Captured (2026) Mountain Film

Heather Keepers, former head trainer at Triple-D Wildlife, and Melissa Groo, one of leading wildlife photographers come together to try and see what can be done to protect the animals in the wild and in the various animal zoos and sanctuaries from being abused in the name of getting great wildlife photos.

Revealing the dark secret that some animal images are staged (And yes, they dismantle the Disney nature films) the film looks to make sure that we all know that some of the cute animal images we see are not always kosher. The film shows us some of the tricks that photographers and regular people use to get a great shot. It’s a film that shows the problems caused by staging the shot.

I really liked this film. It clearly shows why striving to get the next picture for Instagram my get you likes but may be bad for the subject of your photo. For example, calling an animal closer to you may make them subject to predators you don’t see.

Growing up, my brother was doing photography professionally and he was very much into telling the nudnicks not to do stupid things when taking pictures. You would think people wouldn’t need to be warned but they do.

This is an excellent documentary. See it when you get the chance.

Space Cowboy (2024) opens today

This is a look at cinematographer Joe Jennings who makes his living by throwing things, like living room sets and cars, out of planes and shooting footage as it falls to earth.

To really appreciate this film its best to see this on a big screen so that Jennings images can overwhelm you.  The thought of seeing all of the sky diving footage on a truly big screen is truly compelling…

…largely because it will overpower the rather run of the mill story telling of the whole affair. Don’t get me wrong this is a good story with lots of great images, but the director doesn’t really do anything with it. He thinks that the images will carry the film, and they largely do, but after a while there is only so many images of flying cars and things that shouldn’t be falling from the sky before the novelty wears off and you are forced to ponder if there is anything here. It’s too much of the same thing.

While not bad, a little goes along way.

Worth a look on a big theater screen. Less so on TV

Misan Harriman: Shoot The People (2025) DOC NYC

This is a look at the life and work of photographer Misan Harriman who hopes to change the world with his pictures.

Not going to lie and say that I knew Misan Harriman before I saw this film, but I absolutely know the man and his work now. Yes, I remember seeing some of the images presented, but I never head a name to go with images.

Breaking the mold of most recent documentaries on artists which tend to be love fests and not particularly complex, SHOOT THE PEOPLE is something more. A discussion with the man and the world he documents the film wants us to do more than allow the pretty pictures to wash over us. Harriman’s words are here to make sure that the ideas and emotion he is trying to express fully engage us.  This is not a film that you watch and move on from, it is a film that takes you by the throat and forces you to engage with it long after it’s done. Yes we recall the images, but in doing so we are confronted with the words that surrounded them on screen.

This film is a glorious masterpiece that must be seen- preferably on a big screen where the images can be seen as large as they deserve to be seen.

Highly recommended.

Brief thoughts on STEVE SCHAPIRO: BEING EVERYWHERE: (2025)

Photographer Steve Schapiro talks about how he took all sorts of his legendary photographs. 

This is film full of great stories about the photos that Shapiro has taken of the years, but it has almost no information about the man himself.  As much as I like hearing the stories about Bowie, Striesand and the others, I wanted to know more information on the man himself.

There are some great stories here, and if you want to hear some great stories (which you should) here from the man himself, which is not why I am repeating them)  you should see this film. They are so good that they make up for the brievity of detail outside of the pictures.

Brief thoughts on Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (2025)

The life of photojournalist Brent Renaud, who was killed by Russian soldies in Ukraine, is celebrated  by friends and family.

This is a celebration of the life and career of Renaud that is a good introduction to the man, but which will leave you wanting something more.One part biography and one part wake, this is a film that informs us but doesn't feel satisfying.  We don't really get enough of his story because we keep cutting back to his death and funeral. We only get a vague sense of Renaud as if we first met him, we don't fully get to know the man.

I liked this, but I didn't love it.

Memories of Love Returned (2024) Slamdance 2025

Photographer Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine's car broke down in Mbirizi, Uganda. While waiting for the repairs he stumbled upon the photo studio of photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo who had been taking pictures for 50 years. KIbaate's work was stunning and the effort to preserve and share it became Mwine's life work after that.

