Socially conscious documentaries at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival perceptively examined female roles and the culture wars, and brought well-deserved attention to unconventional heroes. Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her, the festival’s Best Documentary Feature winner, adds considerable depth to the usual superficial contrasts of Indian women as either Bollywood stars or slumdogs. The beautiful […]
During its final days, the Tribeca Film Festival world premiered three New York-centric fine arts documentaries. The most penetrating of the trio, Wagner’s Dream is an engrossing look behind the curtain of the Metropolitan Opera, and is the perhaps best film about that art form, fictional or otherwise, though it may have that field all […]
Documentaries about athletes and ruggedly macho jobs won awards at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and were also popular with audiences. In Wavumba (“they who smell of fish” in Swahili), Best New Documentary Director Jeroen van Velzen finds the spiritual aspects of traditional shark hunting off the coast of Kenya through shamans and the eyes […]
Directed by Mark Meatto Produced by Michael Bohlmann & Meatto Released by International Film Circuit USA/UK. 88 min. Not Rated How to Grow a Band has a promising story to follow. A young, gifted musician rises from a narrow genre to commercial success, falls into personal turmoil, and finds catharsis with a new mode of […]
Directed by Morgan Spurlock Produced by Jeremy Chilnick, Matthew Galkin, Spurlock & Thomas Tull Written by Jeremy Chilnik, Whedon & Spurlock Released by Wrekin Hill Entertainment USA. 88 min. Rated PG-13 With Joss Whedon, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, Eli Roth, Robert Kirkman, Stan Lee, Harry Knowles, Seth Green and Seth Rogen For the first time […]
Written & Directed by Mathieu Roy & Harold Crooks, based on the book A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright Produced by Daniel Louis & Denise Robert Released by First Run Features Canada. 86 min. Not rated Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks’ film beautifully pieces together bits of history into an overarching discussion about […]
Directed by Lee Hirsch Written & Produced by Hirsch & Cynthia Lowen Released by the Weinstein Company USA. 98 min. Not Rated Bully goes to the frontlines of the war on middle and high school kids who don’t fit in. The embedded filmmakers expose the battles they and their families face, survive, or, even worse, […]
Directed by Jon Shenk Produced by Richard Berge & Bonni Cohen Released by Samuel Goldwyn Films English & Dhievi with English subtitles USA. 101 min. Rated PG The Island President makes climate change dramatic, political, personal, and the right stuff of leadership. The imminent future of the 400,000 people who live on the beautiful islands […]
Produced & Directed by Manfred Kirchheimer Released by First Run Features USA. 82 min. Not rated Veteran documentarian Manfred Kirchheimer (most recently 2007’s Spraymasters) employs the folk anthem “Which Side Are You On” in his newest film, assuming you’re already sympathetic to the causes that will be championed. The octogenarian German-born and NYC-trained cameraman/director has […]