Category: Documentaries

Atlanta Film Festival, Documentaries, Female Filmmaker, Film Festivals, Film Reviews

ATLFF 2024: “Rape Play”

Year: 2024 Runtime: 82 minutes Writer/director: Gabriella Mykal Cast: Avalon Greenberg Call, Gabriella Mykal, Victoria Zajac, Mo Donegan By Brian Skutle Naming a documentary “Rape Play” (2024) makes Gabriella Mykal’s film feel more incendiary and potentially controversial than it is. Indeed, there is discussion of sexual violence, both real and fictional, that can be triggering to people. When one considers the subject matter of the … Continue reading ATLFF 2024: “Rape Play”

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Atlanta Film Festival, Documentaries, Female Filmmaker

ATLFF24 Review: “Atikamekw Suns”

Year: 2023 Runtime: 103 minutes Writer/Director: Chloé Leriche Actors: Jacques Newashish, Mirotansa Chilton, Wikwasa Newashish More than any other storytelling form in film, documentaries have the potential to make us feel multiple emotions at once. In her film, “Atikamekw Suns” (2023), director Chloé Leriche takes that potential, and crafts a true crime narrative that elicits pain, empathy, anger and frustration all at once. Ultimately, the … Continue reading ATLFF24 Review: “Atikamekw Suns”

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Documentaries, Female Filmmakers, Reviews, Underrepresented in Film, World Cinema

CPH:DOX 2024 “Marching in the Dark”

Year: 2024 Runtime: 111 Minutes Director: Kinshuk Surjan By Morgan Roberts In India’s rural agricultural communities, there is an epidemic. Spurred by poverty and crippling debt, many farmers die by suicide, leaving their families to pick up the pieces. Sanjivani is one such woman who lost her husband to suicide. Unable to work the same way as her husband and with children left to raise, … Continue reading CPH:DOX 2024 “Marching in the Dark”

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Activism, Documentaries, Female Characters, Female Filmmakers, Feminism, Film Festivals, Film Industry, History, Reviews, Women in Film

Review: Still Working 9 to 5

Year: 2022 Runtime: 91 minutes Directors: Camille Hardman, Gary Lane By Joan Amenn This documentary directed by Camille Hardman and Gary Lane is unflinching in its depiction of what our mothers and grandmothers faced in terms of inequality and how their work continues. The fact that all of the primary cast of actors agreed to be interviewed for it indicates just how much they believe … Continue reading Review: Still Working 9 to 5

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Documentaries, Female Filmmaker, Film Festivals

CPH:DOX 2024 “The Recovery Channel”

Year: 2023 Directed By: Ellen Ugelstad Written By: Einar Sverdrup and Ellen Ugelstad Starring: Turid Synnøve Rivertz Vatne, Valentina Alexeeva, Ravdeep Signh Bajwa, Thomas Cassidy By Morgan Roberts In the United States, the mental health care system is an underfunded, overburdened organization which largely finds itself in the news as a scapegoat for preventable tragedy. But the United States is not the only country with … Continue reading CPH:DOX 2024 “The Recovery Channel”

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Animated, Directors, Documentaries, Female Filmmakers, Female Writer, Reviews, Streaming, Women in Film

Review: Frida

Year: 2024 Runtime: 87 minutes Director: Carla Gutiérrez  Actor: Fernanda Echevarria del Rivero By Joan Amenn Carla Gutiérrez is best known for her exceptional work as an editor on films such as “RBG”(2018) and “Julia” (2021) but this is her debut film as a director and I certainly hope it won’t be her last. I have long admired the work of Frida Kahlo but never felt … Continue reading Review: Frida

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Dance, Directors, Documentaries, Interviews, Spotlight

Exclusive Interview with “Everybody Dance” Director Dan Watt (Part 2)

By Joan Amenn We’re back with Part 2 of this great interview with the director of “Everybody Dance” just in time for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and here he is going to tell us more about his experiences as a documentary filmmaker and how he won the Chita Rivera Award for Best Direction of a Documentary so let’s dive in! Joan Amenn: That’s fantastic. I’m … Continue reading Exclusive Interview with “Everybody Dance” Director Dan Watt (Part 2)

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Dance, Directors, Documentaries, Interviews, Spotlight, Underrepresented in Film

Exclusive Interview with “Everybody Dance” Director Dan Watt (Part 1)

By Joan Amenn Joan Amenn: We’re really thrilled to have with us Dan Watt, and we’re going to discuss his great documentary that I actually reviewed, “Everybody Dance.” Totally loved this documentary. March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month (DDAM) and in Dan’s documentary we get to follow five kids with different disabilities on their journey through life and toward their dance recital. Through this film, … Continue reading Exclusive Interview with “Everybody Dance” Director Dan Watt (Part 1)

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Berlinale Film Festival, Documentaries, Female Characters, Female Filmmaker, Female Filmmakers, Female Writer, Feminism, Film Reviews, Reviews, Women in Film, World Cinema

Berlinale 2024 review: Reproduktion

Year: 2024 Runtime: 111 minutes Written and directed by: Katharina Pethke By Sarah Manvel When writer-director Katharina Pethke began teaching at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where she had also been a student, she realised that her lecture hall was in the hospital where she had been born. But on mentioning this coincidence to her family she learned that both her mother and … Continue reading Berlinale 2024 review: Reproduktion

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