Category Archives: Documentary

All That Breathes, Holy Spider reviews #AIFF22

September 22, 2022 flawintheiris

All That Breathes | Directed by Shaunak Sen | 97 min New Delhi is one of the world's largest, and most polluted cities. Its denizens — human and animal alike — have to live with its uncontrolled growth and overpopulation and the city's poisoned air and water. This is an astonishing film, a look at…Read More

The Swimmers, The Grab reviews #TIFF22

September 11, 2022 flawintheiris

The Swimmers | Directed by Sally El Hosaini | Written by El Hosaini and Jack Thorne | 134 min One of Netflix's big features at this year's Toronto International Film Festival was also the Opening Night Gala — a story based on the actual experience of Syrian sisters Sarah and Yusra Mardini (played by actual…Read More

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song review

July 21, 2022 flawintheiris

Written and Directed by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine | 115 min | ▲▲▲▲△ The challenge of this otherwise well-researched documentary is the challenge of its entry point: Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." My mother never gets sick of it, but you might be if you've heard many of the reported 500 cover versions of the song…Read More

Writing With Fire review — Journalism is alive and well in India

March 31, 2022 flawintheiris

Directed by Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas | 92 min | ▲▲▲▲△| Carbon Arc Cinema This smart, moving, Oscar-nominated documentary reveals the bravery of women in a place where they literally take their lives into their hands to do their chosen profession. Meera Devi, Shyamkali Devi, and Suneeta Prajapati are reporters and editors working for…Read More

Flee review — Superb and groundbreaking refugee tale

March 20, 2022 flawintheiris

Original title: Flugt | Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Written by Poher Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi | 89 min | ▲▲▲▲△ | Amazon Prime and VOD A version of this review first appeared during coverage of the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in September 2021. Flee is a rare beast, an animated documentary from…Read More

Lunenburg Doc Fest Review — Taming The Garden

September 25, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Salomé Jashi | 91 min This is a slow and strange portrait of an enormous landscaping project. Georgian billionaire and former Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili — he never appears in the film but is spoken about like he's a king, a devil, or a myth — has paid to have enormous, ancient trees…Read More

Lunenburg Doc Fest 2021 review — Fanny: The Right To Rock

September 23, 2021 flawintheiris

On the podcast I co-host, LENS ME YOUR EARS, a recent episode focussed on music documentaries, which introduced me to a few artists and bands I'd previously known very little about. Now that I've seen Fanny: The Right To Rock, the opening film at this year's Luneburg Doc Festival, I'm a little bummed we didn't wait…Read More

#FIN2021 Reviews — Petite Maman, Flee

September 22, 2021 flawintheiris

Attending multiple screenings in one evening at a film festival you can't help but bear witness to unintentional, sometimes poetic cinematic segues. They were out in full force on Tuesday evening at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival. First off, I attended Dementia, Dad & Me, Hannah Minzloff's documentary about her family and her father's…Read More

The Sparks Brothers review — The eternally hip

August 15, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Edgar Wright | 140 min | On Demand I had the suspicion when I first heard about this project it was a mockumentary, that Sparks was a fake band dreamed up for chuckles. I mean, I know a bit about popular music, so how did I get to this ripe age without having…Read More

Val review — The life and vanity of Val Kilmer

August 8, 2021 flawintheiris

Directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo | 109 min | Amazon Prime Val Kilmer is no longer the dashing, handsome method actor/movie star you might remember from Top Gun, The Doors, and Heat. At 61, he's a cancer survivor who struggles to speak, even as he still has a sparkle in his eye. He's also…Read More