In the 2013 New Directors/New Films fest, we were privileged enough to see Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing. The film chronicled the leaders of a government led military killing brigade whose goal was to irradiate “communists” (mostly farmers, artists, and freethinkers) in Indonesia in 1965-66. We met the men who slaughtered hundreds of people under the regime of pure ignorance and evil. At this year’s NYFF 52, we are introduced to Oppenheimer’s follow up doc, The Look of Silence. Read More →
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced an unprecedented addition to the New York Film Festival’s Main Slate with the World Premiere of Laura Poitras’s CITIZENFOUR as a Special Presentation on 
In 2004, Director Catherine Breillat suffered a stroke. In 2007, she met conman Christopher Rocancourt. In 2009, she wrote a book titled Abus de faiblesse. In 2012, Rocancourt was sentenced to prison. Now, in 2013, Catherine’s story comes to the big screen. 
While I lived through the final gasps of the Vietnam War, I was way too young to recall any of it. This war hangs over our country’s history like a rain cloud and it’s rare that we ever hear of much in the way of good that came from it. Enter Rory Kennedy‘s superb documentary, 
Plan as you may, every film that you see can’t be a winner. This holds especially true at film festivals where pre-festival exposure to the films playing is sometimes nil. That’s the exciting thing about going to a festival. You may stumble across an unheralded gem or you may find a film that turns you off completely, sort of a film roulette if you will. As I’ve already mentioned in previous posts, the other two narrative films that I caught at the Indy Film Fest (Fort Tilden and Bluebird) were both incredible in their own unique ways and worthy of infinite praise. Perhaps the old adage of third time’s the charm is true because the third narrative film I saw, William MacGillivray‘s 
Michael is at San Diego Comic and live-tweeting the event! Follow him to find out the inside scoop!
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