Year: 2021 Runtime: 78 minutes Directors: Erin Bernhardt and Din Blankenship By Morgan Roberts How do we unlearn hate? How do we break past our prejudices to love those who look and live differently than us? In the documentary film, “Refuge,” we see just that. Chris Buckley is a veteran who returned from combat, traumatized and looking to make sense of what he endured. Instead, … Continue reading Film Review: Refuge
Year: 2023 Runtime: 80 minutes Director: Dan Covert Writers: Amy Dempsey, Dan Covert, Erik Auli, Tara Rose Stromberg By Joan Amenn Nominated for a Grand Jury Award at this year’s SXSW, “Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life” is an intriguing look at an artist who has managed to create ubiquitous images and yet, remain relatively unknown. Geoff McFetridge’s work can be seen everywhere from movie titles … Continue reading Geoff McFetridge: Drawing a Life: SXSW 2023 Review
Year: 2023 Runtime: 88 Minutes Directed by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh By Sarah Manvel Sometimes the purpose of a documentary is to shine a light on a part of the world most people will never see. Sometimes the purpose is to provide a voice to people who feel they have no voice of their own (which is nonsense of course, we all have … Continue reading Under the Sky of Damascus: Berlinale 2023 Review
Year: 2023 Runtime: 102 minutes Directors: Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson By Sarah Manvel Three times in my life now I have seen an event at which I was present for a second time, in a documentary. The first was a concert, the second was a vigil for a murdered woman. The third was when I took a friend to hear Nikki Giovanni speak at … Continue reading Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project – Sundance 2023 Film Review
Film critic Calum Cooper reviews the stunning new documentary from Laurs Poitras, “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”. Continue reading LFF2022 Review: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Film Critic Calum Cooper reviews one of the many offerings from this year’s London Film Festival; a documentary that uncovers the cultural richness of Haiti. Continue reading LFF2022 Review: Kanaval: A People’s History of Haiti in Six Chapters
Year: 2022 Runtime: 12 minutes Director: Madeleine Chapman By Juli Horsford Director Madeleine Chapman takes us on a journey to the far reaches of New Zealand where Lee Ralph resides on a farm. He tends to the animals there and works as a farmhand to make it by. Ralph’s face is lined with age and he’s missing a few teeth. You’d never know he was … Continue reading Femme Filmmakers Festival 7 Review: Scratched: Aoteaora’s Lost Sporting Legends
Year: 2021Runtime: 87 minutesDirectors: Hallee Adelman, Sean King O’Grady By Morgan Roberts Substance abuse is not uncommon. I guarantee you know someone who has some form of a substance abuse disorder, especially considering the opioid crisis. The documentary film, “Our American Family,” is a harrowing and honest look at one family fighting for sobriety and healing. The film follows a close-knit Philadelphia area family who … Continue reading Review: “Our American Family”
Year: 2022 Runtime: 98 minutes Director: Sara Dosa Writers: Sara Dosa, Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput By Tom Moore Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love” is a burning real-life romantic tale of two fated lovers whose love for each other and volcanoes makes for an immersive and unexpectedly emotional viewing experience. Narrated by Miranda July, director of “Kajillionaire”(2020), the documentary uses the archived footage of … Continue reading Film Review: Fire of Love
Year: 2022 Runtime: 101 minutes Directors: Skye Borgman By Tom Moore Netflix and Skye Borgman, director of “Abducted in Plain Sight”(2017), deliver a tense true crime mystery with “Girl in the Picture”(2022) that’s loaded and, albeit, bloated with so many shocking twists and turns that’ll keep your head spinning. The film chronicles the investigation of the death of a young mother and all the shocking … Continue reading Film Review: Girl in the Picture
In Their Own League 