SAMI BLOOD is the first Swedish film in the South Sami language, the language of that country’s reindeer-herding indigenous people of the north. Amanda Kernell, part Sami herself, realized the enormous responsibility that comes not only with that, but also with accurately representing the racism that sent the Sami to enforced boarding schools where they… Read More »
RESISTANCE AT TULE LAKE — Konrad Aderer Interview
An interviewee in Konrad Aderer’s RESISTANCE AT TULE LAKE compares that militarized internment camp to Guantanamo. It’s a connection that I had not made before, but which is just one of the many enlightening moments in the documentary. When I spoke with Aderer on March 11, 2017, it was just before RESISTANCE’s world premiere at… Read More »
DEFENDER — Jeff Adachi Interview
Jeff Adachi has devoted his professional life to public service, serving as a public defender for 32 years, the last 15 of which in the top elected spot in the public defender’s office. Somehow he has also managed to carve out a sideline as a filmmaker, making documentaries that examine racial issues in our culture… Read More »
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO — Raoul Peck Interview
As we were settling down to talk, Raoul Peck asked me about the name of my web site, KillerMovieReviews.com. When I told him it was a nod to the fact that I take no prisoners when it comes to bad movies, he laughed and said that was exactly the resolve with which he went into… Read More »
CAMERAPERSON — Kirsten Johnson Interview
Kirsten Johnson has spent 25 filming other people’s documentaries. With CAMERAPERSON, she uses the outtakes of those films, as well as new footage of her family, to make a film that is much more than the sum of its parts. When I spoke with the ebullient and thoughtful filmmaker on September 30, 2016, we talked… Read More »
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM — Dee Hibbert-Jones & Nomi Talisman Interview
Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman are first-time filmmakers whose short film, LAST DAY OF FREEDOM, has been short-listed for the Oscars™. The hand-drawn animation tells the story of Bill Babbitt and his beloved brother Manny, two men who were let down by the system in which they placed their trust. When Bill realizes that Manny… Read More »
Stephen Winter Re-discovers JASON AND SHIRLEY
Click here to listen to the interview. When Shirley Clarke made PORTRAIT OF JASON, she was doing more than exercising her creative impulse. The Oscar™-winning director had been all but shut out of Hollywood, and returned to New York to pursue a career as an indie filmmaker rather than deal with being marginalized by the… Read More »
Nick Broomfield Tells TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER
Nick Broomfield makes documentaries that seek the truth and report it without fear or favor to anyone. There is no better example of what he does, and why it makes for such compelling cinema, than TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, which takes on the reasons why a 25-year killing spree by the eponymous serial killer… Read More »
HOLES
There is an attitude among some filmmakers that children’s films should be anything but sophisticated, rather, they should be simple in theme and execution and excruciating for anyone over the age of five. Not just the flicks for little kids, either, as evidenced by such recent mush as WHAT A GIRL WANTS. And for those… Read More »
Connie Field Asks HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG? APARTHEID AND THE CLUB OF THE WEST
Connie Field started from scratch in putting together her six-part documentary, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG. Undaunted, she set about assembling an archive of first-person narratives about apartheid at home and abroad in South Africa. When we spoke on October 30, 2007, she discussed how the 2000+ hours of interviews and footage would be made available to scholars,… Read More »