Given his notorious history of heists one might assume that Gerald Blanchard would stay out of sight. Or at least keep his mouth shut. Yet Blanchard’s narcissism, for it can be labeled as nothing else, will not allow him to stay mum about his life of crime. Thankfully, filmmaker Landon Van Soest gives Blanchard just enough rope to air out his dirty laundry for the whole world to enjoy in the new ... more >
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Live, love, music; “PLAYING WITH FIRE” | Documentary review
Unveiling the mysteries of conducting
[DOCUMENTARY]
Directed by Allan Miller
With the documentary “Playing with Fire: Jeannette Sorrell and the Mysteries of Conducting” Oscar-winning director Allan Miller explores the career of a woman who bleeds with a complete love of music and works to bring the vibrancy and stories of classical music to life. When she was young Jeannette Sorrell was told by the Juilliard School and The Cleveland Orchestra that no orchestra would ... more >
“I GOT A MONSTER”; documentary filmmaker Kevin Abrams on dissecting on film one of the American East Coast’s most egregious police corruption scandals | TALK
Documentary available for streaming and download
When Kevin Abrams started work on his documentary “I Got a Monster” in 2018, he was determined that retelling the story of Baltimore’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force not traffic in “ruin porn,” a staple of the HBO series “The Wire.” “It’s nicknamed Charm City, and I really got why,” Abrams, a New Jersey native, said from his home in Los Angeles. “As an East Coast guy, going there and feeling the ... more >
“JANUARY 6TH”; filmmakers Jules and Gédéon Naudet revisit the attack on the Capitol | INTERVIEW
New documentary will air on Discovery+ on second anniversary of epoch-making event
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 ... more >
“BREAKING” writers and director discuss the importance of ‘being heard’ | INTERVIEW
Starring John Boyega, Nicole Beharie and Selenis Leyva
Directed by Abi Damaris Corbin
On July 3rd, 2017, desperate for help and with seemingly no one taking his complaints of pain seriously, retired Marine Brian Easley walked into an Atlanta-area bank, gently informing a clerk that he had a bomb. He didn’t want to rob the bank, he insisted; he simply wanted the money he felt the VA had denied him for his own care. He also wanted to be heard. Easley phoned both 911 and a local ... more >
“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
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 >
CANNES FESTIVAL: “For the sake of peace,” produced by Forest Whitaker
Peace-building starts in the community
Directed by Christophe Castagne and Thomas Sametin
CANNES, France—Two tribes, the Didinga and the Logir, on different sides of a vast patch of fertile vegetation, which they must share in order for their cattle to graze, but each tribe cattle-raids the other and tit-for-tat reprisals are bloody because nobody wants to really share. This dispute over natural resources, which takes place in South Sudan, echoes many others before it throughout ... more >