A photo of the Weber siblings in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1946
A film which tells the real story of seven Jewish siblings, separated by war and reunited after 40 years, helped by the kindness of strangers along the way, and told by the miraculous offspring of the youngest sister. And now you can watch this inspirational gem on Netflix, starting on Holocaust Remembrance Day — April 23rd.
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The upcoming screening will take place on December 3rd, and it will be followed by a Q&A with the director, moderated by director Sophie Fiennes.
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Roundglass Sustain, a non-profit foundation which commissioned this film, is the only conservation platform in India that collaborates with partners such as photographers, filmmakers and NGO’s to create stories that impact change and behavior.
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For a man whose personal mission has been to “build bridges through cinema,” as he told La Repubblica newspaper in an interview just published this week, his latest film may prove the most important peace-making link yet.
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Image copyright Fondo Giuseppe Quatriglio, used with permission
The film, which world premiered at this year’s Berlinale, will enjoy its UK Premiere as part of the 3rd bi-annual Cinecittà Italian Doc Season, on July 20-21 at London’s Bertha DocHouse.
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If you’d asked me a year ago did I believe cinema could change the world, I would have answered you with an enthusiastic “yes!” Now? Read on to find out…
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There are so many layers to filmmaker Kevin Macdonald’s film that it would take more than a few hundred words to get to them all. At the core of this stunning must-watch documentary is a fashion hero turned antihero who could be a poster child for explaining our current times.
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Lina Soualem’s touchingly personal documentary should be required viewing for anyone who wants to understand the Palestinian struggle, and the true emotional toll of an entire people’s displacement.
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More than just an homage to a beautiful, inimitable woman, Shlomi Elkabetz's film about his sister and collaborator Ronit is a journey to the heart of cinema and a fantastic treasure hunt which, if followed through, brings us to the perfect depth of our human connection.
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Dr. Martin Luther King in Sam Pollard’s ‘MLK/FBI’. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release
In a new, stunning archival documentary by Sam Pollard titled ‘MLK/FBI’ the charismatic figure of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is shown against the backdrop of just that America — which we believed long forgotten but which we’ve witnessed first hand in the past four years, while governed by a man with ideas of grandeur.
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Jamal Khashoggi, right, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
On October 2nd, 2018 Saudi journalist and Washington Post opinion blogger Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey never to exit it again. What happened inside could have remained a mystery except that the Turkish authorities had put into place an intricate and advanced system of surveillance on the Saudis and Khashoggi’s demise was captured in vivid sounds for all to hear. In a new documentary titled ‘The Dissident’ Oscar-winning filmmaker Bryan Fogel examines the life and death of Khashoggi.
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A still from ‘I Am Greta’ courtesy of Hulu
Thanks to filmmaker Nathan Grossman and an upcoming Hulu documentary which will premiere in North America on November 13th, I was pleasantly surprised. Within ‘I Am Greta’ I discovered a complex young woman filled with strong ideals and the right vulnerability to drive those principles home — make them seem like we all should get on board of the sustainability train to save our beloved planet. Pardon the pun.
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In their latest documentary ‘War and Wine’, filmmakers and world travelers Mark Johnston and Mark Ryan explore the world of winemaking in Lebanon. And in the process, they manage to show us perfectly the humanity, resilience and beauty of both the country and its people.
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Achintya Bose and Manish Chauhan in ‘Yeh Ballet’, image courtesy of Netflix
If you google the film ‘Yeh Ballet’ you’ll find that the Wikipedia short description reads like this: “Discovered by an eccentric ballet master, two gifted but underprivileged Mumbai teens face bigotry and disapproval as they pursue their dancing dreams.” And those sort of stories are always the best kind — yet Sooni Taraporevala’s film goes one step further. Or rather several beautiful, seamless dance steps further.
As someone who had fallen in love with Taraporevala’s heartfelt way of making films through her directorial debut ‘Little Zizou’ — a childhood story taking place in the Parsi community in South Bombay — ‘Yeh Ballet’ only intensified this cinematic love story.
