Film-Forward

Documentary

Big Star

Directed by Drew DeNicola Co-directed by Olivia Mori Produced by Mori & Danielle McCarthy Released by Magnolia Pictures USA. 113 min. Rated PG-13 Director Drew DeNicola and Olivia Mori’s documentary rediscovers the Memphis band whose three albums all feature in Rolling Stone’s top 500, even though commercial success eluded them. It’s a story of frustrated ambition, […]

Dirty Wars

Directed by Richard Rowley Produced by Anthony Arnove, Brenda Coughlin & Jeremy Scahill Written by Scahill & David Riker, in companion with Scahill’s book Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield Released by Sundance Selects USA. 87 min. Not rated Dirty Wars connects how the celebrated successes and piecemeal scandals about the global war on […]

How to Make Money Selling Drugs

Narrated, Written & Directed by Matthew Cooke Produced by Adrian Grenier & Bert Marcus Released by Tribeca Film USA. 96 min. Not Rated In memorable scenes from the TV series The Wire, an ambitious CFO to a Baltimore drug kingpin ran business seminars for his middle-management dealers to explain how to maximize the criminal organization’s […]

20 Feet From Stardom

Directed by Morgan Neville Produced by Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers Released by Radius-TWC USA. 90 min. Rated PG-13 With Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Tata Vega, Claudia Lennear, Gloria Jones, Lynn Maybry, Cindy Mizelle, Susaye Greene, Jo Lawry, The Waters Family, Rose Stone, Janice Pendarvis, and Mable John The first 45 […]

A Band Called Death

Directed by Mark Covino & Jeff Howlett Produced by Covino & Howlett, Scott Mosier, Matthew Perniciaro, Kevin Mann & Jerry Ferrara Released by Drafthouse Films USA. 96 min. Not rated The road to rock ‘n’ roll fame is littered with failed bands, but the tale of A Band Called Death grabs attention for its unusual […]

More Than Honey

Written & Directed by Markus Imhoof Produced by Thomas Kufus, Helmut Grasser, Pierre-Alan Meier & Imhoof Released by Kino Lorber Germany/Austria/Switzerland. 91 min. Not rated English, German, Swiss-German & Mandarin with English subtitles More Than Honey, a delectable nature documentary of the secret life of bees, is also a philosophical rumination on the past, present, […]

Tribeca Odds & Ends

Some of Tribeca Film Festival’s lesser-known documentaries and fiction films were the strongest I’d seen in the program. There were certainly standouts, films that had what seemed like impossible footage of an event—Alias Ruby Blade shares secrets firsthand from within the heart of a country’s rebellion—or feature films that explore familiar territory with nuance and […]

Tribeca 2013 Documentaries

The more than two dozen documentaries at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival aimed for hearts and minds and many succeeded as audience pleasers. This year’s selections, in and out of competition and as special events, straddled the world, and are notable for their timeliness, for celebrating people at a surprising variety of work, and for […]

Bidder 70

Produced & Directed by Beth Gage & George Gage Written by Beth Gage Released by First Run Features USA. 73 min. Not rated Listening to the passionate and eloquent message of Tim DeChristopher, I was reminded of the famous Unitarian minister William Ellery Channing. A transcendentalist, Channing preached about man’s innate goodness and his ability to […]