Monroe taken for Vogue magazine in the months before her death

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‘Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly’ a Portrait of Political Prisoners

Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly (USA, 76 min.) Dir. Cheryl Haines, Co-dir. Gina Leibrecht Does any visual artist in the world right now have as big a profile as Ai Weiwei? The artist, filmmaker, activist, exile, and former “prisoner of conscience” draws international attention to human rights causes through diverse art forms. Having faced imprisonment and censorship in his native China for speaking out about its oppressive government, Ai knows the cost and value of free speech. His voice is one of the most essential and influential of this era as his art draws attention to urgent causes like the global migration

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‘Creem’ Doc Is an Ode to Arts Mags

Creem: America’s Only Rock n Roll Magazine (USA, 75 min.) Dir. Scott Crawford My goodness, do the offices of CREEM magazine ever look different from the creaky workspace of POV! This raucous doc from Scott Crawford whisks audiences back to the glory days of the now-defunct rock ‘n’ roll mag that inspired piss ‘n’ vinegar from music critics across the USA. The doc offers oodles of archival footage to give audiences a peek inside the dank and sketchy offices of CREEM. The liquor flowed freely while largely unqualified young folks slept on scuzzy couches, smoked reefers, hung out, and occasionally worked. Actually, the CREEM offices look a

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‘The Great Green Wall’ promises that a forest can grow in the desert

The Great Green Wall (UK, 92 min.) Dir. Jared P. Scott Imagine growing an 8000 kilometer wall of trees blocking off the sands of the Sahara from the rest of Africa. It’s beginning to happen now in the Sahel region, just below the Desert, with African nations participating from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The area is one of the most threatened in the world, with soil degradation being the foremost concern along with a myriad of other problems including drought, scarce agricultural resources and desertification. When you add climate change to the mix, inevitably social and political

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Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets: A sad romantic story of the closing of a dive bar

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, directors Featuring: Peter Elwell, Michael Martin, Shay Walker There’s something about the authenticity of a bar that provides a superb setting for a drama. A disparate group of American desert dwellers are drawn together by the casual downbeat atmosphere of a place called The Roaring Twenties in the Ross Brothers film Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets. The bar feels slightly tawdry with its tiny dance floor and worn out couches only adding to the emotional tenor of a darkening time. The Ross Brothers—Bill and Turner—play to our expectations that the denizens of

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‘The Fight’ Brilliantly Captures the Insanity of Keeping Up with Trump

The Fight (USA, 96 min.) Dir. Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, Eli Despres After wowing the documentary crowd with their portrait of an errant Weiner, Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and Eli Despres chronicle a battle against a tyrannical dick. The Weiner team is back as furious as ever with The Fight. This potent film spotlights the indefatigable lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenging Donald Trump’s war on human rights and dignity. The Fight features four cases among the many lawsuits brought against the Trump administration by the ACLU. (173 at the time of the film’s completion.) The cases are appropriate trials that represent the gross violations

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John Houston’s ‘Atautsikut’ Should Not Be Left Behind

Atautsikut, Leaving None Behind (Canada, 60 min.) Dir. John Houston How do communities de-colonize? How do people free themselves from economic oppression? What happens when they succeed? In John Houston’s new film, Atautsikut, Leaving None Behind, the story of how the Inuit of Nunavik embraced a cooperative movement that changed their lives is skillfully recounted. In community after community, they invested in themselves and their neighbours and eventually created locally run businesses – commercial fisheries, fuel supplies, craft productions as well as retail – that employ their own people. The cooperative movement is shown, through sympathetic interviews by Houston of the region’s elders,

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Denise Ho Doc Sings with the Power of a Dissident’s Voice

Denise Ho: Becoming the Song (USA, 83 min.) Dir. Sue Williams The voice of a dissident sings loud and clear in Denise Ho: Becoming the Song. This upbeat portrait of art and activism chronicles the career of Hong Kong Cantopop star Denise Ho. From being the first mainstream female pop star to come out publicly as gay in Hong Kong in 2012 when LGBTQ rights came under attack, to being blacklisted by the Chinese government for her participation in the Umbrella Movement protests, Ho puts her celebrity to use in order to fight an unjust regime. Her voice is one among many as Hongkongers

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Helmut Newton Doc Finds Empowerment Through Drumsticks

Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful (USA, 93 min.) Dir. Gero von Boehm Only a photographer as daring as Helmut Newton could make roast chicken look sexy. The man sure knew how to photograph a pair of drumsticks. Before Newton set some miniature high heels on chicken legs for Vogue magazine in 2003, he established himself with fierce portraits of women that celebrated their strength through provocative and often erotic images. His other (and perhaps more celebrated) chicken photo (pictured above) features a woman’s hands, clad in Bulgari jewels, butchering a bird with their elegant might. His photographs frequently evoke an interplay between beauty and

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