Black Zombie (2026) Fantasia 2026

This is a documentary on zombies, both the real ones and the ones from the movies.

This is a heady film in all the right ways. Seeking to restore reality to the out of control purely fictional notion of what zombies are BLACK ZOMBIE gives us a compelling history lesson of what the real "undead" are, while at the same time recontextualizing the zombies of popular culture.

I'm going to be honest and say I walked into this film blnd. Until I saw that this was a film for the Documentary Channel I didn't know what the film was, I simply  saw the title and decided to cover it.

Expertly done this film, this film will make you rethink the zombie on screen as well as freak out about the ones that inspired the movie monsters. The entire notion of being reduced to mindlesscreatures is frightening.

I need to see this film a couple more times, partly because it is so damn good, but more because there is som much here I have to see what I miss as well as connect up all the varios pieces

One of the great film finds at Fantasia and of 2026

Odyssey (2026) Tribeca 2026

Having the exact wrong name to be released right before the same named Christopher Nolan blockbuster, this is the story of the early days of the NASA space program told from Jim Lovell's point of view told entirely via archival footage. It takes us up to and through the Apollo 13 disaster.

This is a perfectly okay film. There is a not a great deal we haven't seen before (hold that thought), but its still a nice overview of the early days of space flight. The film is blast of nostalgia for those who love the space program.

While the film is perfectly fine for what it is, the film lost me with the disaster of Apollo 1. The film uses footage of the disaster including the imploding capsule door, the screams of the astronauts as they are burning up alive and the footage of their charred bodies laid out. I'm not sure why they decided to make a turn into the graphic. I'm a space kid from the 60's and I've not seen run across images of the bodies before nor the use of the material from the accident without a context. There was no reason to do so, more so since a couple of the writers at the P&I screening didn't quite grasp what they were seeing.

IX XI (2026) Tribeca 2026

The events of September 11, 2001 via the stories of a people who spent time down and around the World Trade Center.

IX XI is one of the most frustrating 9/11 films I've seen.  While I absolutely love the stories told. I mean they are absolutely wonderful and completely unlike anything we've heard before becvause they give the events a different context, the filmmakers don't know what to do with them.

The problem is the presentation desn't work. The filmmakers didn't trust their story and had to present the stories in a way that distracts from the human story. It distracts in a couple of ways. First the film intercuts clips from movies and TV. Some of the clips are fine, but a large numer of them don't belong in the film.  The other thing the film does is that it has some of the inteviews take place in front of a background that resembles the sides of the towers. At the samt time the lower half of the frame is a reflecting pool  that resembles the one at the memorial. Why the filmmakers does this I can't remotely fathom because it is so distracting, especially since the background gets tinted different colors, that we stop listening to the story and look at the frameing. It is exactly precisely how not to make a film (especially since the images will probably not look so good on cellphones (which apparently is how many people watch everything things these days).

I ended up so annoyed I stopped watching the film the second time I watched it and just listened to it. It vastly improved the film.

(can some one explain why this film about  the tragedy of 9/11 opens with Edith Piaf's No Regrets? Its a huge WTF move)

Landscapes of Memory (2026) True False 2026

if memories don't change us-what is the point of remembering?

Filmmaker Leah Galant moves to Germany to study how the Holocaust is remembered and ends up pondering notions of memory both personal and shared.

This is a film you will need to see multiple times because if you are like me, the journey through the film is going to kick up things you need to re-experience.

The film begins as a family portrait as Galant is talking to her dad with ALS. She is talking about her family which survived the Holocaust and how they remembered. She then goes to Germany to see how the Germans remember the tragedy. Things then become complicated when Pro-Palestine protests erupt and the specter of the war and what done is raised in a new and seemingly unexpected context.

You will forgive me if I don't do a deep discussion on the film. I only received the film few days ago and I need a second or third viewing to do it justice. There is way too much information and way too many questions for me to hope to properly pull a piece together. Seriously this film raises enough issues that it could have companion volumes.

That is a rave ladies and gentlemen. Seriously, this is certainly one of the great finds of 2026. I'm working on where it belongs on the best of the year list as well.

The reason the film works is that it goes its own way. Galant is reporting on what is in front of her and isn't trying to shape things. It's a great move because I've seen way too many films recently that feel like the filmmakers are moving pieces around.

