Film-Forward

Documentary

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

Directed by Nicholas Mross Released by Gravitas Ventures USA. 96 min. Not rated Even after watching this documentary, I’m not sure I completely understand how this product works. As one interviewee states, you need to use Bitcoin before you can understand it completely. In what I’m sure is a poor and incomplete description, it is […]

The Heart of Bruno Wizard

Directed by Elisabeth Rasmussen Produced by Joachim Lyng Available on Netflix Norway / UK.  72 min. Not rated The Heart of Bruno Wizard opens circa 2004 with Bruno performing his first London concert since 1986. In his element, Bruno commands the stage, ever the rock star. His youthful spirit, formed in the British punk scene, […]

Keep On Keepin’ On

Directed by Alan Hicks Written by Hicks and Davis Coombe Produced by Quincy Jones and Paula DuPre’ Pesmen Released by Radius/The Weinstein Company USA. 86 min. Rated R Keep On Keepin’ On intimately catches lightning in a bottle, for what is usually only talked about but rarely seen on film: how a dedicated mentor can […]

Toronto Documentaries | TIFF

The Fun Starts Here Who would have thought that the funniest moments at the Toronto International Film Festival would revolve around climate change and activism? Ten years ago, the message-delivering pranksters, the Yes Men, first spread their alarming messages in their eponymous documentary. Instead of staging street protests, they pull off media stunts to the […]

New York Film Festival 2014

  Without a doubt, the 52nd New York film festival largely fulfills its mission (as stated on its website) to “introduce audiences to the most exciting, innovative and accomplished works of world cinema.” This holds true thanks to an impressive collection of films in its lineup, many of which caught programmers’ attention at Cannes and […]

20,000 Days on Earth

Directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard Written by Mr. Forsyth, Pollard and Nick Cave Produced by James Wilson and Dan Bowen Released by Drafthouse Films UK. 97 min. Not rated Nick Cave must say the word transformation about a half a dozen times in the quash-documentary 20,000 Days on Earth. It’s what he feels […]

The Green Prince

Written and Directed by Nadav Schirman, based on the memoir Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef Produced by Schirman, John Battsek and Simon Chinn Released by Music Box Films Germany/Israel/UK. 101 min. Rated PG-13 This summer’s front page photographs from Gaza of masked Hamas gunmen executing accused collaborators with Israel gives The Green Prince […]

Born to Fly

Directed by Catherine Gund Produced by Gund and Tanya Salvaratnam USA. 82 min. Not rated This look at the life and work of choreographer Elizabeth Streb features some genuinely jaw-dropping moments. They are compiled from a career spent pushing the limits of motion in search of a kind of human flight. Of course, the first […]

Last Days in Vietnam

Produced and Directed by Rory Kennedy Written by Mark Bailey and Keven McAlester Released by American Experience Films USA. 98 min. Not rated The first-person accounts in Last Days in Vietnam put the audience into a gripping you-are-there Saigon in April 1975, when the United States ingloriously exited from 20 years of involvement while the […]