CRIES FROM SYRIA had already made its HBO debut when I spoke with Evgeny Afineevsky on March 16, 2017. He was in San Francisco, though, to do a Q&A after a screening here. Afineevsky is a garrulous, upbeat man, quick with a smile and a hug, but when he talks about the dangers of American… Read More »
Eddie Rosenstein Celebrates the FREEDOM TO MARRY
When I spoke to Eddie Rosenstein by phone on June 22, 2016, the first thing I wanted him to discuss was how important it was to remember the decades-long struggle for marriage equality. We went on to talk about his personal connection to one his subjects, Evan Wolfson, of the Freedom to Marry Coalition, and… Read More »
David Farrier is TICKLED
When I spoke with David Farrier by phone on June 22, 2016, I started by asking him if he had been served any legal papers that day. It was a semi-facetious question. Making his endlessly fascinating, endlessly surprising documentary, TICKLED, has resulted in an ongoing string of legal threats and a not a few legal… Read More »
Winning THE CASE AGAINST 8
When I spoke with renowned filmmaker Rob Reiner (A FEW GOOD MEN, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) on June 20. 2014, it was the morning after his film, THE CASE AGAINST 8 had kicked off the 38th annual Frameline Festival in San Francisco. The film, which Reiner co-produced with his wife, Michelle,… Read More »
SOMETIMES IN APRIL
In SOMETIMES IN APRIL, Raoul Peck (Lumumba), has taken the specific story of the Rwandan genocide of April 1994 and made manifest the universal implications of the events. There is plenty of culpability to go around and Peck is not shy about pointing fingers, but he is also not shy about pointing up the greater… Read More »
Raoul Peck on SOMETIMES IN APRIL
Raoul Peck is a softspoken man, but the gentle timbre of his voice does nothing to disguise the passion he feels for SOMETIMES IN APRIL, which he wrote and directed for HBO. This look at the Rwandan genocide of 1994, an event that took a million lives in 100 days, was a topic he was… Read More »
James Cromwell on ANGELS IN AMERICA
I could talk a lot about the HBO presentation of ANGELS IN AMERICA adapted by Tony Kushner from his play and directed by Mike Nichols, a director who has proven has proven his chops with incisive dissections of the moral and political state of the nation with films such as CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and THE GRADUATE.… Read More »