Category
Reviews
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01.03.13The Qatsi Trilogy Blu Ray ReviewGodfrey Reggio's Qatsi trilogy is a brilliantly realized, influential piece of cinema that bridges the gap between experimental film and documentary. Completely free of dialogue or any sort of obvious narrative, these three films combine visuals and music to provoke a visceral and intellectual response from the audience, allowing themes to emerge from seemingly disparate images in a freedom of interpretation. The Criterion Collection has finally given the series an HD upgrade and outside of one exception, I'm pretty thrilled with the results. Continue Reading...
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07.03.12Gray’s Anatomy Criterion Blu Ray ReviewWith Stephen Soderbergh on the verge of retiring from filmmaking, one has to wonder how somebody with such an amount of creative freedom could ever feel uninspired or suffocated by the limitations of their chosen medium. He’s the guy who popularized the “one for me, one for them” modus operandi and within it, has seemed to have found his rhythm. In the mid-nineties, Soderbergh faced a similar dilemma in which he overcame an artistic slump by rebuilding himself with two experiments; Schizopolis and Gray’s Anatomy. While they both fall under the “one for me” category, Gray’s Anatomy is fairly accessible ...
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05.28.12Alan Greenberg’s ‘Every Night The Trees Disappear': The Making of Werner Herzog’s Heart of GlassThis might not be 100% doc related, but anything involving Werner Herzog is probably worth mentioning around here, so...I wanted to talk about Alan Greenberg's new book 'Every Night The Trees Disappear'. It chronicles the making of Herzog's fiction film 'Heart of Glass', in which the director famously hypnotized his entire cast. Herzog is a filmmaker who blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction, so it was no surprise that Greenberg's book reveals some interesting insights that might be of value to those interested in documentary filmmaking. The book is laid out in an interesting way, breaking up the anecdotal "making ...
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05.22.12The Documentary Blog Podcast: Hot Docs 2012This special Hot Docs 2012 episode of The Documentary Blog Podcast is designed specifically for those of you who like listening to four guys talk about documentaries for nearly three hours. Other sites might consider breaking such a massive show into two parts, but we like to keep things LONG around these parts. On this episode, myself (Jay), Sean Dwyer (Film Junk), Frank Knezic (Film Junk), and Kurt Halfyard (Twitch, Row Three) blather on about 27 of the 198 films at this year's festival. Even at nearly three hours, it feels like we barely scratched the surface. 0:00 - Intro 1:30 ...
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05.01.12Hot Docs Capsule Reviews: The Imposter, GLOW, Beauty Is Embarrassing, Women With CowsTHE IMPOSTER Dir. Bart Layton To synopsize The Imposter is to risk spoiling the experience for somebody going into a film that's probably best seen completely cold. I'll keep this brief and general: the film starts with the sudden disappearance of a 13 year old boy from San Antonio, Texas. Almost four years later, he mysteriously reappears in Spain. That's good enough. Fans of the twists and turns in films like Capturing the Friedmans and The Staircase will definitely enjoy The Imposter. Director Bart Layton tells this story with a sense of cinematic awareness that separates this sensational true-life story from your ...
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04.25.12Hot Docs Preview: Indie Game: The Movie, Jeff, Tchoupitoulas, FrancophreniaThe Hot Docs Film Festival kicks off this weekend, so it's time to start putting your schedules together and packing in as many quality documentary screenings as humanly possible. I’ve got mine put together and I’m really excited by the variety of subjects/films that I’ve got to look forward to. Luckily, I had a chance to check out a few of my most anticipated films in advance, including the Ross Bros. Tchoupitoulas, Indie Game: The Movie, Jeff, and James Franco’s Francophrenia. Here's what I thought! TCHOUPITOULAS Dir. Bill Ross & Turner Ross This might seem a bit premature, but the Ross Brothers ...
