David Berkowitz, the so-called Son of Sam, has been imprisoned for decades following a string of brutal shootings in New York in the late seventies. He initially claimed that a dog named Sam commanded him to murder, but years later walked that back, saying he had actually been part of a satanic organization known as “the Children” who conspired with him in the murders. If it sounded outlandish, ... more >
INTERVIEWS
Our Interview with “The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness” director JOSHUA ZEMAN (series is currently showing on Netflix)
"Those are the best stories because we all get to play the game. My version can be right, your version can be right. That allows us all to win the same game"
“The ones that get made are the ones that drop down into your heart and say ‘yes’” (TALKING WITH KEN BURNS AND LYNN NOVICK OF “HEMINGWAY”)
The three-part, six-hour documentary film "Hemingway" is airing on PBS right now
Ken Burns knows he only has so much time left to make a certain number of movies. It’s getting harder to pick and choose which of the many ideas for his trademark multipart documentaries will get his full attention—but choose he must. “As I get older, I get greedier. Because you realize there are so many subjects that you want to touch, and there’s not gonna be enough time to do them all,” ... more >
INTERVIEW : Ed Helms and Patti Harrison of “Together, Together”
Film was a part of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival
Ed Helms and Patti Harrison have such singular chemistry in the new film “Together Together” that one might assume that they have known each other for years. Not so, they both said when speaking about the film. “I knew of him,” said Harrison over video chat, eliciting perhaps the hint of a smile from her co-star, who is known for his time on “The Daily Show” as well as “The Hangover” films and ... more >
INTERVIEW: MATTHEW JENSEN, director of photography, “Wonder Woman 1984”
Growing up in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., Matthew Jensen knew his destiny was to work in films. As a young man, he took the Metro into the heart of democracy to watch and study films at the Smithsonian. He also cruised the pages of the Washington Post, seeking out revivals at theaters in Georgetown and word of AFI screenings at the Kennedy Center. “In Georgetown there was ... more >
Ella Blumenthal, 100, embodiment of humanity and resiliency, Holocaust survivor, subject of “I Am Here” (we spoke with the film’s director and producer)
Documentary was shown at Atlanta Jewish Film Festival last month
Ella Blumenthal was a young woman when the Nazis invaded her native Poland. Over the next few years she was bounced around Europe by Hitler’s forces, experiencing firs-thand the horrors of Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. She even participated in the failed Warsaw Uprising in 1943, to which the Nazis responded with a horrific crackdown that would all but level the ancient city. Blumenthal and her ... more >
INTERVIEW with Cedric Cheung-Lau of “The Mountains Are a Dream That Calls to Me”
The film was shot with a crew of only nine people on a 19-day trek in the Himalayas
Last January, in the before times when film festivals were still held in person, I beheld one of the most unique and powerful films I’d ever seen. Cedric Cheung-Lau’s “The Mountains Are a Dream That Calls to Me” was unlike anything I had ever seen before—or since. Filmed in Nepal, it told the profoundly simple story of a Nepalese man named Tukten (Sanjay Lama Dong) who says he is walking to a new ... more >
INTERVIEW | Pamela Green, director of “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché”
Her film premiered in 2018 in the Cannes Classics slate at the Cannes Festival
Award season is here, and the upcoming Golden Globes have made history by nominating three women in their “Best Director” category. To honor that long overdue achievement I thought it would be the perfect time to talk with filmmaker Pamela B. Green (featured image) about her documentary “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” If you don’t recognize the name in the title, ... more >