Category Archives: Documentary

Summer and Fall 2025 Season at Carbon Arc Cinema

December 25, 2025 flawintheiris

What a year it's been at Carbon Arc Cinema. This independent, Halifax art house, bringing to the big screen the best in international, independent, Canadian, and documentary film, has seen a huge increase in the number of people through its doors since 2024. That's largely due to the hard work of staffers Kenny Lewis and…Read More

#LunenburgDocFest2025: The Eyes of Ghana

September 20, 2025 flawintheiris

Halifax-born filmmaker Ben Proudfoot has been celebrated for his short docs — he has two Academy Awards for his films The Queen of Basketball and The Last Repair Shop. When I interviewed him for the second one of those he talked at length about his passion for the short-film format. Despite that, his new documentary is…Read More

The Knox Office: The Shrouds, On Swift Horses, and two great documentaries

April 28, 2025 flawintheiris

On last weeks CBC Information Morning I opened The Knox Office to talk movies. I reviewed the David Cronenberg film, The Shrouds, and On Swift Horses, the new drama starring Jacob Elordi, two new movies in cinemas. I also talked about two documentaries now available elsewhere — the hummingbird documentary Every Little Thing and the…Read More

Cheech and Chong’s Last Movie review — Dave’s here, man

April 25, 2025 flawintheiris

Directed by David Bushell | 120 min | ▲▲▲ Driven by nostalgia, this documentary will be a welcome trip back in time for fans of the famously stoned comedians whose career reached its peak in the 1970s with a series of records, wildly successful stand-up tours, and box-office hit movies like Up In Smoke. It…Read More

Chasing Chasing Amy review — Pop culture doc has a dark side

January 17, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Sav Rodgers | 95 min | ▲▲▲1/2 | Kanopy, Hoopla What if a film you love, one that helped you assemble your identity, has become culturally problematic? If you're burgeoning filmmaker, Kansas-native Sav Rodgers, you make a documentary about how important the film was to you, and also how the people…Read More

No Other Land review — Deeply moving doc from Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers

January 9, 2025 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor | 92 min | ▲▲▲▲1/2 It's rare that I'll review a film that isn't readily available on some platform for readers to find and experience. either in cinemas or online. In North America this documentary, despite a stellar festival run and being…Read More

Scala!!! review — An ode to world’s wildest independent cinema

November 24, 2024 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Ali Catterall and Jane Giles, based on the book by Giles, Scala Cinema 1978-1993 | 96 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | On Blu-Ray (from Severin Films) The full title of this terrific documentary is Scala!!! or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up…Read More

Occupied City and Blitz reviews — Steve McQueen’s Second World War stories

November 12, 2024 flawintheiris

#AIFF24 Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger, Julie Keeps Quiet, Heartbeat

September 16, 2024 flawintheiris

Sunday started with a documentary at the Atlantic International Film Festival that drew cinephiles of all stripes. Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger is a more-than-two-hour-long deep dive into the work of the master British filmmaking team responsible for The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp, A Matter Of Life And Death, Black…Read More