DOCNYC 2026 curtain raiser

The crowds are lining up for DOC NYC 2026

DOC NYC starts Wednesday which means you now know why I have not been sleeping. (And since the festival has an on-line portion this year there is a reason why you soon won't be sleeping.)

Yes, boys and girls I have been wading into the annual documentary film festivals goodies and trying to write up reports so you know what to see,  It’s been a tough job, but someone had to do it.

All kidding aside I have been covering the festival every year except the first.  The festival is so well programmed that I will try anything they program. I may not like what I see but I never doubt that there will be an audience for their films.

I love this fest so much that in a year where I am pressed for time to actually watch films I’m expanding my awake hours just to see as many films as possible. What I love is I haven’t hit anything bad so my desire to keep watching is high, with the result that I jump from film to film and I’m getting to bed well after midnight. There are simply too many great films that I want to see them all. 

As I have said for years this is one of the best programmed festival in the world, period, full stop.

If you’ve been reading Unseen Films for any length of time you know how hard I go in covering the festival and I am trying to do that this year. I am most definitely watching a lot of films but since the fest schedules so many films there is no way I will get to anything and this year I can’t even try.

Understand I will be writing up everything that I see, though I am wildly behind in the writing part so reviews may run late or end up short because I want to simply get word out so I can help you decide if you want to see something.

That said the one rule for DOC NYC that has never let me down is if you have any interest in a film just see it because you will like it. I don’t think there has ever been a film I wanted to see that I didn’t like.

Just go and buy tickets. And more importantly there is an on-line portion to the fest so even if you are not in New York you can see some of the films.

Okay what are the films that I think are must sees?

With the understanding that I have only seen a fraction of the films playing and that as this posts I have a stack of screeners- here are the must see films for me (full reviews of all of them are coming):

WHIDDY is a look at a failed effort to bring petroleum transfer station to Ireland. It echoes to today with the grand projects we see the rich are trying to get passed.

UNDERSTORY- a look at plants and what is really going on with them. You'll want to see this for the incredible photography.

EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET- a truly great story of a neighborhood coming together to porotect one of their own.

BADDEST SPEECHWRITER OF ALL- A truly great short doc about Martin Luther King's speechwriter. One of the best films you will see in 2026.

DAYLIGHT- One of my most favorite directors in the world Jon Kasbe returns with the unexpected moving tale of a man saved by the music of Taylor Swift. Don't laugh because by the end you will be misty.

LANDSCAPE OF MEMORYis a look at how we remember the Holocaust.

ROBERT RICHARDSON: WHITE DEVIL a great look the mad man and cinematographer whose work changed what we see at the movies.

THE NAVIGATOR- the story of sailing from Hawaii to Tahiti without navigational instruments. Its amazing... and Beautiful

FIGARO UP, FIGARO DOWN- the story of a man who proved that sex drugs and opera don't mix. This is one of the best films of 2026

BEL- a look at the life and music of woman who might have changed the world with her songs

THE MAD WORLD OF HARVEY KURTZMAN - a look at one of the most influencial artists of the 20th century and his insanely delightful work

LOS LOBOS NATIVE SONG - a fantastic portrait of the group thats wall to wall music. One of my favorite films of 2026 with the sequence scored to One Time, One Night being a perfect use of a song to encapsulate the group and the country.

THE HOTLINE - haunting HBO short about a hotline where addicts can call so they aren't using alone and they can be saved if they overdose. It will rock your world

LET IT BE, LET IT BLEED: THE UNLIKELY ROCK N’ ROLL JOURNEY OF ETHAN RUSSELL the history of rock and roll through the photos of one man. One of the great rock films I've ever seen and one of the best of 2026.

Coverage starts tomorrow with some reposts of some of the films I have previously reviewed. Reviews will then drop after embargos fall or close to to the screenings

For more information, tickets and access to the on-lineportion go here

Thoughts on Ulya (2026) Baltic Film Festival

This is a portrait of Uļjana Semjonova who was pulled off the farm where she lived because of her height and sent to play basketball. She doesn't want to play basketball but has to decide what to do because back home she stood out because of her height, while at the sports academy she can actually do something.

