Directed by Omar Mullick & Bassam Tariq Produced by Mullick, Tariq, Valentina Canavesio & Sonejuhi Sinha Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories Pakistan/USA. 72 min. Not rated Any documentary that takes a look at an impoverished Third World nation runs the risk of inducing guilt or appearing like a grim “Save the Children” ad, but These Birds […]
Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz Produced by Mr. Schwarz, Lotti Pharriss Knowles, Lance Robertson & Jon Glover Released by Automat Pictures. USA. 90 min. Not rated At Paramount, Josef von Sternberg turned Marlene Dietrich into a screen goddess. Forty years later, shoestring Baltimore filmmaker John Waters did the same, helping to mold a screen icon of […]
Directed by Jehane Noujaim Produced by Karim Amer Released by Noujaim Films Inc English & Arabic with English subtitles Egypt/USA. 104 min. Not rated The Square zooms into the large waves of demonstrations and counterattacks in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square that first erupted in the 2011 Arab Spring. Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim vividly finds and […]
Directed & Produced by Martha Shane & Lana Wilson Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories USA. 88 min. Rated PG-13 After Tiller is a wrenching portrait of life and death decisions where even the definition of “life” is emotionally laden for doctors and pregnant women considering abortion. The title demarcates the impact of the murder of Kansas […]
Directed by Jason DaSilva Edited, Written & Produced by DaSilva & Alice Cook Released by Long Shot Factory USA. 85 min. Not rated After falling down and needing help to get up during a family vacation, Jason DaSilva’s new reality finally hits home a few months later after his diagnosis of primary progressive multiple sclerosis […]
Directed by Treva Wurmfeld Produced by Amy Hobby Edited by Sandra Adair Released by Music Box Films USA. 89 min. Not rated Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Academy Award nominated actor Sam Shepard accepts a proposal to publish decades-worth of correspondence between himself and best friend Johnny Dark. He looks at the opportunity as a new creative venture. […]
Produced & Directed by Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson Released by Impact Partners USA. 135 min. Not Rated Raising and educating middle-class African-American boys is seen first-hand, cinema verité style, over nine years in the fitful, occasionally insightful, and intimately revealing documentary American Promise. Filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson initially picked up their cameras, […]
Directed & Edited by Steve Hoover Produced by Danny Yourd Released by Blood Brother LLC/Tugg Inc. USA. 93 min. Not rated Director Steve Hoover takes his camera and follows his best friend, Rocky Braat, on an adventure that many would never choose. While spending time in Chennai, India, on vacation, Rocky visited an orphanage, home […]
Directed by Roger Ross Williams Written by Williams, Richard Hankin & Benjamin Gray Produced by Julie Goldman & Williams USA. 90 min. Not rated For viewers who know about the Christian Right’s proselytizing in Africa, this film may be too basic. But for those who are unaware, it’s a real eye-opener. The idea that American missionaries […]