Holy Ghetto (2026) play June 21 at Dances With Films

Life in the fringes of society in Tel Aviv, in particular the ghetto and red-light district of the city.

This is a film that is going to open your eyes to a part of Israel you probably haven’t considered, those of the poor and the fringe. Centered around the Door of Hope Shelter, run by a man named Dave wo is trying to do the right thing. In and around the shelter come Ohad, a man trying to make good on his misdeeds, Olga who was forced into prostitution, Yanna who is just trying to survive the storm of her life as well as others. It is a bumpy ride that doesn’t go as planned and doesn’t feel as though director Ilan  Azoulai stage managed anything. This is life as lived which makes things rocky… which is fine because the lives of the people on screen are not smooth.

I was moved. I was delighted because this is a film that isn’t your typical cinematic portrait polished and clean and perfectly told. If cinema should reflect life as lived then this film does that better than almost any film you’ll see.

Highly recommended.

AGNUS DEI (2026) Open Roads 2026

This is a small little gem of a film. While it isn’t for everyone, the meditative nature of the film may not click with some audiences, those it does click with will be moved.

The film is about two lambs chosen to provide wool for the vestment of the pope.

Less about the lamb and more about the devotion that happens around them this is a quietly moving look at a cloistered life of devotion. It’s a film that is about a life lived, even if that life isn’t the life that most of us know.

I don’t know what more to say. This is not to sell the film short, rather it’s an expression that this is a film that is perfectly contained in its subject matter and it does what it does and ends. It is like a short and sweet prayer that doesn’t seek to say more than it needs to

Recommended.

Paikar (2025) is playing at Hot Docs 2026

Dawood Hilmandi returns home to try and reconnect with is father who was a mujahideen fighter, later a spiritual leader, writer, and poet. There was distance and silence between the pair and Hilmandi wants to find some common ground.

This is a stunning film that really isn’t one we’ve seen before. You don’t normally see a complex relationship between a father and son in an Islamic family like this. It is a relationship that isn’t black or white, which is normally how films that we see in America are portrayed. I found myself leaning in, wanting to know more about this world that was out side of my experience.

What I love about the film is that Hilmandi frames everything with love and grandeur. There is beauty to every image, even of the simplest one has weight and power to it.

I am haunted by this film.  This was the first of three I watched in succession and after ach that followed I wanted to return to this film and the people on screen.

Recommended.

Brief thoughts on Next Life (2025) NDNF 2026

A documentary like exploration of how a Tibetan family deals the the death of its patriarch.

Deliberately told in long takes this is going to be a film you either love or hate. Sequences run on. Not a lot happens and even though it only runs 73 minutes the film feels long.  This is very much an art house film of the slow cinema variety.

The publicity write ups of the film speak about references to the Tibetan Book Of The Dead but I don't really see it. This is more a family dealing with the passing of a loved one. 

For fans of slow cinema only.

Rambling thoughts on THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (2025)

All hail Amanda Seyfried who gives a raw and revealing performance, both literally and figuratively, exposing herself in everyway imaginable. If she is not in the Oscar mix I would be upset since rarely have we seen a film or performance this bold. Even as I would love to say that it's an Oscar Bait one, there is something way too visceral for that. Besides I don't think it's her doing anything other than going with the script which is utterly and completely Oscar Bait.

I utterly  have no clue about the TESTEMENT OF ANN LEE as a whole. To be quite honest it has some of the greatest things I've seen this year (including Seyufrieds performance) but it is also has some of the worst things I've seen and is painfully reptative that I drifted off about a third of the way in and only occasionally connected from that point.

The film is the story of Ann Lee (Seyfried) the founder of the Shaker movement as we know it. The film follows entire life of Lee from birth to death. It tells the story using narration and songs and dance.

The idea of a religious musical about the Shakers sounds a bit odd but it kind of works. The music is all based on Shaker hymns and, along with the cinematography, are the one constant through the film. I would genuinely want an album of the music.

The problem is that the film is wildly all over the place on almost every level, and a lot of it just doesn't work or doesn't work past a certain point. Forgive me, there is so much here that needs to be discussed I'm going to do it off the top of my head (and probably leave points out).

Let me start with the sex. I have no issue with the sex but I want to know what in the hell director Mona Fastvold was thinking. Its not that I mind seeing the sex, but the flagulation before and during intercourse is shot in such away as to make the most artistic porn film jealous. I wouldn't have cared if we saw it once, but there are a couple of sequences and Seyfried looks to be enjoying it a bit too much, which is odd since the earlier part of the film makes it clear that she was not one for sins of the flesh.

