The Invisible War
The Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentarian behind This Film Is Not Yet Rated turns his lens on one of the United States military’s most shameful and best-kept secrets: rape. According to data reported in the film and sourced from the Department of Defense, more than 20 percent of all servicewomen have been assaulted while serving, and a half a million people—women and men—have been sexually assaulted in the U.S. military. That’s a rampant problem that flares in the public consciousness every so often—remember the Tailhook scandal?—but otherwise goes largely unreported.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsPaul Williams: Still Alive
A title can say a lot, but in the case of Stephen Kessler’s 2012 documentary on Paul Williams, it says it all. The film opens with Kessler believing Paul Williams to be dead. If that’s not a great way to start a film about Paul Williams, I don’t know what is.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsWatch Clip From the New John Mellencamp Documentary
Back in 2009, John Mellencamp toured with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson, and during that time he wrote and recorded his album No Better Than This. Kurt and Ian Markus traveled with Mellencamp to document the tour and creation of the album. The now completed documentary, John Mellencamp: It’s About You, is set to be released on June 20.... read more
Found in: Music, NewsWatch the Trailer for The Imposter
As a fictitious thriller, The Imposter might leave audiences barely batting an eye. But as a documentary, it’s bizarre, frightening and above all, true. The film combines stylish re-enactments with real footage and interviews to unfold an award-winning feature.... read more
Found in: Movies, NewsMansome
The Oscar-nominated director of Super Size Me brings us another documentary that hones in on a specific subject with such precision, it can’t help but involve myriad other cultural issues in the process. Morgan Spurlock’s Mansome gives an historical and cultural account of male grooming. The seasoned director presents the concept in all its awkwardness, even as he identifies the beard, the mustache, and other aspects of a man’s physical appearance as a means of understanding men of varied social classes, sexual identities and ethnic backgrounds. Mansome might be best understood as a comedy, with commentary from Zach Galifianakis, Judd... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsPortrait of Wally
“Injustice upon injustice upon injustice” is how one interviewee describes the saga behind Portrait of Wally, a 1912 painting by Egon Schiele of his mistress Valerie “Wally” Neuzil. Much of Schiele’s work is quite provocative, not just nude but erotic, viewed by some as pornographic and grotesque. But Andrew Shea’s inciting documentary is less a biography about the Expressionist figurative artist (in fact, little is said about Schiele’s short life at all) than his most controversial work—a work controversial not for its subject matter but for its history of ownership.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsUnder African Skies
Director Joe Berlinger’s fascinating, immersive documentary Under African Skies celebrates the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon’s landmark Graceland album and also examines the firestorm of controversy that it ignited.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsComic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
In Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope, Morgan Spurlock gazes directly into the Heart of Dorkness—the annual Comic-Con in San Diego that began in 1970 as a gathering of comic book writers, illustrators and the fans who love them. In recent years, the event has completed its transformation into a pop culture garden from which Hollywood seeks to simultaneously seed, harvest and extract profit. In doing so, it’s become about almost everything else but comics.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsLast Call at the Oasis
The production company that brought us An Inconvenient Truth, about global climate change, and Food, Inc., about the American food industry, now tackles the international water crisis with this thoroughly researched, cleverly presented, awfully depressing documentary by Jessica Yu. Since winning an Oscar for her documentary short Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien, Yu has carved out an eclectic career of esoteric documentaries (In the Realms of the Unreal, Protagonist) and popular television (The West Wing, Grey’s Anatomy). Here, she builds what she calls a “structured mosaic” of startling statistics and memorable personalities that leave a distressing... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsFirst Position
First Position takes a look behind the scenes as six young dancers prepare to compete in the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City, the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition. Directed by Bess Kargman, the documentary follows these performers as they tirelessly train all over the world in the hopes of winning awards, scholarships to prestigious dance schools, or even a chance to be placed in a professional ballet company.... read more
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