A Sexplanation
Written and directed by health reporter Alex Liu, A Sexplanation is both a personal portrait of Liu’s own relationship with sex and an examination of the current debate surrounding sex ed in the United States.
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Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company
There’s no denying how uncompromising Into the Weeds: Dewayne “Lee” Johnson vs. Monsanto Company is with its recap of the ongoing legal battle against agriculture company Monsanto (now owned by Bayer). The struggle for justice after Monsanto’s glyphosate was discovered to be extremely hazardous was an exhausting process for the plaintiffs, and documentarian Jennifer Baichwal does not want to skip over any details. But, does this integrity affect the documentary? For me, it did.
Stronger By Stress
Every so often, I like to fall down a movie’s rabbit hole. We all like when a movie can take us to an escape, but I’m talking about being taken completely out of my element to be enlightened about a subject I’m absolutely clueless about. I’ve taken this trip with faith-based movies before (notably War Room): I wasn’t moved by the movie but I appreciated the experience. I was hoping Stronger By Stress was going…
A Cops and Robbers Story
By: Trevor Chartrand Documentary filmmaker Ilinca Calugareanu takes on a recent New York controversy in A Cops and Robbers Story; which focuses on former NYPD chief Corey Pegues. A vocal advocate against police brutality and racism, Pegues was the centre of a media swarm following a recent confession of his darker past.
Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
Few documentaries have moved me like Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America has. It’s an unflinching breakdown of American history and an empathetic reach to those who have suffered through it. Lawyer Jeffery Robinson (who last appeared in 2020’s brilliant doc The Fight) guides us every step of the way.
Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché
In 1976, Marion Elliott-Said – a Somali-English teenager from London – formed a band. That band, called X-Ray Spex, would quickly become one of the most distinct groups to emerge from the fledgling punk scene. Marion, in her front-woman persona as Poly Styrene, broke into an industry that was overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male, paving the way for other female musicians and women of colour. Many credit her with laying the foundations for what would,…
Try Harder!
Lowell High School is the top-ranked public high school in San Francisco. In a world where everyone is a straight-A student, Lowell seniors are stressed out, scrambling to secure places in the country’s top universities and balancing overwhelming pressure from their families and communities.
Julia
By: Trevor Chartrand From the Oscar-nominated directors of RBG, Julia is an endearing documentary that showcases the life and times of the cooking show pioneer, Julia Child. The film takes a biographical look at her charmingly humble rise to fame, from cook-book writer to television star. The documentary has a lot of personality and examines snippets of her off-camera personal life as well as her positive impact on the cooking industry as a whole. This is…
Clerk
A doc about filmmaker Kevin Smith poses an interesting challenge for the documentarian because Smith has been so open so often on public forums. What else can you explore that he hasn’t expanded on already? From feature-length behind-the-scenes bonus features to Smith’s lengthy discussions taped at colleges and concert venues, Smith has covered his life and career from (seemingly) every angle.