Holding on to that the thought, the reason we know that, or are supposed to think that, if that is indeed the case, is because the film's constant narration tells us that. Actually the problem here is that the whole film is narrated. We are told pretty much every thing we need to know. We do not really hear anyone say anything other than something that makes a point of religous standing. Yes, I know that this is the point, after all the film is being narrated by one of Lee's followers, but it limits who the people on the screen are. They really aren't characters. Any dialog is formal and or stilted. All the action plays into the narration with no indication by what we see that perhaps what we hear isn't the case (which would have been more interesting)

And this is a huge problem. While the film looks spectacular, the film more often than not feels like a weird living tableux. The film feels like director Fastvold watched some of films from Peter Greenaway I keep going back to NIGHTWATCHING) and then tried to replicate or riff on the style, but did so without giving us characters. The result is a film that feels like a college theater piece reformatted for the screen.

Speaking of which while I love much of the dancing, and I am in awe of many of the dance sequences, the quickly deteriorate into a sameness that kind of bore. Dance in film or on stage is suposed to be an express of emotion character and story, but the moves and motions here are from a limited pallate.  I couldn't believe that a movement that sought to have people moved by god (the shaking) would have such limited reactions. I ended up looking for video of services and I discovered two things, first the Shakers move in all sorts of ways, and second much of the dance seems to have been lifted from A SHAKER WORSHIP by Salli Terri, which is a 22 minute dance piece.

I honestly don't know. There are sequences here that soar to the sky and they are connected and set among so many WTF sequences that I don't know what to think. This is one of the most Oscar Bait films I've seen this year. Recently learning that Brady Corbet, who made the wildly over rated pretentious Oscar bait film THE BRUTALIST, some how makes me understand what happened - except that when ANN LEE works it's light years ahead of THE BRUTALIST. (perhaps if Fastvold had worked with Greenaway instead of Corbet this would have worked better)

Should you see it? If you are a collector of one of a kind cinematic experiences, absolutely. Everyone else your mileage will vary.

NUNS VS VATICAN (2025) DOC NYC 2025

This is the story of what happened in the wake of a nun named Gloria who wrote an open letter to the Vatican and the world saying that Marko Rupnik, a world renowned artist and priest, had been abusing and blackmailing her for 28 years. With the floodgates open many other sisters came forward and began to tell their stories. 

This is a very deliberate and slowly building tale with a hidden punch. The film begins in a manner that seems almost matter of fact, until it begins to add in details and your blood begins to boil. 

As someone mentions in the film this is the story about the other 50% of people being abused by priests. While everyone was focusing on the altar boys most people were ignoring the nuns. People kind of forget there are more nuns than altar boys. Things were happening even if no one wanted to say anything.

I really liked this film a great deal. I was especially surprised about how this story goes. If you don't know the story, which I didn't, this isn't a typical tale with a typical ending. 

I fully expect this film to get a lot of attention and end up at a theater near you. When it does, make an effort and go.

Last Ambassador (2025) DOCNYC 2025

With the haunting LAST AMBASSADOR playing at DOC NYC Thursday, I am reposting my review from when it world premiered earlier in the year.

This is a portrait of the Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, who remains the country's only female ambassador since the Taliban's takeover.

This is a solid portrait of a woman doing what she feels is right under an incredibly difficult situation, she works for a regime that very much wants to shut out women from public life. She has used her position to help Afghan women and girls continue to be educated, despite the Taliban ban on their going to school.

This is an eye-opening film in a lot of ways. You would think that with all the problems the Taliban has created (she was appointed prior to their take over) that she would have walked away, but she is trying to do the right thing and make a difference. 

Watching the film is a bittersweet affair. While you will take Bakhtari into your heart, you will hurt from the problems she faces and the impossible situations she has to deal with. She truly is a hero.

Recommended.

Unfolding Faith (2025)

Elyse Bouvier’s UNFOLDING FAITH is a look at the changing place of religion in her life and the life of her family. When she was young her father was a minister who traveled across the country preaching. However, that didn't pay the bills, and her dad became a teacher. Eventually he stepped away from the church. This sent shock waves through the family, Elyse after all viewed Jesus as her best friend. However, several decades later she found herself making the same move. 

I loved this film a great deal. As someone who has been trying to figure out what I believe and feel this film really hit home. This is a film that presents a very real and very personal discussion about how we believe. By turning the camera on her family Bouvier gives us a discussion that is closer to home than almost every other similar film. The path to God is not high and mighty but closer to home, it's in a diner booth with her dad or at a table with her mom.

