Tag Archives: Documentary

“At Auschwitz, tell me, where was God?”“Where was man?”― William Styron, Sophie’s Choice “I am not responsible!” The cry of a condemned criminal refusing to acknowledge guilt. “Who is responsible?” The question asked in Alain Resnais’ documentary, Nuit et Brouillard ...

To the extent that they are necessarily divergent, the worlds of film fandom and film history overlap to equally avid ends with Christophe Espenan’s 2018 documentary, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever, a 58-minute look back at the 1963 John Sturges ...

Bigfoot. Ancient astronauts! Noah’s Ark? You might think I’m referring to the programming schedule for the History Channel, and you wouldn’t be wrong depending on who you ask, but for anyone wondering why modern television is populated by what are ...

Mike Diana is the focus of a new documentary, Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana (2018), directed by the legendary Frank Henenlotter. The film details the 1994 Florida obscenity charge that landed Mike in jail as the only visual ...

Within the first five minutes of Bill Morrison’s latest exploration into tactile film history, these words are displayed on the screen: “Film was born of an explosive.” This sounds beautifully metaphorical, but it is in fact just a straightforward statement ...

The past couple of months, I’ve had serial killers on the brain—particularly cinematic serial killers—which isn’t all that unusual of an occurrence for me, but this time around is particularly because I’m writing a book on Fritz Lang’s seminal M ...

While porn has often gotten a bad rap from feminists over the years, a few women have worked tirelessly to change perceptions of female desire — and how that desire plays into art and performance. Key examples include porn and sex-positive ...

Over the last few months, I’ve been steadily working my way through some of director Ken Russell’s early work, particularly the episodes he made for the BBC series Monitor, a British arts program that ran from 1958 to 1965 and ...

Not many people have heard of the death rock band Kettle Cadaver, but it is a name you won’t ever forget if you have. Rock stars are no strangers to controversial antics which go against the grain of social norms, ...

So far in my Ken Russell column, I’ve covered a number of his early films for the BBC program Monitor — particularly his artist biographies like Elgar and The Debussy Film — and this later documentary, Always on Sunday (1965), ...