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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
All Man:The International Male Story The following is our original Tribeca Film Festival 2022 coverage: The impact of men’s fashion takes center stage in Tribeca 2022 doc ALL MAN: THE INTERNATIONAL MALE STORY. One innovative catalog gave men the freedom to be themselves. Its global and cultural influence spans generations like no other men’s fashion publication. In building International Male, Gene Read More →
BEYOND HUMAN NATURE November 1992. It’s a bone-chilling evening in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as paper mill worker Tom Monfils is discovered at the bottom of a pulp vat with a 40-pound weight tied around his neck. Immediately, Monfils’ death is presumed a homicide. Local law enforcement quickly generates a list of suspects among his co-workers. At the top of the Read More →
Screenwriter Don Mancini, writer-director Tom Holland, SFX artist Tony Gardner, and producer David Kirschner brought a possessed doll to life in 1988. In Kara Elise Gardner‘s new documentary, horror actors and CHILD’S PLAY creators comment on the horror industry and the franchise’s specific epicness. LIVING WITH CHUCKY celebrates the genre and its fans. Brad Dourif plays Charles Lee Ray, aka Read More →
STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A NEGATIVLAND DOCUMENTARY BUFF 2023 documentary feature STAND BY FOR FAILURE is an acid trip in creativity. An explosion of overlapping media and audio, jump cuts, and dissolves are mind-bending. Filmmaker Ryan Worsley takes us on a journey through Willy Wonka’s creepy ass tunnel whether or not we want to ride. Welcome to the world of Read More →
GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE The mind of an artist is a splendid thing. SXSW 2023 doc GEOFF MCFETRIDGE: DRAWING A LIFE delves into the wondrous mind of a nurtured creative. Director Dan Covert puts a face and a name to the work we’ve seen for years. Meet Geoff McFetridge, graphic designer, visual artist, and family man. Geoff’s animated drawings Read More →
Art For Everybody The brand vs. the man. In the 90s, looking at a Thomas Kinkade painting felt like peering into a storybook. But Miranda Yousef‘s SXSW 2023 doc ART FOR EVERYBODY shows audiences that the self-appointed “Painter of Light” was, in truth, filled with darkness the public never saw. Could a dream lead to the discovery of his entire body of work? Read More →
PLAN C *This review originally appeared on AWFJ.org* The modern-day version of The Janes are revolutionaries protecting people who seek abortion access in SXSW 2023 documentary PLAN C. Elisa Wells and Francine Coeytaux are co-founders and the creator of the organization Plan C. “They are not providers. They share information.” They and their team of doctors and regular women across Read More →
SATAN WANTS YOU Dollars and the Devil. SATAN WANTS YOU at SXSW 2023 is more relevant than most of us would like it to be. In 1976, Dr. Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith had an unusual doctor/patient relationship. Under hypnosis, Michelle describes dreams as Pazder records and interprets for her. These sessions became a bestselling book, ‘Michelle Remembers, and the Read More →
WHO I AM NOT Gender identity is a hot-button issue around the globe. For intersex people, existing is complicated and emotionally taxing. SXSW 2023 doc WHO I AM NOT follows two individuals who follow divergent paths on their journey to self-acceptance. When intersex children are born, most doctors suggest that parents choose one set of genitals. This complex decision should Read More →
ANOTHER BODY *This review also appears on AWFJ.org Women have always felt unsafe. It is ingrained in our nature to fear, to look over our shoulders, and to carry our keys between our fingers late at night. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, enter the newest AI nightmare into the conversation. Anyone can go online and copy Read More →
THE ARC OF OBLIVION Clever, thoughtful, curious, and a bit meta, Ian Cheney asks profound questions about archiving life and memories. From DNA to a digital photo, ancient libraries to bat guano, the SXSW 2023 documentary THE ARC OF OBLIVION is here to blow your mind. What starts as a plan to build an ark in his parents’ Maine backyard Read More →
SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD The ancient Estonian ritual of sauna building is a physical and spiritual cleansing. Women gather to share everything from funny childhood stories to earthly, almost guttural chants to intimate confessions with unfiltered honesty. Anna Hints‘ Sundance 2023 documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is a visceral and profoundly deep film. Mesmerizing closeups of body parts beading with sweat captured Read More →
FANTASTIC MACHINE Memory preservation, emotional resonance, exploration, and exposure of truth, FANTASTIC MACHINE explores the history of capturing the first image to the deliberate curation of media content through the ages. The swiftness of the manipulation of images shocked me. From the beginning, the film is ruthless in its takedown of perceived truth. It is what we don’t see changes everything. Fantastic Read More →
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