This is a black and white art house sports film. Its a film full of rich images and silences and deep meanings. It's also sports film where there isn't remotely as much sports as you get in similar films. This is a film that is very much about Ulya's internal journey from being a young girl on the farm to becoming one of the best that ever played the game.

I've been sitting on this review for  couple of weeks now and I don't know what I think of the film. I mean that in good ways and bad ways. Its a beautiful film that is full of images that delight the eye and ideas that tickle the mind.  At the  same time there is something very art house about the film. It doesn't want to hit all the sports bio marks, and I love that but at the same time the film remains kind of distant. This seemed to be made for an audience other than me.

Sitting with the film a bit I decided that I should probably try it again, and I started it and I found all my preconcieved notions getting in the way. Days on I was still seeing it as I did the first time.  With festivals and such coming up I decided to sit with it a bit and then write something for the Baltic FIlm Festival screening and the revisit down the road.

As it stands now I like ULYA. I'm not sure to what degree beyond that. Lest you think that is a knock, it is not because any film that forces you to wrestle with it instead of letting it just wash over you is a must see.

Recommended for those who want their own wrestling match with cinema.

Dylan Skolnick is back at the Cinema Arts Centre- you may return to the theater

“Independently run movie theaters, started and programmed by people who give their lives to the cinema, are like beacons in the darkness. We need them now more than ever. The Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington was one of those places until a few weeks ago. And then Dylan Skolnick was ejected from the place he and his family had built from the ground up, brick by brick, film by film. The theatre still exists, but the heart of the place has been torn away and the community around it has been shattered. There’s only one way to turn the situation around. A simple solution: Bring Dylan Skolnick back to the Cinema Arts Centre.” Martin Scorsese speaking the words that removed the piratical board of the Cinema Arts Center

As many of you know the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington Long Island was the subject of a hostile take over by a group of people who knew corporate nonsense but didn't understand the film community. They threw out Dylan Skolnick, whose parents built the cinema, and marched on saying they knew the way to the cinematic promised land.

They had no idea what they were doing and it all blew up in their faces.

Their actions resulted in boycotts, protests, complaints to the town, the village and filmmakers across the globe who knew and loved Dylan followed. Distributors pulled their films and refused to allow their films to be screened there (They could only get the same films as the Multiplex a few blocks away). Members demanded their money back. Audiences never showed up. I am told things were so bad that the cinema had worsening money issues the last few weeks. 

Then things got worse because the filmmakers started to add their voices to the public out cry and it exploded as legendary director Martin Scorsese chimed in with the above quote, which got picked up by RogerEbert.com and other national outlets, so suddenly the local battle for a local cinema was national news and the board had to do something if they wanted to keep the cinema open, and save face since it was clear there was no one on their side.

Several days of mediation occurred  and the result is Dylan Skolnick has been returned as the director of the Cinema Arts Centre The people who replaced him are gone. I am also told that there will be a change to the board as well.

Back in September I suggested that the best thing to do was going to stay away from the cinema until Dylan was returned. He is back so feel free to go back to the movies.

I have seen on social media and I have been told by people I know that all of the programs that were canceled will be back.  Because of things just happened it may take a few weeks to repair the damage the old board did, but as a friend said "sometimes you have to burn it down to build it back better".

For now- go see a movie.

I am going to try and put something together on what happened with more details, assuming I can find a minute. There is a lot to the story and a lot of people made this happen and they should be recognized, which is something I can't do in this short piece.  

Again all need to know is that Dylan is back, well programmed cinema will soon be returning to Long Island.  According to an email I got from the cinema Dylan will be there Monday if you want to say hello.

Information of the cinema and its schedule can be found here.

KILORAN BAY (2026)

 

One of the best films of any length in 2026 is KILORAN BAY.

The film is a  musical short film about a man returning with his husband to his hometown and dealing with all the memories of growing up there. It’s a film that uses the music and lyrics to perfectly express all of the repressed emotion of returning home. I was rocked, especially by the ending which was note perfect and completely unexpected.

