"It is meaningful to me because it was a portrait of something happening in my community, where I was living at the time. I learned a lot about what else I wanted to do as a filmmaker."
Ouvertures (France/Haiti/UK, 132 min.) Dir. Louis Henderson & Olivier Marboeuf In the opening chapters of Ouvertures, directed by Louis Henderson and Olivier Marboeuf, we are far from Haiti. The overwhelming whiteness of a wintry landscape is interrupted by a lonely Black figure, engulfed by a cold and unwelcoming world. On the soundtrack, brooks babble, and a whispering
A Crime on the Bayou (USA, 89 min.) Dir. Nancy Buirski “I have an ambivalent relationship to the term ‘allies’,” says activist Angela Davis in an archival excerpt in A Crime on the Bayou. “Because when it comes to challenging racism, I think that white people should know that they have as much of a stake
Here is a strange and bitter crop. Billie goes against the grain amid the nostalgic music docs of 2020 with a dark, true-crime exploration of a musical icon
9to5: Story of a Movement is a fiery feminist essay about equality and labour—a fitting mark for Reichert to leave in a career devoted to giving voice to women and unions alike.
The Last Out (USA, 88 min.) Dir. Sami Khan, Michael Gassert With his Oscar-nominated short St. Louis Superman, Sami Khan confirmed that a great character often makes for a great documentary. The film, directed with Smriti Mundhra, followed Ferguson resident Bruce Franks III on his growth from Black Lives Matter activist to state representative. Khan’s first feature doc The
The Two Sights (Canada/UK 87 min.) Dir. Joshua Bonnetta In a 1998 paper entitled The Ghost in the Machine, engineer Vic Tandy drew a line between infrasound and paranormal activity. According to his research, low-frequency sound waves inaudible to humans could inspire a sense of oppression and dread. Remove the source of the sound, and suddenly
"You don’t need an exotic and a wild landscape like a sinkhole in the Yucatán Peninsula to find the wonders and recesses of the human soul." - Werner Herzog