First attack, then think: digging up the ocean grounds

Documentary Dieter Wieczorek -
ECOLOGY: Exposing the catastrophic consequences of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystems.
Documentary

A film from the dark side

HISTORY: Whatever happened to those who dreamed of space travel, wanting to be astronauts when they grew up?
Melita Zajc -
Documentary

The Dutch gender clinic negotiating teen futures

HEALTH: The complexities of a Dutch gender clinic, from the challenges of young people facing gender transition to the role of experience-based experts, and the clinic's operational struggles.
Carmen Gray -
Documentary

Opening the files on lives under surveillance

SURVEILLANCE: A gripping exploration of Soviet-era paranoia and oppression in Ukraine.
Carmen Gray -
Documentary

The cost of success

WORK: The human cost of striving for success in a competitive global economy.
Aleksandra Biernacka -

Industry news

Documentary reviews

Personal and impressionistic images of war

WW2: 83-year-old Knut Erik Jensen is back with Longing for Today, a film that does not conform to the lineup of modern Norwegian blockbusters about World War II.

I’m not the remains. I exist.

TRAUMA: Three souls entwine in trauma's shadowed glades.

A poetic topography of an old conflict

CONFLICT: The complex interplay of geopolitics, resource extraction, and the enduring spirit of a land and its people, post-Karabakh War.

The lives of others

AFRICA: Karim Sayad's 2G is an intimate portrait of former people smugglers from Niger.

Braving the Brahmaputra

CLIMATE: As global warming increases heavy flooding on Bangladesh's mighty Brahmaputra River, impoverished inhabitants of its mud islands are forced to flee.

Confronting the captors

ISIS: A shocking and brutal account of the fate of a Danish photographer held hostage held by Islamic State terrorists.

The (white) man’s drive to conquer nature

NATURE: Philosophical musings on the nature of truth and knowledge through the lens of man's manipulation of nature and Google's domination of the Internet

Mountains of dreams

IRAN: An intricate look into defiance and demand for change.

Editorials, comments and essays

Commentary

When violence becomes the only way

Avatar photo Truls Lie -
POWER: According to Hannah Arendt, the use of violence, weapons, and bombs renders us politically voiceless. Can her particular analyses of power teach us anything about the violence being perpetrated from and in Gaza today?
Commentary

It is time for festivals to endorse a BRAVE space over a SAFE one

Avatar photo Dalia AlKury -
IDFA: What is this obsession with creating a «safe space» for upcoming film festivals that is now circulating on social media? Who is scaring the world's institutions to speak up?
Commentary

Exploring cinematic reflections of crisis: documentary on the march

Avatar photo Steve Rickinson -
CINEMA: More prescient than ever, Doclisboa's «Documentary on the March» retrospective provide a blueprint for today's documentaries for social change.
Commentary

Human Conditionals: The Girl Who Looked in the Mirror of the World

Avatar photo John Hawkins -
PHOTOGRAPHY: Uncover the compelling photography from the 2023 cycle of the Prix Pictet award, focusing on the theme «Human.»
Commentary

Real bodies, fake bodies: the dichotomy of female objectification

Avatar photo Astra Zoldnere -
GENDER EQUALITY: From Kurdish villages to college campuses, gender-based abuse knows no boundaries.
Commentary

The liminal spaces of art and cinema

Avatar photo Steve Rickinson -
ART: Three DOKUARTS-screened films invite both the scholarly aesthete and the public intellectual to reevaluate the perennial dialogues at the intersections of art, cinema, and society.

Our latest magazines in print (click for more)

Click here if you are a donator, partner or subscriber, to read the content of previous editions.

Book reviews (documentary / non-fiction)

Interviews

«You may end up with the only peace – being the peace of the graveyard.»

INTERVIEW: We are talking with the previous Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, the man who could have been prime minister in Britain, about current issues – like military build-up, Ukraine, Israel, climate justice and labour, security, democracy, citizen assemblies, and not least of all, hope for the future.
Truls Lie -

Hip-hop’s half-century: from bronx streets to global beats

INTERVIEW: Porto/Post/Doc and curator Guille de Juan celebrates hip-hop's transformative five decades.
Steve Rickinson -

Combatting Digital Violence: A Conversation with HateAid

DIGITAL VIOLENCE: With a Human Rights Film Festival Berlin workshop on Navigating Digital Aggression for Journalists and Filmmakers, Modern Times Review speaks with representatives of Germany's HateAid - the organisation combatting digital violence.
Steve Rickinson -

We can be found at all the primary European documentary festivals, on-site for audiences, and in the delegate bags of professionals. Printed two times annually and with regularly updated online content, our archive of nearly 2000 reviews and articles cover political, ecological, big-tech and existential documentary films – and now non-fiction books too. Please donate and you will get the print magazine too.

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© FILM AS / Truls Lie
96100 Siracusa, Italy 
Editor-in-chief: Truls Lie

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