By Matthew Fullerton. In a 1981 essay, the film critic Alan Booth (1946-1993) recognized independent directors as the strength of Japanese cinema. Tragically, he also noted how independent film in his adopted Japan was threatened by formula, largely resulting from the influence of corporate decision-making. For the next decade or […]
Violent Urban Transformation: Ali Vatansever on Saf
N. Buket Cengiz
May 7, 2019
By N. Buket Cengiz. Ali Vatansever’s Saf (2018) was one of the outstanding films at the Human Rights in Cinema Competition at the 38th Istanbul Film Festival (2019). The film, which made its premiere at the 43rd Toronto Film Festival (2018), has received the Honorable Mention at the New Voices New Visions […]
Long Walk to Freedom: The Silence of Others
Michael Sandlin
May 6, 2019
By Michael Sandlin. Despite its low-budget workmanlike feel, this documentary from Emmy-winning directors Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar – and produced by Spanish directorial titan Pedro Almodovar – just may be one of the most socio-historically significant European documentaries of recent years. Although it may not have the depth and […]
Taming a Wild Man: Matteo Garrone’s Dogman
Thomas Puhr
May 6, 2019
By Thomas Puhr. He is a slight man: short and hunched, as if perpetually carrying a heavy load. His head and eyes constantly dart around, almost bug-like. Only when with his dogs, or spending a few days with his estranged daughter, does he seem slightly less on edge. This unease […]
Planning and Execution: Werner Herzog’s Scenarios II and Meeting Gorbachev
John Duncan Talbird
May 3, 2019
By John Duncan Talbird. Werner Herzog should win the Nobel Prize in Literature. If Bob Dylan can win it, I don’t see why a filmmaker can’t and it’s hard to think of another director who has done so much for both the narrative and documentary film, in fact, who has […]
Portraits and Passions: Tribeca Film Festival 2019
May 2, 2019
By Gary M. Kramer. The Tribeca Film Festival, April 24-May 5, offers a variety of features, shorts, documentaries, television and new media productions from new and established filmmakers. This year’s programs offered some impressive and ambitious films. Here is a rundown of seven distinctive titles. One of the gems of […]
Documenting the Past and Gender: Istanbul Film Festival, 38th Edition
May 1, 2019
By N. Buket Cengiz. Held only a couple of days after a social democrat mayor has won the elections in the city after long years, Istanbul Film Festival, organized by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) for the 38th time on 5-16 April 2019, has been attended by over […]
The Struggle for a City’s Soul: Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (Criterion Collection)
Jeremy Carr
April 30, 2019
By Jeremy Carr. Newly released from Tegal Prison, Franz Biberkopf cautiously looks over a custodial stretch of land just inside the wall that separates the penitentiary from the city streets. He walks a bit, hesitantly but with a slight smile. The camera is close on Franz, tracking this emphatically prolonged […]
Never Look Away: Art Against Death
Christopher Sharrett
April 29, 2019
By Christopher Sharrett. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away is a good – but not great – film of this past season that deserves recognition; I wanted to wait to remark on it until a Region 1 Blu-ray arrived, which apparently won’t happen until the fall, so I purchased […]
Trick and Treat: Penny Lane’s Hail Satan?
Elias Savada
April 29, 2019
By Elias Savada. Never has a Penny Lane film been this funny. An academic-now-turned-full-professional-documentary-filmmaker, she has provided a window into the weird and wonderful for the last half-dozen or so years with her handful of features and several compelling shorts. She loves to take unusual relics of our planet and […]