There is so much emotion and so many ideas that instead of sitting down and writing about the film I let it sit with me awhile. As much as I wanted to watch it again, I didn't because I had to figure out what I felt before I went back.

This is a great film. 

The film is currently streaming via the National Film Board of Canada website (for those of you in Canada and the US) and is highly recommended.

All God's Children (2024)

Director Ondi Timoner follows her sister, activist Rabbi Rachel Timoner, and her Congregation Beth Elohim’s partnership with Reverend Dr Robert Waterman of Antioch Baptist Church as they try and come together to work out their perceived differences and find a common ground to fight the rising tides of hatred.

This is not the film you think you are going to get. A lot of difficult things are discussed and there are a number of bumps in the road and we are better for it. That Timoner is not going for easy answers is a huge plus for this film. I can imagine this film in the hands of someone else ending up as  feel good film.  Yes there is a happy ending, but only because Rabbi Timoner and Reverend Dr Waterman are willing to do the hard work. That filmmaker Timoner doesn't look away makes it all that much more insightful and satisfying.

In an age where everyone simply wants their own way ALL GOD'S CHILDREN stands out as a beacon of hope. This is a wonderful little film about not just coming together but the hard work it takes to do just that that.

Recommended

OCA (2025) Toronto 2025

I have been wrestling with OCA since I first saw it.  I’ve watched it three times now and I’m still not certain what I think of it.  Normally I would say that it is a good thing because it means I’ve remained connected to the film but with OCA I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, largely because I’m not sure I know what the film is trying to say.

The film is the story of a nun named Oca. She is in a dying convent in the country. It is only herself and two other nuns. Oca is prone to having mystical visions. She is sent by her superior to speak to the archbishop about saving the convent. She is told if she is not successful, not to come back. Along the way she meets some pilgrims carrying a saint, a rich woman with an important husband and a pilot who wants to go on leave but can’t because of the arrival of the archbishop.

Set up as journey of faith, OCA is a film that is always reaching to say something more than the surface. The people Oca meet are not just people but representation of some spiritual aspect. This is fine for the deeper meaning but for the human narrative the film feels artificial. Since everyone isn’t just a person, they never are human, and we never connect. My repeated watching of the film was a search for a human being on the screen and not a cinematic treatise.

Intellectually I like the film, but emotionally I don’t need to see it again.

Nuns Vs The Vatican (2025) Toronto 2025

This is the story of what happened in the wake of a nun named Gloria who wrote an open letter to the Vatican and the world saying that Marko Rupnik, a world renowned artist and priest, had been abusing and blackmailing her for 28 years. With the floodgates open many other sisters came forward and began to tell their stories. 

This is a very deliberate and slowly building tale with a hidden punch. The film begins in a manner that seems almost matter of fact, until it begins to add in details and your blood begins to boil. 

As someone mentions in the film this is the story about the other 50% of people being abused by priests. While everyone was focusing on the altar boys most people were ignoring the nuns. People kind of forget there are more nuns than altar boys. Things were happening even if no one wanted to say anything.

I really liked this film a great deal. I was especially surprised about how this story goes. If you don't know the story, which I didn't, this isn't a typical tale with a typical ending. 

I fully expect this film to get a lot of attention and end up at a theater near you. When it does, make an effort and go.

The Gospel Of Revolution (2024) is now streaming

I am trying to find the words to talk about GOSPEL OF REVOLUTION. I am saying this because while I have been watching meaty films over the last few months, a large number of them have been considerably less heady affairs. Lots of horror and action films, and not too complicated dramas. As a result, when a film like THE GOSPEL OF REVOLUTION comes along and requires my full attention I find it hard to step up my game once more.

This film is a look at Liberation Theology in Central and South America. The film was made by Francois-Xavier Drouet who is a lapsed believer who had become more interested in politics then theology. However, he found a point of interest in Liberation Theology which makes the teachings of the Christ political. The movement is such that that the people in power are afraid of it. The marriage of politics and religion is, as we see in the US currently, a powerful mix. Though unlike the mix in the US the mix outside of the us tends to be socialist which means American leaders hate it. They hate it so much that they instigated death squads to crush the church and the religious leader speaking out for basic humanity.

Director Drouet gives us a lot to take in. He shows us what happened in several countries and talked to people involved with the various movements who are still with us. It is a film that doesn’t talk down to us and assumes you are going to keep up. Honestly, I am glad I didn’t see it in a theater because I could pause it to process what I was seeing.

This is a great film.

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH (2025) NYAFF 2025

 Anthony Wong gives a quietly pained performance as a priest who preaches about how suffering brings one closer to god. Three years after the suicide of his daughter in the aftermath of her being raped, Wong's and his wife's lives are thrown into free fall when the man who raped their daughter enters their lives and begins making strides toward redemption.