This film is going to make you sit in silence for a long time when it ends.

Chase this film down

Hard Hat Riot (2025)

 

HARD HAT RIOT is the story of the clash of the left and the right in 1970. Student protesters collided with construction workers in lower Manhattan as the two sides came to blows as to how to best support the country.

In someways mirroring the clash between the left and the MAGA movement, the film highlights how the right’s insistence of backing the government regardless collided with the left’s wanting a better way. Stoked by Nixon’s desire to remain in control he stoked the fires of division so that people didn’t talk in the common ground. We can see Trump’s throwing out buzz words to make people crazy.

On a historical note the film clearly shows us the divide that was in America. Having lived through the time, as a small boy, I could remember the feel of the time. I remember the divisions that existed and how in some circles hippies or being left wing was a bad thing. It’s a film that shows us the divide really hasn’t closed.

Recommended,

Ain't No Back on a Merry Go Round (2024) opens today

This is the story of the inter-racial protests that took place at the Glen Echo Amusement Park  in 1960. Lead by a group called NAG that sought to end segregation, they felt that the only way that it could be achieved was by whites and blacks working together.

This is a really good  look at a largely forgotten moment that helped push racial equality forward. While the film doesn’t do anything stylistically new the fact that it is highlighting a story most people don’t know lifts it up. The fact that we are introduced to a number of great people who made a difference makes it better.

I really like this film. This was one of my must sees at this years New York Jewish Film Festival back in January. Having seen it I can honestly say that you need to put this on your must see list for the year.

Natchez (2025) Tribeca 2025

This is a look at the city of Natchez in Mississippi which is reliant on the connection to the antebellum south, despite being one of the more progressive cities in the South (It was one of the first cities to have an openly gay mayor). As times have been changing the city's tourism as place with connections to the Confederacy has been dying off, as social change and the indifference of the younger generations to the past has left the city scrambling.

This is a really good film. I like how  it begins with a portrait of the city and its Garden Club in a way we expect. We think its going to show us a city in love of the fallen south, but that view quickly gives way to the battle to change the history being told. People are telling the story of life in the city beyond the rich white folks. We hear of the lives of the slaves.  And most interestingly we hear how the younger generations want nothing to do with the past. The city is not making money on tourism.

I was left pondering society, not just that of the American South but all of society.  There is a lot to unpack here, and I'm still working on doing that.

Recommended.

Drop Dead City (2025) opens Friday

DROP DEAD CITY is a wonderful film. It’s timing couldn’t have been better. This look at the point at which the city of New York almost defaulted and was told to drop dead by then President Ford is surprisingly relevant.

As a document of what happened and why, as well as a portrait of New York City in the bad old days, this film can’t be beat. It’s a film that shows us how a bunch of guys who really didn’t do what they should have been doing almost killed a city. Its an eye opening tale that most aren’t aware of. Actually as some one who lived through the crisis I didn’t know the details of most of this and I was focused on the film more than many films of recent vintage.

Honestly there is so much information here I need to see this another time or two just so I can connect up the various bits with the way the city is now.

And speaking of now, watching the explanation of what happened I was shocked by what is currently happening in Washington. The cavalier attitude of the trustees of New York in the 70’s matches the attitudes of many currently running rough shod over the government in Washington.  This film is a wake up call.

But I digress.

DROP DEAD CITY is a great film. While it can be a bit over whelming in the amount of information it gives us, its really nice to see a film that gives us a lot of material consider because it knows we can handle it.

Recommended

Lost in the Shuffle (2024)

After years master magician  Shawn Farquhar had been plying the trade he started to look into the history of playing cards and he discovered that hidden in plain sight was the story of a murder specifically of  the King of Hearts (King Charles).

Bright breezy and a great deal of fun, LOST IN THE SHUFFLE is a film that is going to make you wonder what else is hiding in plain site and you never recognized.  The whole thing is set in motion when Farquhar is told some facts about the design of playing cards that he never knew. The fact that he didn’t know about the history of playing cards and their designs despite spending his whole life manipulating them came as a shock to him and it sends him scurrying down the rabbit hole to know more. And based on the interviews in the film, many magicians didn’t know the history of cards either. (Honestly I think probably the only magicians I’ve ever run across who would know the history would be Teller and Ricky Jay)

While the journey through the history of cards is good, what sets the film apart from other films is the presentation. Farquhar is constantly performing tricks as we go and it makes us lean in farther than we would have had this been a “typical” doc.  Additionally his patter about the history and the tricks is first rate and I’m glad he’s a good guy because he could probably sell us tanker trucks of snake oil and make up happy about it.

