PALM SPRINGS, Calif.—Trees may be alive, but they certainly aren’t sentient enough to distinguish one race of people from another. Humans, however, are—and in Palm Springs a specific group of trees was effectively weaponized as a means of separating a historically Black community from the rest of this desert enclave 100 miles east of Hollywood.

The new documentary

The documentary filmmaker brothers Jules and Gédéon Naudet know something of capturing trauma on film. On September 11th, 2001, they were embedded with a New York Fire Department unit when the first plane struck the World Trade Center, capturing the only known footage of that initial horror. Their resulting film, “9/11,” provides a firsthand account of the heroism of the firefighters who ran to the inferno and is capped by a tearful

Matthew Heineman has taken his camera to some of the most dangerous places on earth. For “City of Ghosts” from 2017 he filmed those brave souls who dared to decry the Islamic State’s terror tactics in Syria. Heineman’s latest is “Retrograde,” which started out as a chronicle of the final battalion of Green Berets stationed in Afghanistan but became a record of a rushed U.S. exit, followed by a surge of Afghan refugees desperate to escape the Taliban’s

Ramin Bahrani steers far clear of the conventional.  Roger Ebert called him one of the most promising filmmakers on the scene, and indeed Bahrani dedicated “99 Homes” to the late critic.  His more recent films include the HBO movie “Fahrenheit 451” and “The White Tiger,” the latter for which he was Oscar-nominated.  All feature protagonists who are complicated or unusual.  

Bahrani has kept up this trend with

The documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh doesn’t let his view of our species sneak up on you. Speaking on a video call from Tel Aviv recently, the director of “The Corridors of Power” minces no words.

“It’s a dark world,” he said, “and the human being is a horrible beast.”

Moreh would know. He’s spent the better part of the last decade making the documentary

If your life hasn’t been touched by Alzheimer’s or dementia, consider yourself fortunate.  The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that over 6 million adults over age 65 are battling the disease today, and that number is expected to increase to more than 12 million by 2050.  

One of those afflicted with the disease is Todd Ward, father of actor Zack Ward—best known as the bully Scut Farkus

Even attempting to describe the plot of “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is essentially undoable.

This being the latest film from Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, the “rules” of narrative, such as they are, are tossed out the window from the first moment, when we behold the shadow of a man (maybe?) from high above as its unseen owner apparently takes