Like Los Angeles Plays Itself by way of Ross McElwee, Jenni Olson’s The Royal Road surveys the landscape of Southern California as a way of exploring her past relationship troubles. That may sound lik…
There were several walkouts during the screening I caught of Pervert Park. I don’t know what those people anticipated from a documentary about a community of sex offenders, but it is worth noting that…
Often credited as “the father of African cinema,” Ousmane Sembène has nonetheless gone unknown to wider audiences, though his films are beloved by art house aficionados. There’s a lot to cover about h…
We Come As Friends sounds like the title of a science fiction film, not a documentary about contemporary Africa. Early on, a Sudanese storyteller narrates how the white man has claimed even the moon a…
Jennifer Siebel Newsom doesn’t direct standalone documentaries so much as she makes starting points for ongoing cultural conversations. Four years after Miss Representation premiered at Sundance, the …
From its founding in 1966 to its dissolution in 1982, the Black Panthers struck fear into the hearts of skittish white people all over America. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution moves thr…
One fifth of all women who attend an American institution of higher learning will be sexually assaulted. An infuriatingly tiny fraction of the men who attack them will face any kind of consequences. I…
Human beings are born, age and eventually die. Grappling with death is at the core of many stories, both fictitious and non-fictitious. The usual rule is that anyone who seriously seeks to defeat deat…
The central peak of Meru, a mountain in the Gharwal Himalayas, towers more than 21,000 feet. One route to this summit, the so-called “Shark’s Fin,” is renowned by mountaineers as one of the most diffi…
The plaudits have rushed in over the past week for Stray Dog. Of all the movies to hit theaters over Independence Day weekend, this documentary turned out to be the least expected but most appropriate…