While this may not be the heaviest documentary you’ll see this year, it just may be the the most entertaining.

Highly recommended

Witches (2024) Tribeca 2024

 

Elizabeth Sankey’s WITCHES is magnificent.

Framed as a personal journey the film is an exploration  of witches that begins as an look at them from a cinematic standpoint and then changes into a and exploration of motherhood  and then into history lesson. It’s an ever evolving film that will grab you and drag you along….and then make you want to go right back in and see it again because you have to see everything you didn’t quite catch.

This is one of those films that I finished and started emailing everyone I know to see it. I don’t mean film writers, but filmmakers and film fans. This film has so much in it that almost everyone I know is going to find something to love in it.

What makes the film work is that Sankey frames the film as a personal tale. She sits us down and then begins talking about the way she saw witches as a kid, nominally through cinema, and then she opens up the tale into more personal places talking about the birth of her son and how that made her feel…and from there she links it all sorts of things.  It’s a brilliant piece of movie making and it makes the film something truly special.

I absolutely love this film.

I’m  not going to do a deeper dive right now because I really need to see it a second and third time.

WITCHES is easily one of the best films at Tribeca and one of the best films of 2024

Quintessentially Irish (2024)

Director Frank Mannion​ interviews various famous and not so famous people about what they consider to be quintessentially Irish.

This is a good but completely disposable footnote film that is simply an endless parade of people talking about being Irish and things that are Irish. It’s kind of like a weakly organized You Tube Video of good stories. The stories are fine but there is no real through line and you increasingly wish there was a point. Honestly while I enjoyed the stories I got about of the third of the way in and started to do other things because my interest waned and there isn’t much to see beyond people talking to the camera.

While not bad I’m kind of at a loss as to how this got released  other than as a cash grab for the distributor who can promote it with a killer cast.

Worth a look if you’re feeling a yen for the Emerald Isle, but you really can skip it.

KISS THE FUTURE (2023) plays AMC theaters starting 2/23

I'm kind of sad that many of my fellow writers refused to see KISS THE FUTURE because they saw it as a U2 film. They didn't want to see a film about the rock group. The problem is that while U2 are part of the story, they are only a part of it, and so they missed a wonderful film.

To be fair I went into the film because it was the only one screening at the time that I hadn't seen.  The plan was that I would watch 15 or 20 minutes of this U2 movie and then jump to the next thing. Instead I ended up staying to the end and trying to find tissues in my bag.

The film is the story of Siege of Sarajevo. Its what happened when Yugoslavia broke up and the Bosnian leaders decided to use lies in order to wipe out the Muslim minorities that they had been living with peacefully for decades. As the war came the people of Sarajevo dug in and tried to survive. Like the present situation in Ukraine they turned to music and art to get by. Through circumstances U2 heard about how their music was helping them get by and promised to come play...and then they came up with the idea of making the war part of their Zoo TV tour.

Its a hell of a tale that you just need to see. There is a hope in the tale that will make you feel good. It's also a tale with incredible parallels to the war in Ukraine, which the film makes clear in the end. 

I was moved to tears several times. 

Forget that this a U2 film, forget that Matt Damon produced, just realize that this is great story wonderfully told that may help you get back you faith in humanity.

Highly recommended

DOWN IN DALLAS TOWN (2023) opens at at Cinema Village Friday

If you are curious about the JFK assassination but thought every angle had been covered then you need to see Alan Govenar’s DOWN IN DALLAS TOWN, a look at the way people remember the assassination and its influence in a variety of places.

This is a one of a kind cinematic trip that is one part documentary and one part essay. It’s a film that throws it’s net very wide and pulls together all sort of odd subjects  such as gun control, homelessness, conspiracy theories not to mention numerous other things via an interview with Mary Ann Moorman who took a Polaroid at the instant a bullet hit JFK, songs, news articles and various talking heads. It’s a film you have to belt in with and just go with.

