Directed by Amy Berg Produced by Berg, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Damien Echols & Lorri Davis Written by Berg & Billy McMillin Released by Sony Pictures Classics New Zealand/USA. 147 min. Rated R West of Memphis is a triumphant story of justice finally prevailing for three innocent men who spent 18 years in jail for […]
Directed by Michael Apted Produced by Apted & Claire Lewis Released by First Run Features UK. 144 min. Not rated With 56 Up, the granddaddy of longitudinal documentaries, impressively reaches grandparenthood. Michael Apted’s first job was as a researcher selecting a cross-section of 14 British seven year olds for the 1964 U.K. TV documentary Seven […]
Directed & Written by Jay Bulger Produced by Andrew Karsch, Fisher Stevens, Erik H. Gordon & Bulger Released by SnagFilms/Insurgent Media USA. 92 min. Not Rated Beware of Mr. Baker has all the usual ingredients of a typical rock ‘n’ roll Behind the Music bio, though it has lots of surprises and unusual brio, too, […]
Written, Produced, & Directed by Ken Burns, David McMahon & Sarah Burns Released by Sundance Selects USA. 119 min. Not rated Made by Ken Burns, along with his daughter Sarah and her husband David McMahon, The Central Park Five examines an infamous assault and the wrongful convictions of five teenage boys, while detailing what happens […]
Produced & Directed by Patrick McGrady Released by First Run Features UK. 89 min. Not rated Based on countless movies, the music of Richard Wagner (Hitler’s favorite composer) has a long road ahead to break away from its militaristic bombast and fascist taint. Lina Wertmüller used “Flight of the Valkyries” to accompany a Nazi death […]
Written & Directed by Alex Gibney Produced by Gibney, Alexandra Johnes, Kristen Vaurio, Jedd Wider & Todd Wider Released by HBO Documentary Films USA. 106 min. Not Rated Director/narrator Alex Gibney loudly amplifies several meanings of “silence” in Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House Of God. There’s the familiar stonewalling silence of pedophile priests, […]
Written & Directed by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz Produced by Liran Atzmor Released by Cinema Guild Israel. 101 min. Not Rated In Hebrew with English subtitles Punctuated with pungent visual and narrative footnotes, The Law in These Parts comes close to being the Pentagon Papers of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz incisively […]
Directed by Jeff Orlowski Produced by Paula Dupre’ Pesmen & Jerry Aronson Written by Mark Monroe Released by Submarine Deluxe USA. 75 min. PG-13 Superstorm Sandy gives the documentary Chasing Ice timely relevance. Through the lens of a modern Arctic explorer, glaciers are seen melting alarmingly fast into waves that have pushed the sea level […]
Written, Produced & Directed by David Fisher Released by Nancy Fishman Film Releasing English, German & Hebrew with English subtitles Israel/Germany/Austria. 97 min. Not rated Six Million and One adds to the documentary canon of the Holocaust as it grapples with the repercussions and impact decades later on the next generation. A dozen years ago, […]