SHADOWLAND WORLD PREMIERE / RELEASED IN: 2024 / 98 MINUTES / DIRECTED BY: OTSO TIAINEN Beyond Fest 2024 documentary SHADOWLAND, filmmaker Otso Tiainen sets out to the French Pyrenees to explore an area known as “The Zone,” a place famous for embracing the occult, supernatural happenings, religious experience, and the home of cult director Richard Stanley. This documentary takes Read More →
GIRL INTERNET SHOW: A KATI KELLI MIXTAPE This brand-new feature-length “mixtape” unearths and reintroduces a stunning, singular body of work by the enigmatic Kati Kelli, an outsider video artist and digital native whose subversive online uploads push at the seams of the digital form. For nearly a decade before her passing in 2019, Kati ran “Girl Internet Show,” a YouTube Read More →
THE SWEDISH TORPEDO Frida Kempff brings TIFF 2024 audiences the true story of Sally Bauer, a single mother attempting to swim the English Channel in 1939. THE SWEDISH TORPEDO is a unique and multilayered sports docudrama. It will take you by surprise. Josefin Neldén is utterly mesmerizing as Sally Bauer. She delivers a beautiful turn as a desperate single mother Read More →
VIKTOR Viktor wants to be a soldier, but his deafness prevents it. His late father instilled “the military spirit,” and by Miyamoto Musashi’s canonical The Strategy of the Samurai, Viktor aspires to a noble warrior philosophy. Facing rejection after rejection, he finally convinces the local army to take him on as a volunteer field photographer. This opportunity to pursue his Read More →
DOCTOR JEKYLL STARRING EDDIE IZZARD An adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novella, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, director Joe Stephenson takes us inside the gothic horror genre through the performance of the incomparable Eddie Izzard. In DOCTOR JEKYLL, a young man recently released from prison, needing employment to see his daughter, finds himself the carer for Read More →
PITCH PEOPLE Selling is theatre and coercion. Stanley Jacobs‘ documentary PITCH PEOPLE explores the very best in persuasive personas and the history of honest sales. The film is a clever “how-to” guide to moving products. They are magnetic and funny. Urgency and cleverness get your attention. Does the product make life easier? All people genuinely want is to smile and Read More →
DICKWEED SXSW 2024 audiences are in for a real WTF documentary in Jonathan Ignatius Green‘s DICKWEED. In 2012, a wild kidnapping in the middle of the night led to torture, mystery, and one man’s loss of his, let’s say, manhood. The ensuing wild goose chase and brazen criminal actions challenge all involved. Police had no idea what kind of mastermind Read More →
VESELKA: THE RAINBOW ON THE CORNER AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD New York City’s beloved Ukrainian restaurant Veselka is best known for its borscht and varenyky, but it has become a beacon of hope for Ukraine. As the second-generation owner Tom Birchard reluctantly retires after 54 years, his son Jason faces the pressures of stepping into his father’s shoes Read More →
REALM OF SATAN Filmmaker Scott Cummings brings Sundance 2024 audiences into the everyday lives of Satanists. The Church of Satan boasts innumerable followers around the world. REALM OF SATAN introduces us to members from all backgrounds in this part experimental, part cinema verité documentary that both challenges and pokes fun at any preconceived notions we may have had in the Read More →
ETERNAL YOU Sundance 2024 documentary ETERNAL YOU is deeply disturbing and endlessly intriguing. It is something straight out of a horror sci-fi film. Filmmakers Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck guide audiences through the latest technological advances in AI, where versions of your lost loved ones can interact with you in real-time. The moral and emotional gray area this tech exists Read More →
THE THREE OF US In a society governed by tradition, a young Orthodox couple defies norms to integrate their autistic son. As they risk everything, their journey explores the delicate balance between love, faith, and self-discovery. Through their struggle, they challenge preconceived notions, embracing parenthood and searching for their place in the world. Filmmaker Henya Brodbeker turns the camera on Read More →
SO UNREAL Cinema and Cyberspace collide in this fascinating study of the effects of the internet. Debbie Harry‘s echoing narration guides us through history and cinematic timelines, how easily we welcomed computers into our homes, and how swiftly technology transitioned from entertainment to an eventual subconscious weapon. Amanda Kramer‘s SO UNREAL reminds us how films push the boundaries of our Read More →
SPOOKTACULAR! Executive produced by Tom Savini, Fantastic Fest 2023 doc SPOOKTACULAR! by filmmaker Quinn Monahan takes us back to a place I never knew existed. Now that it’s gone, I’m incredibly jealous. It’s time to tell the tale of Spooky World. 1991, in the middle of a Massachusetts cornfield, open every day in October, Dave Bertolino‘s Spooky World was a Read More →
SUMMER QAMP Jen Markowitz‘s TIFF 2023 documentary SUMMER QAMP follows a group of kids attending a queer sleepaway camp in Canada. This celebration of individualism is essential viewing. We witness walls breaking down through small pods of campers and mentors, campfire storytelling, and creative and traditional class selections. Former campers and artists in residence encourage each kid to take chances, Read More →
STAN LEE This is a Disney+ documentary look at the one and only Stan Lee, largely told in his own words which were recorded during his almost century-long life.For those who don’t know Stan Lee is the guy who got a job with Timely comics in the late 1930s and ended up staying with the company for decades, eventually rechristening Read More →
TAKE CARE OF MAYA In 2016 in Venice, Florida, Beata and Jack Kowalski began the fight of their lives. Diagnosed with a rare condition in 2015, Maya Kowalski was in constant pain, barely able to walk, and deteriorating by the day. After intense treatment in Mexico, Nata improved for a year. During a 2016 relapse, following a 10-minute interview with Read More →
SONGS ABOUT F*CKING In the fall of 2021, filmmaker James Gallagher rode across the country with Marc Rebillet on his sold-out Third Dose Tour to capture what it was about the artist, showman, and robe-clad musical alchemist that brought thousands of people out of their homes for the first time. Part hitmaker, part internet personality, Marc Rebillet is the epitome Read More →
Synopsis: In 2005, the sleepy community of Mineola, Texas, is thrown into turmoil when local children reveal shocking stories about a pedophile sex ring that took place at a local swingers club. As arrests are made, life sentences handed down, and lives ruined, it soon becomes apparent that there is a lot more to the story than meets the eye. Read More →
presents VICTIM/SUSPECT On her first solo investigation, journalist Rae de Leon travels nationwide to uncover a shocking pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them. Nancy Schwartzman follows investigative journalist Rachel Read More →
PBS presents FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK *This review was originally featured on AWFJ.org* Sexism, racism, and rock & roll, Fanny: The Right To Rock is the story of how two Filipina American sisters started Fanny, the legendary rock group you may have never heard of until now. Jean and June Millington used to gather a crowd in their California Read More →
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