Category: Documentary
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‘Pianoforte’ Is A Compelling Group Portrait Made With Love And Curiosity – Review
The International Chopin Piano Competition, founded in 1927, has been hosted every five years since 1955 in Warsaw, where the competition’s namesake composer grew up. With the city’s historic claim to Chopin – perhaps the greatest composer for solo piano in the history of Western classical music – and its regular yet infrequent schedule, the…
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“This Much We Know” is a disjointed, if impactful, documentary
This film review includes mentions of suicide In 2008, a presenter on NPR dubbed Las Vegas the suicide capital of the United States, with residents 50% more likely to take their own lives than those who live in any other state. It is also a city near an enormous store of nuclear waste – enough…
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Have You Got It Yet? Review
The classic story of the tortured artist is one we have heard over and over again, from Vincent Van Gogh to the late, great Robin Williams. There is this misconception that great art must come from great pain and celebrities from the Golden Age of Hollywood to today often have experienced trials and tribulations never…
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SHEFFIELD DOCFEST’23 – ‘Your Fat Friend’ Advocates for Fat Justice through Empathy and Education
Your Fat Friend follows writer and podcaster Aubrey Gordon over six years of her life, from the safety of anonymity as a writer of think pieces on fatness, to the release of her first book What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat. Gordon’s rise from pseudonymity to public figure is the throughline,…
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Poetic Documentary ‘Faya Dayi’ is a Sensorial ‘Trip’ in Every Sense of the Word
“From now on” God said, “Whoever eats Khat will always remember you.” Faya Dayi directed, written and produced by Jessica Beshir is an extremely hypnotic and poetic documentary that dives into the Ethiopian city of Harar and its inhabitants, their reliance on the growth of a drug called Khat and its effects on the community.…
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EIFF ’22: ‘Electric Malady’ Poignantly Captures Disbelieved Health Issues
In a world designed to stigmatise disability and force the chronically ill into work, director Marie Lidén sheds light on a pernicious and misunderstood health issue through the isolated life of one man.
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Princess Diana Documentary Is A Compassionate But Dry Rehashing Of A Well-Worn Tale
The late Diana Spencer’s life is again retold in The Princess. Directed by Ed Perkins, whose last film was 2019’s Tell Me Who I Am, a true story of identical twins and their dark family secret. Much like that feature, this film is compassionate, even if it lacks anything revealing about the late royal. The…
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