Tamas Yvan Topolanszky’s Curtiz is a stylishly captivating dramatization of one famed director’s battle to make one of the most celebrated films of all time.
Festivals & Events
At least a passing knowledge of the films and social standards at the time of their production is necessary going into Lemon Popsicle: Of Winners and Losers, which looks more about the backstage drama and cultural phenomenon of the movies than the content within them.
First time feature director Ben Kaplan examines how television viewing habits have changed in the past several decades and the sometimes strained, but always loving relationship he has with his pop culture obsessed father in the genial and entertaining documentary Viewer Directon Advised.
Filmmaker Jennifer Deschamps’ focused and impressionable Inside Lehman Brothers looks at the collapse of one of America’s most prominent lending firms from the viewpoints of men and women who dared to question their employer’s greedy, underhanded, and bafflingly illogical accounting practices.
Prolific and constantly evolving Canadian indie film mainstay Ingrid Veninger (Porcupine Lake, The Animal Project) tries her hand at documentary filmmaking for the first time with The World or Nothing, a well drawn, observational look at a pair of twin brothers trying to chase their dreams of stardom and make a living in the new gig economy.
Filmmaker Rama Rau delivers her second exceptional film in as many months (following the recent completion of her fictional filmmaking debut, Honey Bee) with The Daughter Tree, an eye opening look at the misogynistic and sexist basis for India’s current population crisis.
Born in Evin, Iranian-German director Maryam Zaree’s deep dive into her family’s unspoken past is a detailed and empathetic look at why parents choose to keep secrets from their children and the psychological toll such repression takes on parent-child relationships.
If the intense and thoroughly captivating documentary Last Breath doesn’t leave viewers with quickened pulses and goosebumps, they might want to consult their physicians.
Sara Dosa’s documentary The Seer and the Unseen sounds like it has a quirky, somewhat outlandish premise, but it’s actually a resoundingly empathetic film that looks at Iceland’s ongoing economic woes from unique spiritual and ecological perspectives.
A powerful and moving elegy to the vanishing emotional bond and shared respect between humans and wild animals, director David Hambridge’s Kifaru might be the saddest and one of the most important documentaries of the year.