War is war
(Oleg’s Choice)
The little-seen world of Russian volunteers fighting in Ukrainian rebel provinces.
Fragments of experience
(A Dog Called Money)
Across Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Washington DC, musician PJ Harvey and photojournalist Seamus Murphy craft a beautifully shot, sensitively edited film on observation, experience, and the creative process.
Colonial voyeurism revisited
(African Mirror)
It is hard to tell if the archival documentary African Mirror is a rehabilitation of a colonial mind, a critique of colonialism or a piece of essayistic nostalgia over the colonial gaze. Probably it is a mix, and as such, nothing new.
Theo Angelopoulos, the filmmaker of migration
(Letter to Theo)
In Letter to Theo, French director Élodie Lélu revisits Angelopoulos’ unfinished film, reminiscing on their collaborative work on the project that was in some ways prophetic of the present-day Greece.
The use of fiction to bring forth reality
(Thy Kingdom Come)
«It’s the strangest kind of documentary where the main character was not real but everybody else was», says Eugene Richards about his new film Thy Kingdom Come.
Touring Port-au-Prince’s graveyard (guided by a goat)
(Gede Vizyon)
The Haitian goat Britis proves an excellent mute guide at the Grand Cimetière in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, squeezing through narrow passageways as he inquisitively scurries from crypt to crypt.
Far from the shallow now: two highlights from Underdox
(Sec Rouge / Accession)
Two newcomers stood out from the crowd at this year’s Underdox in Munich. Sec Rouge – one of 2018's most striking, accomplished and beautiful films of any length – and the seminal and glowingly delicate 48-minute film, Accession.
ABOVE US, ABOUT US: Two new documentaries from Rotterdam
This year‘s film festival in Rotterdam unveiled several documentaries and shorts, amongst them Above Us Only Sky – a calming exercise in intellectual and sensual stimulation – and Pelourinho: They Don't Really Care About Us, which proved to be a rough, angry gem of a picture.
The Cuban veteran for whom the Revolution lives on
(To War)
As his country slowly moves past its communist decades, a Cuban veteran is stuck in the past.
A hilarious examination of the human condition
(Mussolini’s Sister)
An intimate portrait of a sarcastic elderly Palestinian woman's life, relationships, regrets and bitterness enlightened by flashes of dark humour.
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