Jayson Jackson Talks Nina Simone and Netflix Phil W. Bayles June 26, 2015 Behind The Curtain, Features, Interview A record producer by trade, Jayson Jackson's first film project is What Happened, Miss Simone?, a frank and intimate exploration of Nina Simone. We sat down with Jackson at the end of Sheffield Doc/Fest to...
Tell Spring Not To Come This Year – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 26, 2015 Reviews At first glance, Tell Spring Not To Come This Year feels like more of what we’ve already seen in war documentaries like Sebastian Junger’s Restrepo and Korengal. We see soldiers relaxing in the barracks or...
What Happened, Miss Simone? – Review Phil W. Bayles June 26, 2015 Reviews Few can deny the awesome power of Nina Simone's iconic voice. Fewer still will be aware of the strength of her words. Director Liz Garbus paints a fascinating portrait of a woman who reflected her own time...
Coming Out As A Muslim: An Interview With Parvez Sharma Phil W. Bayles June 22, 2015 Behind The Curtain, Features, Interview In A Sinner in Mecca, director Parvez Sharma documents his Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca - knowing that, as an openly gay man, he could be executed just for setting foot in Saudi Arabia. We sat down with Sharma...
A Young Patriot – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 19, 2015 Reviews There are two things that every university student must do, says young idealist Zhao Changtong: get a job in the students’ union, and fall in love. It sounds like pretty standard practice for students...
Drone – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 19, 2015 Reviews The debate about drones is only in its infancy, but Drone proves that there’s plenty of discussion to be had. Interviews with former drone pilots in the US and human rights lawyers in Pakistan highlight...
The Russian Woodpecker – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 10, 2015 Reviews The first time we meet young Ukranian artist Fedor Alexandrovich, he’s producing a play called Dreams of a Ridiculous Man. It’s an apt description of Fedor himself. With his wild eyes and unkempt facial...
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 10, 2015 Reviews Doc/Fest was made for films like Orion: The Man who would be King – stories so ridiculous and unbelievable that they must be true. The archival footage of singer and Elvis sound-alike Jimmy Ellis gyrating...
Generation Right – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews Given that, in the words of director Michelle Coomber, Britain "voted itself back into the 1980s" last month, Generation Right could hardly feel more timely. Coomber interviews academics, activists and...
Match Me! – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews Imagine Richard Curtis directed Catfish and you’ll have some idea of what Lia Jaspers’ Match Me! is all about. We follow three people as they try various methods of finding a partner. Johanna attends a...
Surviving Sandy Hook – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews In a way, it will always be "too soon" for a documentary about the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Jezza Neumann’s film shows a community ripped apart by the cataclysmic event,...
Containment – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews One imagines Brad Bird would be very enamoured with Moss and Galison’s work – there are parallels to be drawn between the message of Tomorrowland and the tone of this documentary about the disposal of...
Falciani’s Tax Bomb – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews The opening credits of Falciani’s Tax Bomb look like Wes Anderson made Catch Me if You Can. Much like the rest of the film, it’s a stylish little sequence that ultimately doesn’t really tell...
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films – Review Bertie Archer June 9, 2015 Reviews This oral history documents the inexplicable rise, and inevitable fall of Golan and Globus; the pioneers of schlockbusters, whose fierce passion for filmmaking (whatever the cost) led to exploitation on and...
Good Girl – Doc/Fest 2015 Review Phil W. Bayles June 9, 2015 Reviews “A feel-good film about depression” isn’t the easiest of sales pitches, but it’s an apt description of Good Girl. It’s bleak subject material, not least in depicting Solveig’s treatment by...