Short of the Week – Balloonfest
https://vimeo.com/223715406 In a documentary that could just as easily be a Christopher Guest film, director Nathan Truesdell pulls together archive footage of a frankly bizarre event that occurred in...
Whitney: Can I Be Me – Review
Whitney: Can I Be Me sees Nick Broomfield take on the iconic spectre of Asif Kapadia's Amy, and largely fail. His brief, of course, is to take on the iconic spectre of Whitney Houston, but again, we've seen...
It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! – Review
This month marks fifty years since the release of one of the most iconic albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, changing the face of modern day music forever. The album marked a pivotal...
Short of the Week – Strawberries Will Save The World
https://vimeo.com/216918144 The world is a bloody scary place sometimes, and even our beloved Short of the Week section can’t escape that fact. Too often recently, our shorts have dealt with heavy...
Le Venerable W. – Cannes 2017 Review
Extreme Buddhism might sound like the brainstorm of a BBC Three producer, but in Barbet Schroeder’s ferocious documentary it’s about as far from a laughing matter as you could imagine. Despite their serene...
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City – Review
Curiously, Jane Jacobs doesn't appear that often in Citizen Jane; the subtitle, Battle for the City, is far more appropriate. Director Matt Tyrnauer actually presents a study of urban development over the...
Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo – Review
As editor and director of this excellent documentary, David Fairhead is in complete control of his subject. In compiling archive footage, animations, and talking-head interviews, he forms a compelling...
Short of the Week – Mend and Make Do
https://vimeo.com/209115026 When looking backwards in time it is easy to wryly smile at the use of the phrase 'Back in my day' or 'When I was younger...'. These clichés, denote something humorous about...
Gleason – Review
In the sport of American football, a defensive back exists as the last line of defence, a role that requires immense physical ability as well as unwavering bravery. Your job is to navigate through obstacles,...
P.S. Jerusalem – Review
Danae Elon has a remarkably relatable habit of both admitting her own failings and failing to admit them. P.S. Jerusalem, narrated intermittently by its director-cinematographer, is a fascinating, frustrating...
LoveTrue – Review
The recent preoccupation in documentary film with revealing the processes that occur behind the scenes has led to Kirsten Johnson’s autobiographical docu-memoir Cameraperson, and Robert Greene’s...
Tower – Review
Tower stands as a proud example of how documenting humanity's worst moments will always show humanity at its best. This moving film sidesteps typical breakdowns of killer Charles Whitman's identity and...
O.J.: Made in America – Review
Between black and white are over 500 shades of grey. This is the argument of Ezra Edelman’s exhaustive cinematic thesis on O.J. Simpson; a comprehensive documentary that shows that in order to understand...
Short of the Week – Project X
https://vimeo.com/193562415 With the recent onslaught of worrying executive actions from the new Trump administration (coupled with awful implications concerning freedom of press), it could be easy to...
Cameraperson – Review
It’s often said that the act of observing something affects the behaviour of the thing that’s being observed, but it’s equally true that it changes the person doing the observing. In Cameraperson,...