All hail the cast which is headed by Alan Cumming as the man going home. His expression and his singing give the film its heart and soul- and if Oscar looked to shorts for major awards should put him in the running for a Best Actor Oscar.

This film is glorious beyond words. You must see this film.

Anna By The Window (2026)

I am not going to go into the luddite movement that spawned this film. Yes it was made by some people who wanted to walk away from technology, but the truth of the matter is that it isn’t important. Yes the film presents someone literally running away from technology, but the truth is you don’t need to know any of that for this film to work. ANNA BY THE WINDOW is simply put a wondrous cinematic experience.

The plot is minimal. It has to do with 24 hours in the life of a young man as he travels around New York City, avoiding his father's call and his promise to help his brother.

Running a breeze, yet very meaty 70 minutes, Myles Flusser and James Hyland's ANNA BY THE WINDOW is a film that requires you stay with it. Less a narrative and more a collection of moments that make up a journey the film is raw and real, and choppy and uneven and wildly intriguing. This is a film that begins with you feeling uncertain, as if the filmmakers weren't certain what they were doing  but by the end you are sitting gobsmacked wondering how they managed to pull all the seeming pieces together into something unlike any other film out there. 

 No, that's not quite, right, there are other films that try to do this, create a world and feeling from all sorts of different pieces that shouldn't go together,  but where these other films don't manage to make it work, Flusser and Hyland make ANNA IN THE WINDOW work.

Now I know I am frustrating you by not completely explaining what the film is like, and you will have to forgive me since it is very hard to explain what the film is like. Its a film that is telling a story, but all of the shots are unexpected. It kind of breaks what you think of how you put scenes together. Shot choices are different. Everything creates a mood and a feeling and yet moves the story, such as it is forward. There is a narrative thread but its not entirely what we expect.

Thinking about it the fractured(?) narrative most feels like the fractured narrative of GIRL WALK ALL DAY , one of my most favorite films which imagines three people literally dancing across New York City to a mixtape by Girl Talk. Its pieces that shouldn't always go together but do.

I love this film.

In an age of Hollywood and studio sameness, Flusser and Hyland have proven that creativity isn't dead. Its a film that shows what amazing things people with a vision and a camera can do.

Is this technically the best or greatest film of 2026? Probably not, at least asto how we conventially think of a film as best, however the film is one of the most alive films of the last five or ten years. Its a film that makes you realize that true mind expanding cinema is not dead. It gives you hope that we are still going to be able to find films and filmmakers who can truly surprise us with things other than computer manufactured images.

Simply put ANNA BY THE WINDOW is exactly the sort of film that I created Unseen Films to highlight and trumpet.

If you want something atypical and potentially magical track ANNA BY THE WINDOW down.

The film opens in Los Angeles at the Laemmle NoHo 7 and Laemmle Royal on November 11th and 12th, and New York screenings are being set for December ahead of its December 15th release on Dolpho

Drummer Boy (2026)

DRUMMER BOY is a musical spawned from the group For King + Country.  In 2012 they had worked up the song The Little Drummer Boy as parrt of their Christmas show and the song took on a life of its own. The song eventually spawned this historical musical drama.

The plot of the film has two brothers ending up on either side of the  American Revolution. One brother joins the British and tries to make time with the daughter of a rich general while the other ends up as a drummer in the American army. Their paths eventually cross on the battlefield.

The plot of the film is trying to do a great deal. The film want to not only tell the story of the brothers but also deal with notions of racial equality with one of the brother having feelings for the Black girl owner by the family of the general.  It's a thread that is rightly there but at the same time it's a bit too shiney for what the reality would have been. It done in a way that makes them look  good for including it but it does so in a manner that isn't going to offend their chosen audience.

Over all the plot isn't bad but it isn't anything we haven't seen before. The basic story is fine but ultimately unremarkable

The problem with the film is the music.  Most of the songs sound similar and all of them seem to be show stoppers. The music sounds like it was made by a group that is used to playing stadiums and going for big emotions. Beyond the songs sounding the same, the music breaks the film because the music doesn't fit what we are seeing. It isn't that the sound is anacronistic, the music in THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE was at time wrong for the time, rather its big and booming and you feel its outside the action.  Sequences that should rock us emotionally just sit there. 

My thought over and over again was that this film would have been soo much better as a straight film. 

For me this a major miss.

Not really recommended, this is going to work best for fans of For King + Country.

return of the projectionist (2026)

 

Portrait of projectionist Samid who wants to start showing movies in his small community in Azerbaijan. He still has his Soviet era projector and wants to set it up and show movies. Of course he has to find a bulb, a place to do it and get the permission of the authorities.

The is a low key and lyric film about trying to reconnect with your past and bring joy to the people around you. Paced almost as a meditation, the film is a trip with Samid to make his dream come true. It’s a trip that isn’t always straight forward, but it is one, like many of the best journeys that gets there eventually.

I was delighted.

The problem as much as I like this quiet gem of a film, I don’t have a great deal to say.  My original stab at writing it up was to say it was a nice, sweet film. I then had no idea where to go and I sat on this review until a day or two ago when I decided to power through. I still didn’t get far.

The truth is this really is a lovely film and you should make the time to see it.

Soul Patrol (2026)

Based on the memoir by Ed Emanuel, SOULPATROL tells the story of Vietnam War's first Black special ops team who would go deep into enemy territory. Made up of material from the members as well as rememberences from their final reunion, the film puts us in a time an place over a half century agon.

Transcending just being a war story, SOUL PATROL is a snapshot of America over the last half century. Yes we get to know the world that had these guys go into the military, but it also reflects on how that time changed the men and the world around them. There is a lot  here and the film requires multiple viewings to get all the details. That is a rave, since this is a film you have to engage with and not simply allow to wash over you.

This is great filmmaking.

Highly recommended.

My Friend Kev (2026)

Filmmaker Colin Peppard reconnects with his friend Kev who he hasn’t seen in years. Kev lives on a farm, and caddies on the slow winter days at the golf course, which is owned by Donald Trump, that is next door to the farm. Kev is also trying to get visa so he can go work at a golf course in Florida.  Spurred on by Kev’s constant rightwing social media posts Colin decides to meet up with his friend and see how time and distance have changed him.

Weeks on from when I saw the film I am still pondering it. It’s a bracing and clear-eyed look at how people change over time when we aren’t looking. It’s something that everyone of us has experienced.

What I love about Peppard’s film is that he doesn’t say much. You get a sense of his position from the moments when a mutual friend calls him to ask what is going on with Kev. Kev seems to have gone down a rabbit hole, and he wants to know why. Peppard isn’t certain but wants to know too. The rest of the film is largely just the meeting with Kev being allowed to speak his mind as he shares his life. There is no confrontation or lecturing there is just Kev until the kicker in the end. It’s a portrait of man who isn’t full recognized by his friend.

Until the end we are not guided anywhere, we are just left to watch and the result is haunting.   As I said above this film has haunted me for weeks. Pieces of the film keep drifting back. I keep writing on this film and then restarting as I reconsider what I’m thinking. It doesn’t help that I am in a couple of similar situations with long time friends with whom I am drifting apart because of life.

This is a simple film that seems quiet and small; however the truth is there is the weight of a bar of gold inside it, and it bashes you in the head as the parallels between the film and our lives become more and more apparent.

I am in awe of this film. I complete see how it has won awards.

Highly recommended, MY FRIEND KEV is a film to search out.

(And perhaps pair it with the feature MY OMAHA about the distances that are created in our families)

DeGaulle Part 1 Resistance (2026)

DEGAULLE: PART 1 RESISTENCE grabbed me by the throat and held me tight until the end. I did not want to walk away from the film at any point, to the extent that I knew I was going to be late for a zoom meeting if the film didn’t end before the start time.

The film is the story of DeGaulle from the German invasion of France until the assassination Admiral Darlan who was briefly put in charge of the Free French by the Americans before he was shot. The film is also the story of one young man who is fighting the Germans in France.

This is one of the best films of 2026. A staggering old school historical epic that manages to be both intimate and truly epic, with DeGaulle and the tanks at the start and the Battle of Bir Hakeim which is shown to have changed the Allies feelings about the French, are as good as any set pieces in any film this year. Actually, the siege is so magnificently done that I wish we had a whole film covering the events in the desert. There is a need to see the whole story of that act of heroism without the cutting back and forth to DeGaulle in Europe.

What makes the film work is the the way the film makes us feel for DeGaulle. While he is often seems stiff and stereotypically stoic and unemotional, the film manages to color him on infinite levels. This is thanks to Simon Abkarian's performance, which is one for the ages.  Playing things small and close to the vest he gives us every emotion in looks and subtle body shifts. DeGaulle may look like a man in control but we know he is not. We also get to see the difference between the General and the dad in a short sequence where he lights up when he sees his daughter who had Downs Syndrome. The smile and wave speaks volumes. Abkarian gives one of the greatest performances of the last decade and it will be ignored by most award groups because it isn't showy and loud, despite being note perfect and dead on.

I should point out that the film isn't exactly precisely what happened. Details are compressed or simplified, not because the filmmakers are lazy, but because there isn't enough time to explain it all. For example the whole Admiral Darlan thread would really require a whole film unto itself, as would the story of his assassin. The filmmakers kept it brief simply because it affects DeGaulle's tale but isn't the focus. When you see the film remember this is a movie not gospel history.

I loved this film.

As I said above this is one of the best films I've seen this year.  Hopefully the second part of the story won't disappoint.

Recommended.

THE SECRET READING CLUB OF KABUL (2026)

This is a ,look at a group of young women, three of whom shot the film secretly about a life in Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban, and how the women are trying to remain connected to the world and each other to meet and discuss the banned books that they are reading.

This is a very good slice of life look at life after the American withdrawal. While there have been other films that have attempted to show us life under the Taliban, almost all of them have been shot by professional filmmakers.  There is a polished nature to what we are seeing with lots of scenes that women could never have shot. On the other hand THE SECRET READING CLUB OF KABUL is full life as lived sequences that professionals probably would not have shot. Additionally, this film has a lot of discussions that other filmmakers could not have gotten because they are the discussions that happen between friends when they are open and unguarded.

I liked this film a great deal. Its one of the must-see films on life under the Taliban.

MOUSE (2026) opens Friday

MOUSE is the story of a high school senior getting ready to go off to college. When her best friend is killed in a car accident her life is thrown into disarray. She ends up finding support from the mother of her deceased friend and falling for the girl who works at the local video store.

This is a moving film that will require tissues. Tears, both happy and sad will flow. They flow because we care about the characters on screen and because the film doesn't follow the expected path. This is not a Hollywood production where the course of life and grief follows a predicted path.  The reality is that this is film of complications where choices collide with other choices. It is a film that feels real and has weight.

I really liked this film a great deal and after I was sone I emailed several friends to tell them that they should track the film down.

Recommended.

Zi (2026) opens Friday

Kogonada’s ZI is an interesting misfire. Shot on the fly in Hong Kong over 3 weeks with no script, the film, which has a score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, looks and sounds awsome, however dramatically it staggers around and doesn't really go anywhere.

The plot of the film has Zi, a concert violinist going to Hong Kong where she sees the graves of her parents, meets another American and is followed by man. Along the way she catches glimpses of herself across the city from another trip. Little explained and we are left to sort it all out.

I absolutely love the look of the film. It looks like some of the etheral films of the 70's and 80's that made me fall in love with avant garde and experimental films. The music is very good. I absolutely love sections of the film's dialog. For example the section where Zi talks to her parents and expresses her fear that she is forgetting their faces so she is now afraid she may not recognize them in the next life is moving.

The problem is the film doesn't go anywhere. I would have been fine had the film simple wandered, but there is a sense that its building to something that never arrives. It's not bad, but the lack of catharsis kind of delates our feelings for the the film. We end up with a quiet "that's it?" instead og a loud "oh wow".

Worth  look for those who want to see something atypical, or with a glorious sense of Hong Kong.

Silver Screamers (2025) Hits streaming Friday

 

I love this film. 

This is a joyous film about the making of a short horror film by a bunch of senior citizens and it is so much fun because the filmmakers are so much fun.

The film follows filmmaker Sean Cisterna who is tired of chasing funds and festivals and decides that he is going to use some seniors to make his next short film using it as an activity. What follows is  his planning the film and then teaching the seniors what to do. Along the way we are introduced some of the best people you will meet all year. And you will clearly see how being creative opens up your soul.

Get ready to smile. This is just a great story with great people. I fell into the film from the opening minutes and then just sat in my seat with an absolute;y stupid grin. Watching the group make their film I was connected back to when I was making films, and into the lives of my friends who are making films now. It will make you want to grab your friends and make something yourself.

This is just a great film

You have to see this film-it will make you feel great.

Recommended

And for those curious here is my review of the film they made:

THE RUG
This is the story of a woman who finds a run that eats anyone who is placed under it. This is great when her landlord shows up wanting the rent, but things become complicated.

This is a wonderful film. One part horror, one part humor, THE RUG is a hell of a story.  Yes it relates to the documentary SILVER SCREAMERS but the truth is this is the sort of film that ends up getting picked up and playing festivals for ages.  

I don't want to say more, except to say that the ending is perfect and unexpected. Even if you don't see SILVER SCREAMERS, you will want to track this film down.

Kratom: Side Effects May Include (2025) Opens Friday

This is a long-pained scream of a film on the largely unregulated supplement Kratom, which is found mostly in smoke shops and gas stations. The supplement is made from a leaf from Thailand and Maylasia and stimulates some of the same brain sensors as opiates and caffeine. The trouble is that it could have serious side effects including death if it overused or taken in its refined form.

This is an important film that highlights a growing problem. The number of people using the drug has gone from a million people in the US to over 24 million in the last five years. Since it is not regulated people think it’s safe, but it isn’t. It has addictive qualities (stimulating the opiate receptors), but most states and the federal government are not doing anything about it owing the large amount of money behind it.

While the film is vitally important, the telling is often messy. The film is telling several stories at the same time and it jumps between each kind of randomly. In addition to being a discussion of the drug the film also wants to be a memorial to the people who were lost to it. I can appreciate that, but we never get a solid handle on who these people were. We get their stories in pieces, and often incomplete with the over riding thing said about them was that they were good people- but who were they really? I could have let it go except that the film intertwines their story with that of the drug and we keep revisiting them so we should know more. 

Several points concerning the dangers of the drug are not immediately made clear. What exactly are the side effects? I’m still not sure because the discussion is given a piece meal. I applaud the filmmakers for giving us this important film, I just wish it were slightly better organized so that people will take it more to heart.

My reservations aside, this is an important film and should be seen.

An apology or things are kind of out of control

This is an apology to everyone - somewhere in the last three or four weeks I  have had to take my hands off the wheel and let the car that is Unseen Films slide where it does. Despite my best efforts, for the first time in the almost 17 years of doing Unseen I've kind of lost control.

The problem at the moment is that the personal life and the film life are grinding against each other. It's nothing that can't be fixed but the issue is things are not getting done and movies are not getting watched. I am turning down things and thankful that I am not getting invited to press screenings of things I really want to see.

If you look at the site you won't notice it because I'm still dropping a film a day but I have stacks of stuff to still see. 

The short answer as to why the last few weeks have been bad is that I have been working longer hours at the day job and the fact the I got laid out by a really bad cold that effectively laid me out for the better part of two weeks. There are other factors drifting in there, but mostly I haven't been able to fully focus to write, except when I do. I can watch and take notes but writing has been tough to just do it. I'm also getting interupted so the time I need to finish the Marq Evan Bigfoot interview or the Patrick Meaney Vanishing Tour interview has been fitful at best. I'm also not focusing on yet another project I just took on.

I seem to be operating on a schedule of what is on fire or what is released this week, which is not like me since I am usually weeks ahead. 

I know as readers you don't care. The movies will be there tomorror or next Tuesday. The issue is the fact that for the first time in almosy two decades I am not getting everything done on time so the filmmakers and PR people may give me the stink eye.

Apologies- but everythig is coming - there just are going to be more deadlines flying by

TRAUMA OR MONSTERS ALL (2026)

Larry Fessenden's latest, and possibly final film is a sequel of sorts to his earlier films HABIT (about a vampire, BLACKOUT (about a werewolf) and DEPRAVED (a reinvention of Frankenstein) which also stands on it's own.

The film has a young woman living in an upstate New York town writing who is writing about George Washington Carber deciding to write about the monsters that may or may not live in her town. it's an article that complicates things and causes trouble to appear.

As with all Larry Fessenden's film the straight forward explanation of the plot is really not what the film is about. While tense, his films are rarely scary, not because there are no monsters, rather because Fessenden is using the monsters to simply tell the story about people ....who just might be a monster. As a result of this misdirection he has made some of the most haunting films about the human condition that you can find in all of cinema. I am serious about that and I would gladly argue that DEPRAVED is a better Frankenstein film than Guillermo del Toro's because there is no gee whiz look at that moments, simply moments that break your heart.

Fessenden is not really making a sequel here, instead he is telling the story of a young woman in a small town in upstate New York. Yes, there are monsters there, but at the same time they aren't the focus of the film, they are just there because he needs them their to get eyes on the story he wants to tell. And the story Feddenden wants to tell is a story of one part of humanity.

I was moved.

DO YOU LOVE ME hits Digital Tuesday11/3

Portrait of Lebanon the place and the people as seen in narrative and documentary footage

Unconvenrtional and not possessing a narrative story  the film is more interested in putting us in a mental and emotional space so that we understand this place called Lebanon. Seeming random images  and sounds slowly form  an cinematic sense of place. Its a place of war and humor and life and destruction and ultimately humanity. No matter what we see we are never not aware of the people on the screen of just off of it.

I got to this film late in regard to New Directors New Films. The write up made it sound like another film I saw within the last year so I thought I had seen it but had not reviewed it. When I was sent the film I took a look so that I could write it up for the festival. I was shocked because I realized I had not seen it.

More experiemental in approach than what most people are used to, DO YOU LOVE ME is not going to work for everyone. Some people need hand holding and so direction to enjoy a film. This is a film that throws a lot of things at us and asks us to assemble them. Some connections are obvious, some are not. The result is a film that you will want to see with friends before dinner so that you can get a bite to eat and discuss it.

There is much to discuss here.

One of the best films at this year's New Directors New Films, it's one of the few films I think will have a long life after the festival (beyond it having an American release). This will be a film people discuss for years.

SAVING 4 SECONDS (2026) Austin Film Festival

This is a look at the deaths that have resulted from people jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge over the years. Its a film that shows the cost of people going off the bridge and efforts to stop people from doing it.

This is a very good film about the tragedies that have been occuring since the bridged open. Its a film that very clearly shows that many of the tragedies sisn't have to happen since they tried to put of barriers right after it was finished but the old boy network mind set pevented it. This is also a film that will make you hurt with the pain of those left behind.

Twenty years ago the film THE BRIDGE told this same story. Its a film that bcame notorious because it showed someone jumping. While it was an emotional gut punch it left you wanting to do something to end the deaths. Now two decades later we see that changes are being made but you will still want to know why it took so long. 

This is is great film.

While I recommend this film, I also want to mention that owing to the subject matter is rather heavy.

Sister Brother Manhole Cover (2026) Tokyo FIlm Festival 2026

A brother and sister who steal any metal they can find (including statues and manhole covers) to sell for scrap end up on the run when a night of scavenging goes wrong and the young man is severely injured. Unable to pay for medical care or their debts things take a dark turn when someone dies. Eventually making their way to the home of a rich blind woman things seem to be shifting their way....

This is a darkly comedic drama where the people are not always likeable, and trouble is never far away. Even so it's a film that is hard to warm to because of its prickliness and because there is such a darkness to it all. While I began to warm to everyone, I still remained distant because the tone of this film is dark enough, I knew there couldn't be joy without a heavy cost. I just wish it wasn't so stacked against everyone.

 Well-made and well-acted the film should end up winning a lot of awards as it moves out into the world.

While not for my tastes it is the sort of film that festivals love so I expect this to have a long life.

Recommended for those who like walks on the bleak side.