What does it mean for a film addressing overtly political themes to remain apolitical?
Documentary
Frederick Wiseman’s Bucket List Included Making a Restaurant Doc
“Filming in a kitchen is like working with a ballet or theater company,” the filmmaker told Hyperallergic in an interview for the release of his new film Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros.
Hunter College Cancels Screening of Jewish-Led Film Critical of Israel
Israelism follows two young Jewish Americans whose perception of Israel changes once they see how the nation treats Palestinians.
The Chilling Revelations of the Sackler Family Group Chats
The short film The Family Statement centers on private messages between the Sacklers unsealed as part of Purdue Pharma’s 2020 bankruptcy case.
The Commodification of American Motherhood
How to Have an American Baby exposes a Chinese business that cares only for the bottom line, and a private US hospital system more than happy to serve patients paying cash.
Filmmakers, Arts Orgs, and Cultural Workers Boycott IDFA
Cultural groups and artists are withdrawing from the film festival over allegations of institutional censorship of the Palestinian liberation movement.
Doc Examining Ethics in Documentary Filmmaking Has Its Own Problems
Subject’s premise is novel and has potential, but for all the film’s discussion of ethics, it has its own failings.
Films to Look Forward to at IDFA 2023
The world’s largest documentary film festival is back with over 250 films that expand and experiment with the genre.
The Ghostly Afterlives of Cinema
Pictures of Ghosts is concerned not just with how cinema makes memory tangible, but also how we historically have interacted with it.
Who Are You, John le Carré?
In The Pigeon Tunnel, documentarian Errol Morris attempts to suss out what makes the famed spy novelist tick.
The Israeli Filmmakers Who Shoot and Cry
Michal Weits’s Blue Box, in which she grapples with her great-grandfather’s role in the mass displacement of Palestinians, doesn’t go quite far enough.
Kokomo City’s Bawdy, Unflinching Feminist Message
D. Scott’s documentary on Black trans sex workers is as sunny as it is sobering, a film that refuses to moralize.