documentary review - reDocumented (Page 2)

Black and white photo. A woman sits in a wheelchair surrounded by four men in suits.

documentary review

Life After (dir. Reid Davenport)

Life After is the sophomore feature from Reid Davenport. He is a filmmaker whose first feature, I Didn’t See You There, took a novel approach to observing how somebody who is not able bodied navigates the world. Told largely through a rather simply first-person device of attaching a camera

In sepia colours, women men and children sit around in nature.

restoration reviews

Doc Restoration – Commune (dir. Jonathan Berman)

A couple of years ago, my manager at the time got her team together to do some year-ahead planning and team bonding. She also asked where we’d like to be in six months, one year and five years. Among the standard answers of wanting to complete this project or

Jayne Mansfield with big blonde hair lays on a sofa with a small baby and young child.

documentary review

My Mom Jayne (dir. Mariska Hargitay)

Mariska Hargitay has built her career and (by this stage) her legacy on a character whose troubled childhood and relationship to motherhood endows her with wells of empathy towards victims of sexual and emotional abuse. Turns out she knows a thing or two about generational trauma beyond the role of

Black and white close-up of a woman's eyes with the rest of her face covered in sheer fabric.

documentary review

Enigma (dir. Zackary Drucker)

There is a bit in Zackary Drucker’s Enigma where the director off-camera exclaims “Amanda…!” to one of Amanda Lear’s answers in such an incredulous tone and it honestly made me laugh. Partly because it surprised me on account of it being rare to hear a filmmaker so brazenly

A young man in a wrestling uniform sits in a stylised locker room where everything is the colour red.

documentary review

Surviving Ohio State (dir. Eva Orner)

America is a deeply weird place when it comes to sport. I mean, it’s deeply weird about a lot of things. But in this instance, we’re talking sport. The extreme pomp and circumstance like those seen in the opening moments of Surviving Ohio State is so intensely unappealing;

A black mayor in a suit stands in front of a squad of police officers.

documentary review

The Body Politic (dir. Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough)

There is a line in The Body Politic that I can’t quite get out of my brain. Like a tick or a worm, burying its way in. It’s spoken by a disembodied voice—maybe it’s a television news reporter or a politician at the dais, and they

Stylised pink photograph of a transgender woman looking at the camera.

documentary review

MQFF: I'm Your Venus (dir. Kimberly Reed)

I’m Your Venus is a movie that does not go overtly into the complicated history of Paris is Burning. Neither as a cultural artefact, nor for its legacy as a story about queer and trans people directed a cis filmmaker. Just as we have long since gone beyond needing

a graphic illustrated image of a woman in silhouette with red glasses and holding a wooden log on a golden yellow background.

documentary review

I Know Catherine, The Log Lady (dir. Richard Green)

For such a small and very independent documentary, it’s kind of a brag to be able to include the words “I Know” in your title. So much of what we watch movies about are unknowable even from a place of deep study and being a part of any given

documentary review

Drop Dead City (dir. Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn)

One of the more disappointing elements of any movie-watching experience, but especially so in documentary, is when a fascinating story is given such a stale interpretation. Take Drop Dead City, for instance. Co-directors Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn have at their disposal one of the most fascinating eras of 20th

Ethan Hawke in a beanie and black shirt walks down the action aisle of a Blockbuster video.

documentary review

Sydney Film Festival – Videoheaven (dir. Alex Ross Perry)

A visual essay about video stores playing at a film festival. What a concept! You’ve got to be careful with a film like Videoheaven. Alex Ross Perry’s near-three-hour movie starts with Ethan Hawke in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (aka Hamlet 2000!) reciting the famous "to be

Stylised film still of the texas chain saw massace of a man holding a chainsaw chasing a young woman.

documentary review

Sydney Film Festival – Chain Reactions (dir. Alexandre O. Philippe)

We don’t necessarily need another documentary about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Between features and home entertainment productions, general horror docs plus cast and crew biographies, Tobe Hooper’s horror masterpiece has been well and truly covered over its 50 years. Or at least that’s what it feels

A large protest featuring hundreds of marching men and women, many wearing yellow or orange, with some holding signs or flags.

documentary review

Sydney Film Festival – Farming the Revolution (dir. Nishtha Jain)

I had only just been commenting in regards to this film that India was experiencing a “golden age of documentary” and then during the Sydney Film Festival’s introduction, those very words were spoken. Payal Kapadia’s Night of Knowing Nothing, Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes (an Oscar nominee)