Invisible Essence: The Little Prince (Canada, 90 min.) Dir. Charles Officer What turns certain books into classics? Scott Fitzgerald wrote some fine novels and many terrific short stories but it’s The Great Gatsby we return to read again and again. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is clearly the product of the same novelist as Sense and Sensibility but which is the
The Panama Papers (USA, 97 min.) Dir. Alex Winter Alex Winter is quickly becoming a master of something one could call the techno-thriller documentary. After the Napster doc Downloaded (2013) and the true crime caper Deep Web (2015), comes another quickly paced, slickly assembled, and tech savvy film about the world 2.0. The Panama Paper offers a deep dive into one
Apollo 11 successfully completes a Herculean task in telling the story of the moon landing from all-angles using pre-existing coverage. It’s a marvel of technical accomplishment, but more than that, it’s a dynamic and enthralling time capsule
The night before New Year’s Eve, veteran filmmaker Pepita Ferrari lost her life to cancer. While her life was cut short, her contribution to documentary cinema was long and in early 2019 the industry celebrated her as a writer, filmmaker, producer, champion of documentary, and a generous mentor to emerging filmmakers. As a beneficiary of
The Impossible Swim (Canada, 47 min.) Dir. Ali Weinstein, Larry Weinstein 16-year-old Maya Farrell hopes to follow in the footsteps of the legendary swimmers Marilyn Bell and Vicki Keith. Like them, she wants to glide through the waters of Lake Ontario. Farrell hopes to bring their achievement to a next generation by matching their monumental
Amidst the various concerns that inform the films of Turkish-born, US-based artist and filmmaker Nazli Dinçel is a recurring curiosity in touch. Her films are often populated by bodies seen most often in fragments, both lonely and in embrace, explicit yet never pornographic. With a poetic form that manages to hold lightness and intensity at the
The documentary branch of the Academy is responsible for some of the looniest, most incomprehensible, and least defensible snubs in recent years. However, they also deserve credit for their consistent effort to highlight hidden gems over glitzier films with aggressive campaigns. The race for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards is once again a
Filmmaker Rudi Dolezal recalls his work with Freddie Mercury and weighs in on Rami Malek's portrayal of the rock icon in Bohemian Rhapsody
Mr. Jane and Finch (Canada, 44 min.) Dir. Ngardy Conteh George Some people call Winston LaRose a “pillar of the community,” an “advocate,” and a “fighter.” But everyone knows him as “Mr. Jane and Finch.” The 81-year-old community leader gets the RBG treatment in this engaging and timely documentary from director Ngardy Conteh George (The Flying Stars). Mr.
Hate. It’s raw, visceral and, in the rising global craziness of 2018, we see it every day. We also see it on screens. Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am Not Your Negro (2016), inspired by James Baldwin’s writing, recently struck a huge chord with movie audiences. In one of many moving scenes, a camera floats around large trees