documentary review - reDocumented (Page 4)

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)

A black and white photography of a mother, father and their four children stand in an empty, grassy field.

documentary review

Sydney Film Festival – Gods of Stone (dir. Iván Castiñeiras)

There was a moment around midway through Iván Castiñeiras’ Gods of Stone (Deuses de pedra) film where I thought to myself, ‘You can really tell this was shot over 15 years’. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although I think in the case of this 80-minute film, it does

A woman stands outside her home, she and the image around her appear fuzzy due to low quality video that she filmed with.

documentary review

Sydney Film Festival – The Perfect Neighbor (dir. Geeta Gandbhir)

When I commented on Bill Morrison’s shoulda-been-Oscar-winning short film Incident from last year, I said that I was “surprised more filmmakers don’t use this, I guess, 24-style editing in documentary.” I was referring to the way single sequences unfold across multiple points of view to tell a story

A man with beard and glasses sits in front of a editing machine that is playing a black and white movie.

documentary review

The Cinema Within (dir. Chad Freidrichs)

Movies about movies. Groundbreaking. Movies about the "psychology of film editing"? Okay, that's a bit different. I have enjoyed the films of Chad Freidrichs well enough; The Pruitt-Igoe Myth and The Experimental City have each covered two very different and historically curious moments of the 20th

A woman in protective clothing walks through the futuristic ruins of San Francisco.

documentary review

2073 (dir. Asif Kapadia)

It’s easy to say that Asif Kapadia’s documentaries have been some of the most acclaimed of the last 15 or so years. His early collage-style non-fictions were critical and cultural successes, with Senna and in particular Amy (winning an Academy Award despite my own misgivings) proving to be

A stylised illustration of Liza Minnelli with bright red lips and blue eyeshadow and a short cropped hairdo.

documentary review

Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story (dir. Bruce David Klein)

Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome. As introductory lay-ups go, those famous lyrics from Bob Fosse’s Cabaret were too hard to refuse for me. It’s to the credit of director Bruce David Klein’s credit that he doesn’t always (does not always) succumb to such easy biographic impulses in Liza: