At this point, The Church of Scientology has been the subject of many a documentary, so it is refreshing to see a film take a new spin on the subject matter the way John Dower’s My Scientology Movie does. UK documentarian Louis Theroux writes and sta …Read more

Being a mainland European sophisticate has its perks; cobbled streets serve as an ashtray for impenitent smoking, good fashion sense is as innate as gazing philosophically through window panes at nothing in particular, while speaking selective Englis …Read more

At a talk on February 28th that kicked off a celebration of her work at FIAF, Agnès Varda jokingly referred to herself as “the dinosaur of the New Wave”, and the moniker ought to stick. At 88, she remains a true iconoclast who hasn’t only survived mo …Read more

Many nonfiction films approach their subjects by way of problem-solving, and whether they’re trying to find the culprit of a murder, bring to light political corruption, expose some of nature’s best kept secrets, or put out calls to action, they seek …Read more

In 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema celebrates its 22nd year of showcasing the diversity and exuberance of Gallic cinema. With new works by the likes of Bruno Dumont, Francois Ozon and Nicole Garcia, the festival co-presented with UniFrance featur …Read more

Samantha Barks and Max Irons play the star-crossed lovers in Bitter Harvest, a timely historical drama set in 1930s Ukraine which deals with the Holodomor, a horrifying famine-genocide initiated by the Kremlin, which saw millions of people die. Georg …Read more

Documentary shorts are not for the faint of heart. Where feature documentaries have enough space to temper their message with a story, characters, and not infrequently plot twists as well, such palliatives are rare in shorts. But short form isn’t exa …Read more

Bitter Harvest opens with the rippling wheat fields of Ukraine. Our hero, Yuri, narrates a childhood which doubles as a visual mainline of Ukrainian tradition, imagery, and cultural nostalgia. Yuri grows into a lovelorn artist played by Max Irons who …Read more

Director Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle is an exquisite film that explores fate through the tale of a nameless man who wakes up on a deserted island accompanied only by the title reptile. Using breathtaking animation, we follow the man as he b …Read more

Whenever you hear people talking about classic Hollywood stars, the name Jennifer Jones isn’t mentioned as often as Bette, Clark, Katharine and Bogie. Despite winning the Best Actress Oscar for her breakthrough role in The Song of Bernadette, and bei …Read more