Experiences in the melting pot. Satellite Baby (USA, 9 min., Jenny Schweitzer) uncovers the consequences of a Chinese immigrant daycare alternative. A Resident Alien (USA/Spain, 18 min., Naiara Eizaguirre-Paulos) evaded Honduran drug cartels but may be forced back home. The Absentees (UAE, 10 min, Tanya Daud) are stuck in a no-man’s land. A Romanian Olympian […]
Sixteen French pastry chefs gathered at the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition for three intense days of mixing, piping and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hopes of being declared by President Nicolas Sarkozy one of the best. The finalists, France’s culinary elite, risk their reputations as well as sacrifice […]
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster requires no affinity for heavy metal music to appreciate the many pleasures of this documentary classic. Oscar-nominated filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (Paradise Lost) follow the members of the band over several years as they engage in group therapy. Reviewing the film for the New […]
During the fertile early years of Drew Associates following the breakthrough of Primary, came this seldom-seen portrait of David Allen, a jazz trumpeter struggling in the Santa Monica drug rehabilitation center Synanon House. Pennebaker’s love of music drew him to David and the film prefigures later portraits such as Dont Look Back. He teamed with […]
Frederick Wiseman’s second film as a director looks at an urban Philadelphia high school, capturing interactions between students, teachers, parents and administrators. The film was lauded by critics (“brilliant” wrote Richard Schickel) and dreaded by locals (it didn’t play on Philadelphia public television for over 30 years). A landmark in American documentary, this is an […]
Robert Drew, who died this year, led a company of trailblazers in observational documentary. One of the most striking films from this era is The Chair, which follows the attorney Louis Nizer as he attempts to save the prisoner Paul Crump from the electric chair. Drew was joined by Richard Leacock, Gregory Shuker, DA Pennebaker […]
This breakthrough documentary follows door-to-door Bible salesman Paul Brennan and his colleagues over several weeks as they ply their trade from Boston to Chicago to Miami. New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote, “It’s such a fine, pure picture of a small section of American life that I can’t imagine its ever seeming irrelevant, either […]