June 17, 2022, marked the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, the fallout of which would eventually lead to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Nixon and his tricksters were held to account in the end, largely thanks to brave insiders such as Alexander Butterfield, who disclosed the existence of the secret White House taping system, as well as Martha Mitchell, the wife of Nixon’s ... more >
INTERVIEWS
“There really hasn’t been a lot of stories about Martha; “THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT” on Netflix | INTERVIEW with filmmakers Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy
Documentary is available for streaming on Netflix
Owen Teague recalls making an intimate movie among the big skies, “MONTANA STORY”
Teague previously appeared in "Bloodline" (2015) and the episode "Arkangel" of the fourth season of "Black Mirror" (2017)
Actor Owen Teague spent the early months of the pandemic not only getting rather too familiar with his four walls but reading a script by Scott McGehee, David Siegel and Mike Spreter about two estranged siblings who return to their Montana home as their father convalesces. If nothing else, the gig would provide Teague a way to see something outside his own home. Soon enough, he was on his way ... more >
THIRTY YEARS OF ADDICTION AND JAIL : “Life of Crime, 1984-2020”
Interview with film director Jon Alpert
Freddie Rodriguez, Robert Steffey and Deliris Vasquez
Jon Alpert had been working on his documentary for so long, he had to transfer footage from videotape. Using a digital process known as “TerraNexing,” Alpert’s eighties and nineties footage was renewed on the 16:9 aspect ratio. What couldn’t be sanitized was the horror of the nation’s drug epidemic, which Alpert shows us in microcosm in “Life of Crime, 1984-2020,” now playing on HBO. Alpert ... more >
INTERVIEW | Peter Middleton and James Spinney; “The Real Charlie Chaplin”
Documentary is currently airing on SHOWTIME
Cast: Pearl Mackie, Jeff Rawle and Paul Ryan
Charles Chaplin was born in a tough area of London and came to America not only to reinvent himself but partially to invent the language of the then-new art of cinema itself. Through pluck, luck and sheer determination, Chaplin became a leading man and director—often playing the familiar “Little Tramp” character for decades, first in silent films and then, most famously, with a rousing closing ... more >
Forty years later, revisiting disco inferno with “Mr. Saturday Night” | THE DIRECTOR’S INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW / documentary
Starring Robert Stigwood and John Travolta
When “Saturday Night Fever” came out in 1977, the small film about an Italian kid from Brooklyn who moonlighted as a disco dancer became a force of nature. It rocketed star John Travolta into the stratosphere, and the soundtrack album, heavy on the Bee Gees, sold 25 million copies, many before the film was even out in theaters. Director John Maggio’s new documentary “Mr. Saturday Night” tells ... more >
Project Recover, an NGO that searches and repatriates the remains of the lost pilots and sailors from the South Pacific, at the heart of “To What Remains,” currently showing in theaters | DOCUMENTARY
This past week marked eighty years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, which lured the United States into WWII. Sixteen million Americans answered the call to join the armed forces against the Axis of Nazi Germany, imperial Japan and fascist Italy. Over 400,000 servicemen lost their lives in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, with approximately 80,000 more still ... more >
“I’M GOING TO FOLLOW MY INSTINCTS AS I ALWAYS HAVE”: talking with KENNY G about the new documentary “Listening to Kenny G” (directed by Penny Lane)
When Bill Simmons put out the call for documentaries for his “Music Box” series on HBO he made sure to get in touch with Penny Lane. He had seen Lane’s previous documentary, “Hail, Satan?” and asked if she had any ideas on artists to profile for “Music Box.” Lane did have an idea: Why not ask Kenny G, whom she had first seen at the Blue Note in New York years earlier, if he would be interviewed ... more >