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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,...
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The Promise – Review

An impressive amount of access - and diligence - sets this true crime documentary apart from others. The Promise's angle of Jens Söring's possible (and protested) innocence - he claims to have provided a...
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13TH – Review

The synopsis of 13TH almost implied a filmed immersion into correctional facilities, but Ava DuVernay, thank goodness, isn’t interested in a small cast of subjective case files; what we have here is an...
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Yarn – Review

A circus artist from one of the documentary’s strands explains how his show, Knitting Peace, throws out images and emotions and lets audiences draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately, this is much too true...
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All This Panic – LFF 2016 Review

How much insight can you really get from a bunch of teenage girls? That’s the question Jenny Gage’s documentary sets out to answer as she follows a group of seven friends and sisters as they leave high...
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Ice Guardians – Raindance 2016 Review

Ice Guardians has its work cut out for itself - it’s a tough sell to argue that the enforcer role in hockey is necessary and ethical, particularly after you’ve shown off a (hopefully atypical) training...
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Don’t Blink – LFF 2016 Review

Robert Frank’s photographs of mid-century America were hated when he first presented them in book form. Candid, grainy, and refusing to shy away from social problems that people were facing, the general...
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A Plastic Ocean – Raindance 2016 Review

A Plastic Ocean grabs your attention immediately, with what might be one of the greatest horror reveals in cinema. Opening on rare footage of blue whales in their natural habitat, the camera pans right, into a...
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Chasing Asylum – LFF 2016 Review

Raw, detailed and unashamedly single-minded, Chasing Asylum is a tearjerking look behind the scenes at Australian immigration. With 60 million people forcibly displaced by events across the globe, this...
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Bitter Money – Venice 2016 Review

In China over 300,000 people work in the textile industry. With Bitter Money Wang Bing documents the grinding lives that these people have to endure, offering a sympathetic insight into their world. In...