When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother's search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African-Americans bleeds into the present.
What begins as a documentary following the final tour of a dying magician -- "The Amazing Johnathan" -- becomes an unexpected and increasingly bizarre journey as the filmmaker struggles to separate truth from illusion.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Ben Berman; Stars: Johnathan Szeles)
This consideration of multiple lives, rather than one constructed arc serves to underline the sense that each person is only a small cog turning in the bigger wheel of the machine.
In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring 2,000 blue-collar Americans. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)
Despite knowing, thanks to the consumption of a dozen or so books, how things would play out...I still found myself tensing up when we see the Eagle lunar lander begin its descent
A purely archival reconstruction of humanity’s first trip to another world, featuring never-before-seen 70mm footage and never-before-heard audio from the mission.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Todd Douglas Miller)
A psychiatrist makes rounds in ERs, jails, and homeless camps to tell the intimate stories behind one of the greatest social crises of our time. A personal and intense journey into the world of the seriously mentally ill.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Kenneth Paul Rosenberg)
World premiere
David Crosby: Remember My Name
Portrait of the musician, who has everything but an easy retirement on his mind. With unflinching honesty, self-examination, regret, fear, exuberance and an unshakable belief in family and the transformative nature of music, Crosby shares his often challenging journey.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: AJ Eaton; Stars: David Crosby)
At times this documentary risks becoming too obvious; at others, Lane's sharp eye for the mistakes people make in assuming things to be obvious is what makes it work.
A look at the intersection of religion and activism, tracing the rise of The Satanic Temple: only six years old and already one of the most controversial religious movements in American history. The Temple is calling for a Satanic revolution to save the nation’s soul. But are they for real?
There’s plenty of judgement to be passed, especially by cranky old writers like myself, but Mandelup does an admirable job of presenting her subjects on their own terms.
The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee.
The documentary is clearly on the side of candidates, which is fine, but it could also benefit from a bit more scepticism and empathy for its auxiliary subjects.
Four young Democratic candidates take on established incumbents in the US 2018 election.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Rachel Lears; Stars: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley, Paula Jean Swearengin, Amy Vilela, Isra Allison, Zoltan Boka, Saikat Chakrabarti, Jozette Figueredo, Shalynne Figueredo, Jo-Ann Floyd-Whitehead, Darryl Gray, John Iadarola, Keenan Korth, Joe Manchin III)
By keeping the camera in the back of the ambulance largely at a level above that of the various patients, Lorentzen ensures the film never becomes voyeuristic.
In Mexico City's wealthiest neighborhoods, the Ochoa family runs a for-profit ambulance, competing with other unlicensed EMTs for patients in need of urgent care. In this cutthroat industry, they struggle to keep their financial needs from compromising the people in their care.
(Country: Mexico, US; Year: 2019; Director: Luke Lorentzen; Writer: Luke Lorentzen)
For over half a century, 60 Minutes’ fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world’s most influential figures. Relying exclusively on archival footage, the film interrogates the interrogator, tracking Mike’s storied career and troubled personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today’s precarious tipping point.
Review preview for Moonlight Sonata: Deafness In Three Movements
The film is refreshing in its willingness to countenance multiple viewpoints and look at what's right for individuals rather than taking sides in one of the more heated debates within the Deaf community.
A deeply personal memoir about a deaf boy growing up, his deaf grandfather growing old, and Beethoven the year he was blindsided by deafness and wrote his iconic sonata. Their lives weave a story about what we discover when we push beyond loss.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky)
Wang and Zhang are to be commended for fitting as much in as they do, even if it does mean the film roams about rather than having a single focus.
After becoming a mother, a filmmaker uncovers the untold history of China’s one-child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Jialing Zhang and Nanfu Wang)
In a small agricultural town in the Florida Everglades, hopes for the future are concentrated on the youth. Four teens face heartbreak and celebrate in the rituals of an extraordinary senior year.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Patrick Bresnan, Ivete Lucas)
We are never allowed to lose sight of the fact that, whilst a little tiger may regard humans as playmates, a big one will regard them as a delicious meaty snacks.
Fifty years ago, a young forest officer in India rallied the world to save tigers from extinction. Today, the creed is carried on in Far East Russia by the guardians of the last Siberian tigers, who risk everything to save the species.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Ross Kauffman; Writer: Ross Kauffman)
Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues - from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J Trump. This thriller-like exposé connects the dots, revealing how a deeply troubled master manipulator shaped our current American nightmare.
(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Matt Tyrnauer)