I love this film. It is so magnificently unexpected that it knocked me off my feet.

The first third of the film is about the discovery and Mwine's setting up an exhibition of the photos and the reception. If the film ended there it would have been a glorious celebration of one man and his work. The thing is that there is still an hour to go and from that point things get thorny as complications arise. It seems that Kibaate had six wives and 47 children with 12 different women and not everyone was consulted and there was a lot of bad blood. How it plays out is enlightening and makes the whole film so much deeper than had it been just a victory lap.

This is just a hell of a story about our lives, families, our pasts and our futures.

What a great discovery that will make you wonder why this isn't in the Oscar mix.

Highly recommended,

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (2024) plays DOC NYC 2024 tonight and opens Friday in theaters

This is a portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who left his homeland and apartheid and moved to America where he chronicled the similarities between America and South Africa.

Largely made up of photographs left behind and undiscovered until after his passing this film is an eye opened. Seeing the images larger than life is a true awe inspiring experience. You may think you've seen life in the bad old days before but Cole's images will open your eyes to so many new things.

Coupled with Cole's words this film is not just a portrait of a time but of a man a drift in it. Through Cole's words we get to know what it felt like to live through the events that he was chronicling. 

It's a staggering achievement that you really should see, especially with on a big screen where the images can over power you.

Highly recommended.

Beyond the Gaze: Jule Campbell's Swimsuit Issue (2024) DOC NYC 2024

The life and times of the Sport’s Illustrated Swimsuit issue  as told by the woman behind it, the photographers who shot them and the women who filled the pages. It’s the story of how one person changed the lives of many people for the better and how ultimately the cheesecake photos resulted in things that were so much more than just eye candy.

This is a good look at Campbell and the people who crossed her path. It’s a film that is going to tell you everything you wanted to know about the Campbell and then some. Perhaps a little bit too much. While the film is never bad I began to run out of steam  probably about 30 minutes before the end. I think it was more that I had heard everything I felt I needed to at that point.  That’s not a knock, but more a statement that I had to step away.

Quibble aside, the film is quite good and worth a look.

Space Cowboy (2024) Toronto 2024

This is a look at cinematographer Joe Jennings who makes his living by throwing things, like living room sets and cars, out of planes and shooting footage as it falls to earth.

To really appreciate this film its best to see this on a big screen so that Jennings images can overwhelm you.  The thought of seeing all of the sky diving footage on a truly big screen is truly compelling…

…largely because it will overpower the rather run of the mill story telling of the whole affair. Don’t get me wrong this is a good story with lots of great images, but the director doesn’t really do anything with it. He thinks that the images will carry the film, and they largely do, but after a while there is only so many images of flying cars and things that shouldn’t be falling from the sky before the novelty wears off and you are forced to ponder if there is anything here. It’s too much of the same thing.

While not bad, a little goes along way.

Worth a look on a big theater screen. Less so on TV

Jumpman (2024) Tribeca 2024

Portrait of  photographer Co Rentmeester who took the photo took the photo that became the Nike logo after the company stole it.

This is an excellent bio of a photographer who changed the  way we look at the world. His work is some of the most recognizable in history.  The film is also a shocking portrait of how a sneaker country screwed and artist and made it easier for other corporations to do so.

I loved this film. I think it's a great film. At the same time it's clear that both Rentmeester and the lawsuit against Nike needs to be expanded. This could have and should have been a feature film. There is so much more to say on both subjects. 

My desire to see this as a feature aside, this film is a must see when it plays again at Tribeca or wherever you can see it. 

CHASING TIME (2024) Hot Docs 2024

You need to see this on a screen as big as possible. I don’t say that lightly, I say that because the images here will knock your socks off.

This film is a portrait of  Extreme Ice Survey project, photographer James Balog and a kind of follow up to the 2012 film CHASING ICE about the diminishing glaciers across the globe. -Balog and his crew have been creating a visual record of the loss of ice and doing so in spectacular style. 

Most importantly the film is  visceral warning about the dangers of global warning. Only idiots can argue with the evidence that Balog presents before us.

