Documentaries

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power opened the 33rd  Sundance Festival which , as detailed at the opening conference by Robert Redford and Artistic Director John Cooper, will devote special attention to the environment. That focus is expressed by the first New Climate section featuring 14 films and “VR experiences” dedicated to global warming.

The remarkable and tragic story of Christine Chubbuck was center stage at the last Sundance Film Festival with both a documentary and a feature devoted to the 1970s Florida newscaster who took her own life on live television. The latter, directed by Antonio Campos, features Rebecca Hall in the title role and is an examination of Chubbuck’s depression on the backdrop of the societal and professional pressures faced by women both then and, as current events so clearly show, in today’s world.

Ulrich Seidl has already won three Venice Festival awards, two for Paradise: Faith in 2012 and the Grand Special Jury Prize for his 2001 feature Hundstage (Dog Days). He is back now with Safari, a film that is shown in the festival’s  documentary section.

Climate change, gun control (or lack thereof), ISIS, women’s rights, gender issues, a privileged socialite’s life, poetry, and music – these were the most timely themes of the documentaries that premiered at the Sundance festival over the past ten days. There was no shocking doc that had people lining up around five blocks (and not getting in) like last year’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief.

“James Foley was an extraordinary, brave man. I think the film is a wonderful antidote to all the nonsense we hear in the world from ISIS, Donald Trump and the like.

This month marks 35 years since the passing of Steve McQueen – an actor whose light burned bright during a career cut short by cancer in 1980. Until then the “king of cool” as he came to be known, embodied the rebel, nonconformist, maverick leading man like no one perhaps before or since.

The Women He’s Undressed has a titillating title but the documentary helmed by, Gillian Armstrong (My Brilliant Career, Oscar and Lucinda, Charlotte Gray) is anything but frivolous. With an eye for composition, a light touch, and artistic flair, Ms.

From July 30 to August 16 the second largest city in Australia, has been living and breathing film: Melbourne is hosting its annual Film Festival, created in 1952 and one of the oldest international events in the festival circuit. Over the span of three weeks, the event, has managed to jam pack a true marathon of screenings that includes all kinds of film.

Diane Lane reflects on her role in HBO's Cinema Verite, about the making of the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family.