This is a very heavy film where what isn't said is just as important as what is said. Wong gives us a brave face but we can see behind the eyes that there may be gulf between what he preaches and what he actually feels and believes.  There are no easy answers here, and even as the screen fades to black you are going to not be certain of what you feel. I mean that in a good way since this film kicks up a great deal of ideas and emotions that you can not just walk away from.

In an age of hate, this examination of forgiving 7 times 70 times is serious food for thought.

This is one of the better NYAFF 2025 films and as such is recommended.

I Was Born This Way (2025) Tribeca 2025

Portrait of Archbishop Carl Bean who recorded the song I was Born This Way in 1977 for Motown. The disco hit became the first gay anthem. Bean later moved from music into activism and the church. The film also charts the importance of the song, Lady Gaga's reimagining of it for today and Billy Porter's efforts to try and find the tapes of the recording where there is supposed to be a "lost" B-side.

I was moved to tears frequently. This film is just a wonderful portrait of one man, scarred by his early life who pushed through to change the world for the better. Its a film that reveals how one man who most people don't know did wondrous things.

It's a hell of a story and one that surprises at every turn.

I can't recommend this film enough.

This is one of the best films at Tribeca 2025.

Eye For An Eye (2025) Tribeca 2025

Tahereh is a mother of three in Iran who repeatedly asked for divorce in order to get out of an abusive marriage. When it wasn't granted she killed her husband and was sent to prison for 14 years. When she was released she is left to her in-laws to decide her fate, execution or the payment of blood money.

The choice of blood money or death comes from a tale of the Prophet who told a greiving man that he had the right to kill the accused because of eye for an eye, however that they should take the blood money lest they be the same as the killer. It has become something much more complicated in modern day.

This is not going to be what you expect. The story is not as simple as stated above. Additionally the film shows the whole process of negotiating and then attempting to pay the blood money.  There is a great deal here and you have to belt in and take the ride.

If you've been watching films from Iran over the last few years you will notice that there have been a couple of films that have covered the subject. While those films were narrative, this is the first documentary that I've run across on the subject.  It puts things into a different light and makes clear what the stakes are on both sides. (And interesting exchange reveals that many people who go for execution later regret the choice). It's a solid telling of the tale that leaves you troubled by the process.

Worth a look.

Girls and Gods (2025) CPH:DOX 2025

Portrait of Inna Shevchenko as she takes on the main stream view of religion and the misogyny it contains and ponders if there is a better way to move toward spirituality. 

This is a film that is going to sting a lot of people. Feminist Shevchenko is very straight forward and never backs down. Her view toward religion is a decidely anti-status quo one that will get on the nerves of many of the devoted followers of the various religions. She sees most beleif systems very anti- female. She also thinks that there is perhaps a better way, that isn't one of the choices with a hairy male comic thunderer at the center.

I don't think she's wrong, her point was argued by Nina Paley in her film SEDER-MASOCHISM a film that looked at being Jewish and that religion's notion of god via a conversation with her father. It was a film that very gently and very convincingly made similar points that got  people I know who saw that film thinking about how they view god.

As for this film points are made but I don't know how much will stick since this is not so much a discussion but a emotion fueled rallying cry by Shevchenko. It's a film that has one view point which it hammers away at over and over again. There is no real discussion or argument, more it's a statement of facts or it's an exploraion of a mindset, so there is nothing to engage because of it. This feels like a lecture or a polemic rather than anything else. The problem is that with anything like this is that you have a limited time before you lose the audience beyond the converted (and even then they can grow tired too).

I'm not saying that she 's wrong, only that after 105 minutes I felt the worng sort of worn down. 

Should you see the film? That depends upon your own point of view. While I agree with Shevchenko I don't feel the need to be lectured again.

THE LAST AMBASSADOR (2025) CPH:DOX 2025

This is a portarit of the Afghan ambassador in Vienna, Manizha Bakhtari, who remains the country's only female ambassador since the Taliban's takeover.

This is a solid portrait of a woman doing what she feels is right under an incredibly difficult situation, she works for a regeime that very much wants to shut out women from public life. She has used her position to help Afghan women and girls continue to be educated, despite the Taliban ban on their going to school.

This is an eye opening film in a lot of ways. You would think that with all the problems the Taliban has created (she was appointed prior to their take over) that she would have walked away, but she is trying to do the right thing and make a difference. 

Watching the film is a bitter sweet affair. While you will take Bakhtari into your heart, you will hurt from the problems she faces and the impossible situations she has to deal with. She truly is a hero.

