Review: Desert One
Unfortunately, I am old enough to remember the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979-80; but the memories are vague. I recall watching Ted Koppel’s nightly updates (the precursor to Nightline), grieving…
Review: Coup 53
Looking for a political thriller to suck you in for a couple of hours? Then watch this documentary. Iranian director Taghi Amirani spent ten years filming his obsessive hunt for…
Review: Jazz on a Summer’s Day
The Newport Jazz Festival is America's oldest jazz festival, having begun in 1954. All the luminaries of the genre have played there, and many of the best recordings of their…
Review: Red Penguins
Red Penguins is a sports documentary that is less about the actual sport - ice hockey - than the place and time and personalities. It's the story of how the…
Review: Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful
If you spent any time reading or viewing Vogue from the 60s to the 90s, you are familiar with photographer Helmut Newton's work. Naked women often in power poses, most…
Review: Denise Ho: Becoming the Song
This film could not be more timely. Just days ago the Chinese government passed a repressive national security law that essentially kills the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. I was…
Review: John Lewis: Good Trouble
“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just -- say something, do something...” Make trouble. Good trouble. Necessary trouble. That's the message from civil rights icon,…
Arty Chick’s AFIDOCS 2020 Wrap-up
We’ve been going to AFIDOCS since 2014. It’s usually a great long weekend of documentaries and mixing with film lovers and filmmakers. This year because of COVID-19, it was a…
Review: The Letter
In this fascinating documentary from Kenya, Karisa a young man living in the big city of Mombasa travels back to his home village when he hears through Facebook that his…
Quickie Review: The Fight
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has been around for a hundred years. Its mandate is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in…
Review: My Darling Vivian
My Darling Vivian is a love letter to Johnny Cash's first wife Vivian Liberto with whom he had four daughters and initially a great romance. Narrated mainly by those four…
Review: Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn
You might think last year's Where's my Roy Cohn told us all we need to know about the man who spawned the current occupant of the White House. But Ivy…
Quickie Review: Runner
Runner is one of those documentaries that explores a story you vaguely recall hearing about but aren’t quite sure when – in this case, the journey of Guor Mading Maker…
Quickie Review: The Booksellers
Antiquarian booksellers aren't people you meet every day. Theirs in an insular world and an industry that may be fading away. The booksellers that this documentary introduces its audience to…
Review: Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things
Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things is the latest in a slew of solid if not particularly groundbreaking music documentaries celebrating the life and legacy of a pioneering artist.…