By: Addison Wylie The documentary Shooting Bigfoot follows three expeditions led by four different devoted and off-kilter trackers. One subject is Rick Dyer. Dyer has had his name besmirched in the world of hunting Bigfoot due to a scam that took the media by storm. Once he finds Bigfoot, he plans to capture it and take its life. Another hunter is Tom Biscardi, a well known tracker who has no interest in killing Bigfoot, but…
By: Addison Wylie Alias made me frustrated. Watching Michelle Latimer’s documentary provoked me in a way that pushed me to talk back to the screen – something I rarely do. Alias focuses on a small handful of Toronto rappers trying to be heard and to please an audience with their music and lyrics. According to the synopsis, Latimer’s doc “digs deeper than the usual portrait of the rap world as glamour, guns and swagger.” I…
By: Addison Wylie It’s easy for the public to slap negative accusations on the political documentary 2016: Obama’s America. It’s almost asking for it with its timely release during the current presidential race. I’m a critic who enjoys watching a variety of different movies but I’m also someone who hasn’t been keeping up with current politics nor knows a lot about US President Barack Obama’s history and what makes him tick. In a way though,…
By: Addison Wylie I don’t like the route that these new documentaries from DisneyNature have taken. Plain and simple. I don’t like how facts have taken a backseat and cute stitched together stories have taken the forefront. These are documentaries after all, not straight forward narratives. Understandably, Disney is making these films for a young target audience. But still, young acquiring minds don’t mind the odd instance of factual information. These nature documentaries draw in…
By: Addison Wylie These recent concert documentaries have done a terrific job at peeling away layers of a hot musical artist and presenting them to audiences in a vulnerable way. Katy Perry: Part of Me may just be the most naked one yet. That’s not to say Perry DOES get naked. That would obliterate any chance of getting a PG rating and creating an accessible product for her young fans. Perry does however keep up …
By: Addison Wylie People hear statistics about how frequent bullying is in the school system but, for the most part, it’s remained a problem that’s been sitting on the back burner. However, after the recent extremes bullying has caused (including youth suicides), Filmmaker Lee Hirsch has made Bully, a documentary that gives audiences an intimate look at how the issue is handled in schools located in Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, and Oklahoma as well as the…
By: Addison Wylie To The Arctic is another documentary that reminds us just how relentless heat is against Mother Nature. The film, to which showcases the habitats and lifestyles of arctic animals (primarily a polar bear family), has an abundance of sweeping establishing shots showing audiences how much more desolate the deepest part of the Northern hemisphere has become.A strong attribute of Greg MacGillivray’s documentary (also co-produced by his son, Shaun) is its ability to tell…
By: Addison Wylie One Life feels like it should be apart of the DisneyNature collection. It’s similar to Earth because the film is showcasing different animal and insect families, it’s similar to Oceans because of the rapid fire pacing of each family’s story, and it’s similar to last year’s African Cats because of how the script threads in little tales. However, it’s not until we see an attack scene where an ostrich is brutally taken…