Recommended.

Devil's Stay (2025)

After a "succesful" exorcism results in the death of a young girl, weird thngs begin to happen at the funeral and it soon transpires that the demon that inhabited her never left.

I need to say at the out set that my having recently seen the similar Korean exorcism film DARK NUNS affected how I feel about this film. While the plots are not really similar there are enough simularities, owing to the subgenre of horror, that I found myself comparing them. That's not really fair but it happened.

The reason it happened is that this film has very deliberate structure. The film starts with a truly frightening sequence where the sounds of an exorcism fills a families house. Its one of the most chilling sequences of the last few years and it sets the stage for what is to come. After the explosive first sequence the film switches modes to a slow burn tale that slowly builds to the conclusion. While the slow build is fine unto itself it suffers from having come after a gangbusters sequence. My interest waivered.

This isn't to suggest that the film is bad or doesn't work, more that you need patience until the film clicks again. Once it does its creepy again.

My own reservations aside I had a good time and I look forward to hunkering down with the film again on some dark and rainy night.

Recommended.

MOLA : A TIBETAN TALE OF LOVE AND LOSS (2025) SXSW 2025

MOLA is a small little gem of a film that you are going to have to search out. It's not a film for anyone wanting a big and loud film. This is a film that is all about the quest to end one's life at home even if that is a long way away and under repressive rule. 

This is the story of Kunsang Wangmo who was a Buddhist nun. She married a monk, had two children, fled to India after the Chinese invasion and eventually moved to Switzerland. As she reached her 100th birthday she wished to return to Tibet to die. The film charts her remarkable life and her effort to go back to Tibet. 

This is a quiet and medatative move. It feel like a Buddhist prayer. the film is a celebration of a life and of a passing. This is the best sort of film, good times with good people, and even if that time is going to be short, we are still happy to have the time with the people on the screen.

This is a hard film to really write up. While it is paced like a prayer or meditation, it is also full of emotion. My take away from the film is not easily put into words. This is a a film I felt. It is something that connected me to life. I was moved. As I said above it's a gem of a film.

... though perhaps owing to its subject a prayer bead might be more appropriate.

Recommended

Nate Hood on CONCLAVE (2024)

What is it about the Vatican City and the inner workings of the Catholic Church that so inspires secular art? There have been no shortages of films set in the holy city, from the dignified (e.g. The Two Popes [2019]) to the ludicrous (e.g. Angels & Demons [2009]). It’s been the subject of television shows, miniseries, and even video games such as the recently released Indiana Jones and the Great Circle which sees players punch and pummel their way through the Vatican’s nooks and crannies as Harrison Ford. Is it the pageantry? The weight, knowledge, and secrets of nearly two thousand years of history? Perhaps there’s an irresistible hunger for intrigue among religious outsiders, a belief that an institution as ancient and powerful as the Vatican must have its secrets and intrigues. Edward Berger’s Conclave, a stirring thriller based on Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, is the latest addition to this line of entertainments. And while the film isn’t necessarily religious—indeed, the film has come under fire from several official Catholic publications—it is nonetheless sincere in its treatment of religion and its depiction of those who shoulder the faith for nearly 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.

The film keeps the political machinations and inner workings of the Vatican mercifully simple for non-Catholics. A pope dies. A conclave of cardinals must assemble to elect a new one. The man tasked with running the show is one Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), a man of solemn devotion to duty and very human doubts about his faith. As voting begins favorites emerge among the pack of candidates. There’s a blowhard traditionalist from Italy who resents all the social progress the Church has made since the reforms of Vatican II. There’s an American liberal who wants to expand the role of women in the Church. There’s a Nigerian conservative vying to become the first African pope. And there’s a Canadian moderate who’s not above a little wheeling and dealing with his fellow cardinals. As vote after vote leads to deadlock, Lawrence finds himself untangling conspiracies that might make or break the most popular candidates.

What makes Conclave unique is how seriously and earnestly it considers the theological implications of its intrigues. Time and again the point is made that the cardinals are fallible human beings, each with their own flaws and shortcomings. There can be no perfectly moral candidate, so how much sin is too much to disqualify someone from becoming pope? Can decades of penance and devoted ministry wash away scandals that are decades old? Is Machiavellian politicking among voters justifiable if it means the “right” candidate gets elected? Are the burdens of the Holy See too great for any one man at all? These are the questions that bubble beneath the surface of the film, keeping it from becoming nakedly sensationalist despite several shocking twists and turns. The result is a tense thriller with a heart, a brain, and a soul.