This film is stunning and a must see.

Uncropped (2023) Opens Friday

 

UNCROPPED was one of my favorite films of DOC NYC and probably 2023 as well.

A low key portrait of photographer James Hamilton the film is full of great pictures (which look incredible on a big screen) and great stories that will make you laugh and smile and wonder why you never thought to do that.

The film is a more or less straight telling of Hamilton’s life as he sits around with and without friends and tells stories.  We hear of his faking getting a press pass at a rock festival, fumbling his way into getting jobs at various magazines, his time at the Village Voice and so on. Along the way he tells stories about meeting various celebrities (he just called up Alfred Hitchcock and ended up going to tea) shooting celebrities (he loves to get candids that reveal more than the cleverly posed picture) and tales of life itself. In fact there are so many stories here that you are going to watch this film two or three more times just to try and remember them all.

I loved this film.

This is my favorite sort of biographic documentary, the one where it feels like you’re hanging out with your really cool friend and he’s just telling you really cool story after really cool story.

You need to see this- preferably on a big screen if possible,

Uncropped (2023) DOC NYC

 

UNCROPPED is one of my favorite films of DOC NYC and probably 2023 as well.

A low key portrait of photographer James Hamilton the film is full of great pictures (which look incredible on a big screen) and great stories that will make you laugh and smile and wonder why you never thought to do that.

The film is a more or less straight telling of Hamilton’s life as he sits around with and without friends and tells stories.  We hear of his faking getting a press pass at a rock festival, fumbling his way into getting jobs at various magazines, his time at the Village Voice and so on. Along the way he tells stories about meeting various celebrities (he just called up Alfred Hitchcock and ended up going to tea) shooting celebrities (he loves to get candids that reveal more than the cleverly posed picture) and tales of life itself. In fact there are so many stories here that you are going to watch this film two or three more times just to try and remember them all.

I loved this film.

This is my favorite sort of biographic documentary, the one where it feels like you’re hanging out with your really cool friend and he’s just telling you really cool story after really cool story.

You need to see this- preferably on a big screen if possible,

Vishniac (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

This is an excellent look at ROman Vishniac and his family who went on to achieve things int their own right. Filled with interviews, films and recreations the film fills in the blanks on a man who most people know only through his photographs. Its a film that wonderfully reveals a living breathing man to be behind some amazing images.

What I knew of Vishniac going into the film was that he took hundred of photographs on the eve of the Second World War and preserved a record of a way of life largely wiped out by the Nazis. I didn't know that at time he was making  scientific films which millions of students for decades. I also didn't know  about his children's role in all of this.

Giving full breath to the man behind the images VISHNIAC  does what all good biographies should do which is not only give us a fuller appreciation of the subjects achievements but also reveal them as a person. The highest praise I can give the film is that Vishniac comes across not as some mythic figure but someone just like us. He's someone we'd want to hang out with because he isn't that far from us.

I was delighted. I was moved.

This is a super film.

Recommended.

THE TREASURE OF HIS YOUTH: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF PAOLO DI PAOLO (2022) opens today at the Film Forum

Bruce Weber’s portrait of photographer Paolo Di Paolo is a late in the year treat. A frighteningly beautiful film that demands to be seen as big as possible (it plays NYC’s Film Forum starting Friday).

Di Paolo was friends with all sorts of people in his youth and he took picture of all sorts of famous people, producing amazing black and white photos. Eventually giving up shooting he put the pictures and negatives away until his daughter discovered them years later. Realizing what was in the pictures she asked what they were all about but her dad wouldn’t talk about it eventually he opened up about them. Years later director Bruce Weber discovered the images in a shop in Italy and tracked down the photographer.

This film kicks ass. Beginning with a long sequence of Di Paolo’s images the film then shifts into the story of Weber finding the pictures which leads into DiPaolo talking about them  It’s a magic carpet ride through the life and times of an amazing individual. I was totally enraptured

And I was constantly talking to the screen as each image made we react verbally with delight.

I love this film to death.