How is it? It’s interesting, but I don’t know what to say beyond that. I’m a JFK nut so I had a great time ducking in and out of the dark corners it highlights, but at the same time I honestly don’t know if it adds up to much. It’s not that there is anything wrong with what is here, rather the film is reaching out toward too many different things and as hard as Govenar tries to tie it all together pieces just slip away.

Is it worth seeing?

If you are a JFK enthusiast yes. If you’re not, maybe. I say that because I’m open to anyone reaching for the stars even if they don’t quite make it. Hell the various JFK songs are worth the price of admission alone.

It begins November 17 at Cinema Village in NYC

Rainbow Warrior (2023) DOC NYC

 

This is the story of Greenpeace and their ship the Rainbow Warrior which was sunk in a harbor in New Zealand by French commandos.

The story is that the fledgling Greenpeace started to take on the superpowers and their testing of nuclear bombs. They would get close to test sites so that the tests couldn’t be run. When they sailed a boat close to a French test in the Pacific the French boarded the boat and beat up the Greenpeace members, destroying the cameras in the process. However one roll survived and it charted the French abuse. Looking like the villains they were they French retreated. When Greenpeace were going to do it again they sent a team of commandos to sink the boat. They sank it, killing a member of Greenpeace in the process. Unfortunately they did it so clumsily they were arrested.

A warts and all telling of the tale the film manages to interview seemingly everyone who is still alive, the result is a film that is both informative and incredibly entertaining. Watching the best French operative bumble their way through things will make you smile. It’s also a film that softened mt feelings toward the organization since this was the first time I saw its members as people and not annoying soundbites on TV.

This is one of my early favorites of DOC NYC and it’s recommended.

BLACK GIRL PLAY: THE STORY OF HAND GAMES (2023) 11/10 at DOC NYC and 11/12 on ESPN

ESPN film on the games that Black girls play, how they contain the music and culture of generations and how the games connect everyone they touch influence everything in their wake.

One of the absolute best films of 2023 of any length this staggering work of social history had me staring gob smacked at the screen as the entirety of history of the last several hundred years shifted. It was as if I had been picked up and physically moved to a new location and forced to see the course of history in a new way. Threads of music, art and grand historical events suddenly all connected up. Everything comes back to the simple “children’s” games which made connections between people (because everyone knew them), rhythms (the beats were lifted for so many songs), and how musicians play (many of the games have a improv element that carries over to Jazz).

And not only is it informative, but it is also just a joy to watch. The editing, the audio, the life on screen makes this film one of the most joyous celebrations of life that has graced the screen in several decades. It will put a huge smile on your face.

I cannot recommend this film enough.

Neither Confirm Nor Deny hits Amazon and Apple TV 9/22

This is the story of the CIA plot to lift a sunken Soviet submarine from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. 

This may not have been one of the great films at DOC NYCin 2020 but it was one of my favorites. This is one crazy story. The story begins when the US government stumbles over the wreckage of a sunken submarine.  The Soviets had no idea where it was or how to raise it. The CIA has no idea how  either but they have people who might and the money to try. From there the story spirals out to include Howard Hughes, Watergate and some other things you'll just have to see to believe.

While the film could have been just the story of something totally crazy it blooms in the second half into something more, a very timely examination of  censorship and the government. The discussion comes out of the fact that the head of CIA took steps to kill the story. Its warning of what can happen when the press kisses the ass of the government too much.

This is a great story, expertly told. Get some popcorn and curl up with this film.

Blue Box (2021) Open August 25 at The Film Forum

 Blue Box is a great film that transcends it’s stated subject to speak volumes about how we see the past. In an age where we are reevaluating our history Blue Box  forces us to realize that the stories we have been told may not be the whole unvarnished truth.

The film is the story of director Michal Weits looking at the story of her great grandfather, Joseph Weits. Weits was the legendary man who started building Israel decades before the creation of the state by the UN. What he did was to buy up lands in Palestine create forests and places for Jewish people to live.  The story goes is that he bought up lands no one wanted or lands where no one was living and started to turn them into productive communities. It’s a story that Weits family tells with great pride.

However Michael Weits digs deeper. Looking into official records as well as her great grandfather’s papers the reality she found that the truth was considerably different. Her grandfather most certainly bought up land with the intention of giving the Jews a foothold, however the deals he was making to buy the land more often than not ended up displacing families who had been living there as tenants of landlords scattered across the globe who sold the land out from under them. While it was all legal, many of the deals could be seen as morally questionable. If nothing else the lands were not uninhabited. The revelations alter the way how Michal and her family now see their history.

