Nearly 20 years after going off the air in scandal, NBC Dateline’s To Catch a Predator lured child predators to a TV set, before exposing and arresting them, as millions watched from their sofas. Masquerading as public service, the show became a hit—but today it is reviled as ugly exploitation for cynical spectacle, despite a […]
A powerful act of witness and remembrance, this urgent, deeply personal documentary unfolds through video calls between filmmaker Sepideh Farsi and 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and poet Fatma Hassona. Their connection bridges both geography and grief, offering a rare, unfiltered window into daily life inside Gaza. Hassona’s grace, resilience, and luminous spirit ground the film in […]
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir, The Perfect Neighbor is a haunting exploration of a neighborhood tragedy in Ocala, Florida. Through unfiltered police bodycam footage, the film chronicles the escalating tensions between Ajike Owens, a Black mother of four, and her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz, culminating in a fatal shooting. The documentary delves into the complexities of […]
In rural North Macedonia, when a farmer’s family departs for opportunity abroad and government policies render his land unsellable, he takes work in a landfill. There he rescues an injured white stork, forming an unlikely bond. Interwoven with a local folktale of transformation and loss, the lyrical film becomes a meditation on migration, aging, nature, […]
Disillusioned with politics, charismatic and engaging Noam Shuster Eliassi pivots to the world of stand-up comedy to communicate her “radical” message that Palestinians and Israelis deserve human rights equally. Amber Fares’ fascinating film, alternating between hilarity and bone-shaking gravity, intersperses clips from Noam’s funny stage performances with observational scenes of interactions with her parents and […]
A journalist upends Japan’s entrenched codes of silence when she brings sexual assault charges against a well-connected member of the Japanese media elite. Against the wishes of many of those closest to her, Shiro Ito presses on with her case, bravely confronting an entire system. Her case becomes a landmark in Japan, and her choices […]
Twenty-six priceless Beninois artifacts, looted by the French, are repatriated to Benin by the French government. Filmmaker Mati Diop examines the impact of the restitution, imagining the personification of an artifact and documenting the power the treasures have on current generations of Beninois. The occasion is both monumental and penurious: Just 26 objects, out of […]
Angela Patton found a way for young girls whose fathers were incarcerated to connect: A prison-hosted dad/daughter dance. The event was about more than just the day. For the fathers, seeing the impact of their absence from their daughter’s lives provides an unrivaled emotional redemption opportunity. Working with co-director Natalia Rae to showcase the now […]
NYC PREMIERE Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck has done it again. In this rousing, elegant documentary, Peck opens the life and works of a seminal artist of the 20th century, South African photographer Ernest Cole. Denouncing apartheid with the publication of his 1967 photo book House of Bondage, Cole then lived in exile in the US, […]
Emmy-nominated editor and first-time feature director Carla Gutiérrez takes the unusual lstep of using the iconic twentieth-century Mexican artist Frida Khalo’s own words, gleaned from diaries, letters, interviews, and other sources. Mixing lyrical animation of Kahlo’s influential works with expressive voice-over by several artists, Frida is a definitive film. “If you only see one filmic […]