Written and Directed by Gregory Marquette Produced by Walter T. Shaw Released by Freestyle Releasing Rated PG. 92 Minutes Philosopher Daniel C. Dennett once said, “There’s nothing I like less then bad arguments for a view I hold dear.” The same sort of logic can be applied to filmmakers, and documentarians, for sure. It’s not […]
Directed by Roberta Grossman Produced by Grossman, Sophie Sartain & Marta Kauffman Written by Sartain Released by International Film Circuit USA. 73 min. Not rated Hava Nagila (The Movie) entertainingly traces the origins of the ubiquitous song and how it became worldwide kitsch. The global popularity of the song is made abundantly clear, but most […]
Directed by Lori Silverbush & Kristi Jacobsen Produced by Silverbush, Jacobsen, Julie Goldman & Ryan Harrington Released by Magnolia Pictures USA. 84 min. Rated PG A Place at the Table updates the galvanizing 1968 TV documentary Hunger in America in a rambling grab bag overview, but makes convincing links to the causes of the much […]
Directed by Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson & Ben Timlett Written by Graham Chapman, David Sherlock, Douglas Addams, David Yallop & Alex Martin, based on the memoirs of Mr. Chapman Released by Epix/Brainstorm Media UK. 82 min. Rated R Featuring the voices of Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and with Carole […]
Released by ShortsHD/Magnolia Pictures Animated program: 40 min. Live-action program: 106 min. This year’s Academy Award nominees for short films are a mixed bag of veteran animators and talented newcomers. Each category has some clear standouts and a few duds. Want to know which shorts to pick to win this year’s Oscar pool? Animated One […]
Written & Directed by Dror Moreh Produced by Estelle Fialon, Moreh & Philippa Kowarsky Written by Moreh Released by Sony Pictures Classics Hebrew with English subtitles Israel/France/Germany Belgium. 97 min. Rated PG-13 The Gatekeepers thoughtfully examines the difficulties of protecting a democracy from internal enemies. While Americans are more familiar from movies and TV with […]
Directed by Neil Barsky Produced by Jenny Carchman Released by Zeitgeist Films USA. 95 min. Not Rated Koch breezily looks back at the rise of New York City’s three-term 1980’s mayor, with insider views of the political and economic crises he pulled the city through and the ones that finally brought him down, while following […]
Directed by Sara Lamm & Mary Wigmore Produced by Lamm, Wigmore, Kate Roughan & Zachary Mortensen Released by Reckon So USA. 93 min. Not Rated Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & the Farm Midwives tells two linked stories that are impressive but end up at cross-purposes: a biography of a steadfast hippie who helped found […]
Directed by Werner Herzog & Dmitry Vasyukov Produced by Christoph Fisser, Vladimir Perepelkin, Nick N. Raslan & Charlie Woebcken Written by Herzog & Rudolph Herzog Released by Music Box Films English & Russian with English subtitles Germany. 100 min. Not rated The documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga—which was shot not by director […]