Echo in the Canyon (USA, 82 min.) Dir. Andrew Slater Echo in the Canyon might be the Baby Boomer-iest film ever made. This laid-back and thoroughly entertaining rockumentatry spotlights the music scene in Laurel Canyon, California in the mid-to-late 1960s and early 1970s when musical acts like The Mamas and the Papas, Buffalo Springfield, and The
Pavarotti (104 min.) Dir. Ron Howard “At first, I was engrossed just by the shape of his journey, this remarkable, nothing-but-high watermarks career, the vast success,” notes director Ron Howard in the press kit for Pavarotti. “But when I looked deeper, I also saw that he bore the brunt of taking so many artistic risks. That
Forman vs. Forman (Czech Republic/France, 78 min.) Dir Helena Třeštíková and Jakub Hejna Oscar winning director Miloš Forman helped shape cinema for decades. From his internationally celebrated Czech output through Oscar winning Hollywood fare, the irascible director stamped his mark on films from historical dramas to musicals, broad farces to brilliant dramas. Helena Třeštíková and
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (USA, 94 min.) Dir. Midge Costin Since its inception, film has primarily been celebrated as a visual medium. The power of the moving image set it apart as a new art form. Midge Costin’s documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound explores how the history of sound and image
Ice on Fire (USA, 91 min.) Dir. Leila Connors Environmental docs can be like blockbusters in their habit of following tropes. There’s the visually stunning, dialogue-free documentation of our doom (Anthropocene), the activist manifesto (Sharkwater), or the didactic and self-aggrandizing PowerPoint presentation (An Inconvenient Truth). Leila Connors’ Ice on Fire focuses on something far too often overlooked:
nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up (Canada, 98 min.) Dir. Tasha Hubbard Anyone wondering what is the best Canadian documentary of the spring should look no further than Tasha Hubbard’s absorbing indictment of this country’s treatment of its Indigenous people nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up. The film won the Best Canadian documentary award at Hot Docs
Is Showgirls the worst film ever made, the ultimate so-bad-it's-good movie, or an underappreciated masterpiece? Jeffrey McHale's You Don't Nomi playfully reconsiders this oft-maligned film.
Halston (USA, 105 min.) Dir. Frédéric Tcheng They may have erased his tapes, but fashion icon Halston (born Roy Halston Frowick) receives a slick record in this new documentary that bears his name. Director Frédéric Tcheng (Dior & I) charts the dramatic rise and fall of the man who put American clothes on the map
Directors Joan Tosoni and Martha Kehoe look back at the life and career of iconic singer and composer Gordon Lightfoot in If You Could Read My Mind.
Ryan White profiles iconic sex therapist and broadcaster Dr. Ruth Westheimer in Ask Dr. Ruth, an upbeat portrait of an unexpected life and career.