Burns and co.’s constant mythologizing is a lot more appropriate here than it was in The Civil War, and as such I feel like this effort is the more successful one, despite the greater historical importance of the first series. And to their credit, they only mythologize about certain things. For some examples, the game’s …
Tag: Documentary
El Alcalde [The Mayor] (2012, Emiliano Altuna, Diego Enrique Osorno, Carlos Rossini)
This a challenging but confused film that begs the question, ‘what is more important to you, peace and security or freedom, transparency and accountability?’ This is an especially poignant question in Mexico, which experiences its share of violence.
Dangerous Acts Starring the Unstable Elements of Belarus (2013, Madeleine Sackler)
This is an important and emotionally compelling film about theatre under repressive regimes.
Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children (2012, Patrick Reed)
First off, I have not seen Shake Hands with the Devil, but I feel as though I should have.
Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Wrap Up
Here is my roundup for TIFF 2012. I managed to see 13 films this year, which is better than last year. Many of them managed to be documentaries, which Monique attributes to our constant attendance at the Bloor over the summer. (I guess, subconsciously, we have become documentary people.) I didn’t see a film that …
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984 Rob Epstein)
So unfortunately the filmmakers made a strange – but perhaps understandable – decision when telling Milk’s story: they assumed they were speaking to a very particular audience. This assumption led to another: that therefore everybody knows everything they need to know about the backstory already.
The Island President (2011, Jon Shenk)
This is an affecting movie about the potential crisis we as a world – and specifically, anyone living close to the ocean without a hill in the way – are likely facing in the next few decades. The filmmakers have found a very charismatic man to follow around and it makes the whole thing a …
Last Call at the Oasis (2012, Jessica Yu)
This is not a happy film. I guess that’s what accounts for its low rating on Imdb. [At the time this post was published the rating was at least 2 lower than it is in 2019.] That or certain companies are rating it 1/10. (C’mon Riley, nobody does that! That’s crazy!)
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009, Michael Moore)
Full disclosure: I don’t like Michael Moore. I agree with him on many, many things, but I absolutely can’t stand the way he manipulates his audience. I am a political philosophy major and so a lack of clarity of concepts makes me insane. So…
The Invisible War (2012, Kirby Dick)
I hate to say it, but 2012 was my first year attending Hot Docs. And because I didn’t get my act together, I ended up seeing one movie. (The other two we tried to see were sold out, one a week in advance.) So what follows is my review of that movie, Invisible War:
Best Documentaries of All Time
Inspired by my recent viewing of Tony Kaye’s outstanding Lake of Fire, here is my list of the best documentaries as of June 2010. No, I have not seen Nanook. 1. Capturing the Friedmans This is my vote for the greatest documentary of all time (if I had to pick one). It is one of …
The Pagan Christ (2007, directed by Cynthia Banks)
I just watched a brief news-magazine / “documentary” program about a book called The Pagan Christ by Tom Harpur. This book seems to put forward a new version of a fairly well-known (if not well-accepted) claim, that Christian beliefs have their antecedents in various pagan cults and religions. He also suggests that Jesus didn’t exist …
Fahrenheit 911 (2004, Michael Moore)
So I saw Fahrenheit 911 last night. I thought I was going to come up with something witty to insult it but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Very polemical and full of the usual publicity stunts (and times when you wonder how insincere Moore was being when he was getting some of these …