This is a beautifully made film. It’s a film that carries us long with its revelations and makes us thinks about our own history.

This forcing of us to reconsider our history is what lifts the film up to be something more. I say this since where we are in the United States we are struggling to deal with our past. Really looking at our founding fathers and those that followed  them has revealed them to be something much more complex, an not always as pretty as we would like to think. This is especially true in regard to the confederate heroes whose statues are being removed at a record pace. While many people have been taught that they were all good men fighting for a question of State’s rights, the examination of their personal papers and the records of the time are painting them in a damning light. In light of how we see the world today they were not nice guys but rather bad guys. It wasn’t state’s rights but racism that drove many of them to fight.  For many these revelations have shaken their  beliefs

I really loved this film. Not only does it tell one hell of a story, but it also shows us on a large level how we got here and how we have ordered the world to make it so.

Highly recommended

The Blue Box is playing at the Film Forum starting August 25

LAKOTA NATION VS THE UNITED STATES (2022)

LAKOTA NATION VS THE UNITED STATES is the story of the Lakota people from the coming of the Europeans on to the present day. It explains why many feel they are still at war with the United States because they broke every treaty they ever made and generally did everything they could to wipe them out.

Deliberately paced and thorough the film is hard look at the last five hundred plus years of interactions that will probably blow the mind of most people. I say this because most people don’t consider Native Americans much. They are either just another ethnicity or something the cowboys fight in the movies or dime novels. While people are aware of some of what happened, most people don’t realize to any real degree the level of bullshit the American government dumped on the Lakota and other nations. This film sets the record straight and it is why this film is vital and important.

If the film has any problem it’s the pacing.  Deliberately paced like a long walk in the country, the film feels longer than it’s two hours. While the film fills almost every minute with information it still feels long. I’s not fatal thing by any means, however I am very aware that some people might turn it off.

That said this is a film that we all need to see because it helps fill a hole in most people’s education

Recommended

Eurodonbas (2022) Hot Docs 2023

 

Eurodonbas is one of the best films playing at Hot Docs and one of the most important films you will see all year.  The film is the story of the Donbas region of Ukraine which has been invaded and occupied by the Russian army. It’s the story of a region that was developed by foreigners for  old Imperial Russia and then claimed by the Soviets as an example of their greatness.

I was floored by EURODONBAS. I say that as someone who did a side study of Russian History in college. Some how the fact that the whole region was essentially developed by the Belgians, The English, The Americans and others was left out of the histories that I read. As such the stories of the ever changing tales of the history of the region were left out.  I never heard of how the Soviets would show the factories and building say they were made by Soviets while all the writing was in the language of whatever country that has built it.

What makes the film so important is that in revealing the history of the region it links up the past to the present. We see why the region is so important to Russian and why everyone living in it views their history as they do.  The film puts the current events into a historical context so we understand things better.

But don’t let that scare you off because this film is a great deal of fun. There are a lot of good stories that are just really damn interesting to hear, regardless of how they connect to current world events.

Put this film on your must see list.

Highly recommended.

THE CEMETERY OF CINEMA (AU CIMETIÈRE DE LA PELLICULE) (2023) Hot Docs 2023

CEMETERY of CINEMA is the story of filmmaker traveling across his home country of Guinea, other places in Africa and finally France. He is looking for a print of MOURAMANI which is supposed to have been the first film shot in his country by filmmaker Thierno Souleymane Diallo 

I absolutely love most of this film. The film is not only a glorious celebration of cinema, but also kick ass history of Guinea. It may seem unexpected but in looking for the film and what may have happened to it we are required to look into the history of his country since the societal shifts may have been responsible for the films disappearance and perhaps indicating a possible hiding place for it. The result of all the searching is a series of conversations and encounters that open up our eyes with unexpected turns.

What an absolute joy.

As much as I love the actual searching and encounters I’m mixed on some of the flourishes that director Diallo inserts into the film. There is a lot sequences where  he walks from place to place that wear thin rather quickly. Other bits add coloring but don’t need to be there.

Over all though this is a must for anyone who loves cinema and those looking for its importance to the culture of a country. This film makes clear that our heritage shouldn’t be allowed disappear.

Recommended