An absolute must see

One of my favorite films of 2022

PHOTOGRAPHIC JUSTICE: THE CORKY LEE STORY (2022) DOC NYC 2022

 

Wonderful portrait of the late great photographer Corky Lee. Lee was a native New Yorker who made a career of photographing the Asian experience in America and New York. Lee's aim was to "take the pictures that should be in out history books".  

He was everywhere in New York covering events no one else did and in ways that no one else could.  Because he was everywhere and people knew him Lee managed to get shots that changed lives. As recounted in the film his photos changed the accounts if the police who couldn't lie about what there was photographic evidence for.,

This is magnificent film. Its a wonderful look at a man and his work and beautiful explanation of why Lee matters.

Highly recommended.

DOC NYC Capsules: FILM THE LIVING RECORD OF OUR MEMORY,THE PHOTOGRAPH, and THE MAN WHO PAINTED WATER DROPS

FILM THE LIVING RECORD OF OUR MEMORY
An excellent celebration of film restoration and preservation  that highlights and celebrates the magic of the movies.

This is a must see for anyone who loves cinema because it will make you treasure it's fleeting nature even more'. 

Recommended.

THE PHOTOGRAPH
Using a phot of his grandfather as a jumping off point director Sherman de Jesus paints a portait of photographer Van Der Zee who shot portraits of Black life durng the early part of the 20th century and uses it to explore the generations of blacks living in New York.

This is a magical and alive film that must be seen

THE MAN WHO PAINTED WATER DROPS
Oan Kim creates a portrait of his father artist Kim Tschang-Yeul that is both a celebration of his life and art and facinating look at how he creates and what inspired him. 

Its a film that is at times too intimate and at other visually glorious. Its a one of a kind documentary that is recommended for anyone who is interested in the creative process.

MCCURRY: THE PURSUIT OF COLORS (2021) DOC NYC

Portrait of photographer Steve McCurry who is best known for the picture of an Afghan girl that graced the cover of National Geographic several decades ago. Over the course of the film we follow McCurry as he takes pictures and explains his love of people and the planet.

This is easily one of the most beautiful films of 2021. Its due largely to McCurry's photographs and a cinematographer who duplicates the eye of the subject. The images are what makes this film a must see on a big screen.

The problem is that the rest of the film doesn't match the images. McCurry is a curious man with his own way of seeing things. While he loves the world he seems disconnected and so we feel that way too. It also doesn't help that many sequences feel staged for the camera.  Its clear what we are seeing is set up for the film and as a result the whole affair feels less real

While none of this is bad, it's never great, or perhaps its better to say that nothing other than the images truly soar.

Worth a look.

EXPOSING MUYBRIDGE (2021) DOC NYC 2021

 

This is a great portrait of Edward Muybridge whose motion studies in the late 19th century and early 20th century were the precursor to the movies. While the motion pictures are what he is best known for there is way more to him than you can imagine and this film seeks to reveal the full extent of the man and his work.

This is a wonderful film that reveals a great deal abut a man who is at least familiar to us on some level. The film also explains a great deal about the history of photography and how Muybridge influenced more than just movies with his work.  I was utterly delighted since I went into the film figuring that this was going to be a standard issue biography and discovered it to be something more.

That the film works as well as it does is entirely to the talking heads that director Marc Shaffer has lined up. There is such passion in their words and it carries over to the audience. In all seriousness we get excited because they are excited. Unexpectedly one of the experts is Oscar winner Gary Oldman who talks with an authority on Muybridge and early photography that is completely entrancing.

This is one of the hidden treasures of DOC NYC and recommended

Famous People at The New York Film Festival 2021 Part 1- The Tragedy Of Macbeth

 Every year I've been to the New York Film Festival I get to see some famous people. Being a sharing person I take pictures and share them.

In this first installment some pictures from the press conference for THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

Joel Coen Frances McDormand, Denzel Washington

There is nothing like a Denzel Washington smile  even in a slightly blurry photo

Dennis Lim, Joel Coen, Frances McDormand, Denzel Washington and Bertie Carvel 

McDormand, Washington, Carvel and Moses Ingram

Moses Ingram