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Sasha as a young boy in a moment from ‘Rewind’
We can all go back to a moment in our childhood or young adult life when we realized the world was a difficult and ugly place. Some of us discovered it when we were let down by our first love, or when a parent showed his true colors by raising his/her hands to us or maybe when a friend betrayed us and our secret.
For Sasha Joseph Neulinger that moment came on early and painfully strong.
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In a world where most of us compete to be noticed, Benedetta Barzini wants to disappear. But before the former model, slash journalist, slash women’s rights activist goes quietly into that horizon rowing her wooden boat, or climbing through the woods backpack in tow, her son Beniamino Barrese wants to film her for all to see. And to remember her always. Or, as he says off camera at the start of his stunning documentary ‘The Disappearance of My Mother’ — “I was not ready to let her go.”
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Let me preface by writing that I tend to be sold right away on a film that features an exceptional woman as its central heroine. When that woman is a real life figure, still going strong and advocating both women’s rights as well as nature’s preservation, well the film immediately drives up to the top position of my favorite films. More on such a film, ‘The Woman Who Loves Giraffes’ in a minute. First bear with me and my mini trip down memory lane.
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I’ll admit straight away, I’m partial to Nanni Moretti’s art. I adore his style and his films have inspired various stages of my life. In fact, I find myself reconnected to my Italian roots so deeply thanks to him.
But I did go to watch his latest, the documentary ‘Santiago, Italia’ with a grain of skepticism. I mean, Moretti proved he’s capable of making a kind of documentary many years ago, in 1998 to be exact, with the reality based ‘Aprile’. But could he hold my interest for 80 minutes with an archival film based about the coup in Chile, the original horrors of a September 11th which came long before our US one, and left their fairly elected president dead, with many other tortured and missing?
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Little Edie and Peter Beard in a still from 'That Summer'
Grey Gardens. We’ve heard of the Maysles documentary, we’ve watched the TV fiction film starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, we may even have attended the Broadway musical about them. Lets face it, those Beales girls are American icons. The grand royalty of dysfunctional mother/daughter relationships yet touched by elegance and undeniable status.
But all through the narrative, Big Edie and Little Edie have somehow been made campy and unreal. Yes the original 'Grey Gardens' is a documentary, but I've never felt the true connection with its characters, even though their story shared so much of my own American history, in both time, events and place.
Now, Göran Hugo Olsson, one of my personal favorite filmmakers and an all around cool human being, has made a new film about Grey Gardens. It is new, in the sense that it will be released in the US this week, yet Olsson's 'That Summer' uses the oldest footage available of the Beales, the original film made by Andy Warhol and Peter Beard and in the process, shows us how to fall in love. Because at the center of 'That Summer' there exists a love story between the filmmaker and his muse Lee Ratziwill, a tale of summer romance with a twist bound by the grand illusion of an ambiance -- that magical moment in time when friends, location and a certain scent in the air creates the impression that everything is possible.
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Agnès Varda and JR on the road
“Did you like our little film?”
Agnès Varda grabs my hand and holds it between hers as I try to exit the room where I’ve just spent the last ten minutes interviewing her and artist JR about their cinematic collaboration ‘Visages, Villages’ (’Faces, Places’) which premiered “Out of Competition” in Cannes. We may have learned in the film that the filmmaker has cute little feet, but I now know she also has lovely, kind hands.
“Of course I did! Why would I have wanted to interview you otherwise?!” I hear myself say, but almost as soon as the words come out, I realize I’m telling a half truth. Yes, I loved this film, its simple premise and grand cinematography and I relished the mutual respect the legendary 88 year-old filmmaker and the anonymous 33 year-old photographer show for each other throughout their road movie around the French countryside. To me, they are the new Beatles, the rockstars of cinema’s here and now. But I also craved to be in the presence of Varda and JR and would have come to interview them even if I hadn’t enjoyed the film as much as I did. It’s Madame Varda, after all, and JR, the artist — wrap your head around this — with a million Instagram followers!
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