No Other Land is a vital, terrifying, eye-opening and heartbreaking protest against war. It's a powerful documentary about the IDF's destruction of Masafer Yatta, a section of the West Bank composed of 19 hamlets. Co-directors
Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor unflinchingly capture the suffering of Palestians as they desperately try to defend their homes and protest the demolitions while risking their lives. Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, and Yuval Abaraham, an Israeli journalist, became friends as they documented the injustices for the sake of truth and, above all, democracy. The mainstream news doesn't inform the general public about how the IDF destroys Palestinian homes, so kudos to the filmmakers for bravely recording evidence over the course of 5 years and shedding light on tragic events that more people know about. No Other Land uses a fly-on-the-wall approach without talk-head interviews or analyzing its timely, complex and systemic issues plaguing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which started with Tantura, another dark part of Israeli history that's rarely mentioned. It's scary to know that the IDF's demolition of Masafer Yatta and the way that they treated the Palestinian residents occurred not long before the Hammas attacks on October 7th, 2023. At 1 hour and 35 minutes, No Other Land opened at The Film Society for an Oscar-qualifying run on November 1st, 2024. Hopefully a smart U.S. distributor will pick it up.
Number of times I checked my watch: 1
      A Photographic Memory, directed by Rachel Elizabeth Seed, is a documentary about the director's attempts to learn about her mother, Sheila Elizabeth Seed, a photographer, who died when Rachel was a baby. She never got the chance to get to know her, but that changed when she discovered audio recordings of conversations betwen her mother and other photographers. What ensues turns out to be a poignant and illuminating journey for both Rachel and for the audience concurrently. Although the film doesn't reach the powerful, emotional or cinematic heights of other docs like The Mother of All Lies that would allow it to become transcendent, it's nonetheless a captivating, well-edited documentary that avoids becoming dry or dull. At a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes, A Photographic Memory opens at DCTV's Firehouse Cinema on November 22nd, 2024.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
      Porcelain War is a mildly engaging, timely and well-shot, but undercooked, repetitive and incomplete documentary about Ukrainian artists who stayed behind and made art during the Russo-Ukrainian war. Slava Leontyev, who co-directs the film with Brendan Bellomo, works as an artist along with his wife, Anya. He documents their experiences making and painting porcelains which, like the Ukrainians, are resilient: they can be pieced back together over and over even after they're broken into pieces. They also reflect the strength of people coming together to form a community. Slava and Anya's friend Andrey, who's also an artist, decides to document the Ukrainian's wartime struggles. Porcelain War tackles a timely and important issue, but without enough depth or insights beyond showing the brave Ukrainians' resilience during a time of adversity. You learn very little about Slava, Anya and Andrey individually which is a squandered opportunity to humanize them and the audience with them on a more emotional level. Since their art becomes a form of poetry, poetry can often become a form of protest, so while it's inspiring to watch these artists protesting through art, it would've been great to get to know them better in the process. At a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes, Porcelain War opens at IFC Center via Picturehouse on November 22nd, 2024.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
      Queendom is a captivating and poignant documentary biopic about Jenna Marvin, a queer Russian performance artist. Director Agniia Galdanova eschews the conventional format of talking-head interviews. Instead, she follows Jenna around as she walks in public in drag with her outfits that are even more over-the-top, bold and eccentric as the outfits in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Jenna isn't afraid to express her individuality and to be her true self, but she's putting her livelihood and life at risk in a country that's filled with homophobia. It's equally enraging and heartbreaking to watch her get kicked out of a supermarket or get arrested. Her relationship with her grandparents seems toxic because they repeatedly deadname her, so it would've been interesting had the director asked Jenna about how she feels about that. Does Jenna really want to remain in contact with people who dehumanize her and cut her flowers, so-to-speak? Queendom isn't a thorough documentary biopic nor does it step back to explore its many issues with more depth and insights. Are there other queer artists in Russia besides Jenna? So, although this film is quite intimate and Jenna is brave for allowing the audience to observe her vulnerability, it's too limited in scope and ultimately incomplete. At 1 hour and 38 minutes, Queendom opened at Cinema Village and on VOD via Greenwich Entertainment on June 14th, 2024.
      Sugarcane is an emotionally devastating, well-shot and unflinching exposé on the missing and abused children at an Indian residential school near Sugarcane Reserve located in British Columbia. Co-directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat focus on the survivors as they discuss their traumatic experience which included physical and sexual abuse. The school officially closed in 1981, so the abuse occurred decades ago, but the emotional scars and pains are still there. It's not easy to watch as the survivors speak candidly about their memories. Their courage, introspection, emotional generosity and emotional maturity shine brightly, though. The most powerful and revealing moment occurs when a survivor calls one of the priests from the school to confront him and ask him about the missing students. His nervous, defensive response speaks volumes. Despite that they've continually sought justice, they still haven't achieved it. What's most important is knowing the harsh truth about what happened back then and not allowing anyone to cover it up. By looking at the abuse head-on, Sugarcane bravely exposes that essential truth. The quest for truth and justice is fundamentally a quest for democracy. To be fair, Sugarcane does feel a bit repetitive and overstays its welcome by roughly 10 minutes, so tighter editing would've been helpful. At a running time of 1 hour and 47 minutes, Sugarcane opened at Film Forum via National Geographic Documentary Films on August 9th, 2024.
Number of times I checked my watch: 2
      Co-directors Stephen Maing and Brett Story follow the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) as they struggle and battle against Amazon to unionizw in their Staten Island warehouse in Union. They opt for a fly-on-the-wall approach like the films of Frederick Wiseman, but it's rather dry without any thoroughness or fair and balanced perspectives. Merely focusing on the ALU isn't enough. By not having access to Amazon's perspectives, Union feels myopic and incomplete. It also squanders many opportunities to humanize its workers other than letting the audience know that some workers wake up very early to get to work. What's wrong with getting to know some of the workers beyond their experiences fighting to unionize? This is the kind of doc that could and should make the audience enraged, gripped and/or engrossed, but it fails to accomplish those important goals while also failing to find the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking them emotionally as well as intellectually. At 1 hour and 42 minutes, it opened at IFC Center on October 18th, 2024.
Number of times I checked my watch: 4
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