By: Addison Wylie When I watch a documentary like Harold Crooks’ The Price We Pay, I think about that sparsely attended audience who would enjoy a doc this dense. I wonder how those movie goers find windows of fascination in a film that constantly slugs hefty loads of information towards them. How do they withstand this documentary that is so persistent to be dramatic through its B-roll, yet reels back when delivering essential facts? I don’t…
By: Addison Wylie Johanna Hamilton’s documentary has intrigue and suspicion. It makes you question the legitimacy behind our privacy. 1971 is about the shocking true story of intrepid activists obtaining and distributing confidential FBI documents. The files were finely searched through, and then sent to major news publications. This act of defiance led to an unraveling case that had America looking at the FBI under an uncomfortably naked light. A particular program titled Cointelpro had…
By: Gesilayefa Azorbo Ballet 422, the much-anticipated new film from Jody Lee Lipes (NY Export: Opus Jazz), opens with a couple of facts. 91 – the number of full-time dancers at the prestigious New York City Ballet. 1948 – the year the ballet company was formed. The film then opens with a shot of these elite dancers walking down a darkened hallway to a mirrored practice studio. Then, shots of them stretching, warming up, wrapping their…
By: Addison Wylie I wouldn’t call Concerning Violence a movie or a documentary. It’s only being considered the latter because filmmaker Göran Olsson uses real footage – from the 60s and 70s – of African liberation in a perpetual clash. It’s more of a collection of footage being blown up on a screen to prove a point. Concerning Violence contains interviews, still images, and raw film that all flesh out these “nine scenes from the…
By: Addison Wylie In Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, filmmaker Michele Josue states she’s not exactly looking for closure, but for more of an understanding of Shepard’s life and unfair demise. However, as we watch her trace through Shepard’s life and interview those who were brightened by Matt’s personality, it’s fairly clear that in order for her to comprehend the tragedy, she feels the need to provide a final word. Maybe not from…
By: Addison Wylie When you pay for admission to see The Wrecking Crew, a rockin’ doc from Denny Tedesco (son of legendary guitarist Tommy Tedesco), you pay to hear a number of stories from the title band themselves. The Wrecking Crew was made up of talented musicians who lent their instrumentals to famous musicians like The Beach Boys, Herb Alpert, Cher, and Frank Sinatra. While the singers belted out their momentous lyrics and choruses, Tommy…
By: Addison Wylie A tiny gem entering the mainstream circuit is Dogs on the Inside. The documentary features rescued dogs and prison inmates who look after them. Massachusetts’ Don’t Throw Us Away program gives both inmates and mistreated pups a second chance, as man and animal identify with each other. In other words: good luck trying to frown towards this film. Dogs on the Inside is a heartwarming documentary, showing the audience just how easy…
By: Addison Wylie The Backward Class is yet another documentary where an intrepid filmmaker tracks students through semesters as they prepare for life-defining exams. After knock outs such as Fame High and I Learn America and the derivative dud School of Babel, this is a day-in-the-life structure that has firmly rooted itself in the documentary genre. It’s up to the filmmaker to have their topic inspire the audience. And, that’s exactly what The Backward Class…
By: Addison Wylie The 50 Year Argument documents the persuasive, opinionated history of the highly regarded publication The New York Review of Books. The film chronicles the exclusive timeline decently, although the doc’s pacing and organization feels like it keeps us in our seats for fifty years. In the early 60’s, during the New York printers strike, The New York Review of Books found its footing as a magazine that didn’t feel tethered by opposing…
By: Gesilayefa Azorbo Last Days in Vietnam, directed by Rory Kennedy, is a gripping look back at the massive, often unsanctioned evacuations of South Vietnamese citizens and Americans in Vietnam that were undertaken in the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War. This is a story told through meticulously researched archival footage and interviews with key players in the US and Vietnamese military and state departments – including Henry Kissinger himself – as well as…