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 >
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“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
“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 >
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 >
“People often use the term feel-good movie like it’s dismissive, if our audience comes out of the theater feeling good then we’re completely happy” JULIE COHEN AND BETSY WEST on the making of “JULIA”
Filmmakers Julie Cohen and Betsy West make documentaries about extraordinary women. Their Oscar-nominated 2018 “RBG” followed around the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Cohen and West have returned with “Julia,” which traces the rise of Julia Child from her Southern California beginnings to becoming the world’s first celebrity chef. “Like a lot of people in my generation, I ... more >