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

3670 (2025) NYAFF 2026

A defector from North Korea, who despite having a a large group of friends, is living a largely closeted ife as a gay man. Feeling isolated he begins to step out into the city's gay community.

I was originally not going to cover this film at NYAFF.  I was going to keep my coverage small and this was not making the cut. Then I decided to double check word on some of the films that interested me, but I wasn't going to see with the thought I could add them. When I looked at this film, I ran across a review from Seonyong Cho, who I have been talking with online since I started Unseen Films.  Seonyong loved the film so I had to see it. (Read his review because it will make you want to see the film-it can be found here)

This is a great film. 

Yes, I know this film is about being gay in Korea but the truth of the matter is it speaks to the entirety of the human condition. Watching the film I never thought of this as a gay film or a gay story, I simply thought of it as a human story.  At its most basic level this is a film about trying to find a family or a community. As my friends would say, this is a film about trying to your people. This is a film about finding a place where the loneliness goes away and we feel less alone. It's something that everyone can relate to. 

I love this film. It moved me deeply.

See this film.

Brief thoughts on Ancestral Beasts (2026) Fantasia 2026

 

A young woman tries to relax by getting away to a relatives isolated cabin but finds that things aren't peaceful there and that her anxiety is taking a physical form.

I'm not going to say much about ANCESTRAL BEASTS because to be honest the film didn't work for me. The issue is not a good or bad thing, but simply that I don't think the film gets the tone right. As serious as the film is at times, there is a thread, or perhaps a rope of humor through the film that kept it from working for me. I also was not a fan of the films effort to make points about stress an anxiety. I never connected enough to know if I liked it or not.

At the same time there is some great stuff here and some sequences rock, so if the film interests you give it a shot

Cyclone (2026) NYAFF 2026

A trans woman attempts to navigate her life in China and in Hong Kong. Along the way she begins a romance with a straight man that doesn’t go smoothly

This film’s heart felt look at being trans in China is a heart breaker. This is a film that shows the pain of trying to be who you were meant to be. It is a film where the petty slights and pains stack up and punch you in your face. It’s a beautiful film with some stunning sequences that will move you.

At the same time the film becomes uneven in the second half. The problem is that the film tries to do too much and do so in a manner that isn’t always straightforward. I was absolutely delighted in what is was trying to do, I ended up disappointed that it didn’t stick the landing.

Reservations aside this film will move you by kicking you square in the chest and as such its recommended.

Brief thoughts on10's Across the Borders (2025) NYAFF 2026

This is a look at Ballroom and Voguing across Asia

This film is full of motherfucking life. 

It is raw. Its is jagged. It is imperfect. It has dancing. It has real people you want to hang out with in it. It is one of the most alive films I've ever seen. Life run through and bleeds out it. 

It made me smile and feel good.

I have nothing more to say, other than buy a ticket and take the trip.

Woody Guthrie and the Ghost of Tom Joad Today (2026)

Greg Mitchell’s newest film is currently playing on PBS On-Line (the film can be found here)

The film is the dual story of Woodie Guthrie and John Steinbeck who in their early days of their careers encountered the displaced farmers and families sent looking for hope and a home after the Depression hit and the Dust Bowl destroyed the farms of many farmers. The film charts how being on the ground, Guthrie traveling and performing and Steinbeck writing and reporting on the situation made them allies in trying to help their fellow Americans. The film explores how a need to say something and desire to make changes resulted in not only changes that helped rebuild America but also resulted in great art.  Greg being Greg he doesn’t just leave it there. The film not only tells the story of the two legends but also takes things to today and connects everything up to the Bruce Springstein song that gives the film part of its title.

I like this film a great deal. Watching it on the day before July 4th, I was moved by how I was reminded that the was once time when America was functioning and wasn’t completely broken. This isn’t to say that there weren’t problems, rather its to be reminded that there was still hope in Americans, that there not only was a better place, but also that if we worked together and actually tried to fix a problem things could turn out okay (or reasonably so). The film also makes clear that things haven’t changed  and that we still need to work to make things better.

As with all of Greg’s films the past is never gone and it is always present. Greg’s sense of this is not then but now is why his films are so powerful. History is not dead but living in our living rooms. If you need proof all you need do is watch the final sequences where things are brought up to date and Springsteen’s words married to Greg’s choice of images, make it clear for many it might as well be 1936.

This film is awesome. It will move you, if not emotionally, then to think about the place we are right now.

HARVEST (2026) Tribeca 2026

This is a portrait of a family farm that is being run by the four Nelson brothers who are working together because they are family.

This is a nice portrait of a family farm over the course of year. Its a look at what it takes to run a farm and how being a family helps to keep everyone focused.

I liked this film a great deal. Is it the greatest farming doc I've seen? No, but it is nice to see a film about American Farmers that isn't all gloom and doom.

Worth a look.

Siege of Paradise (2026) Tribeca 2026

Portrait of Cinque Terre in Italy, a quint looking village of several thousand people that is flooded every year by several million tourists.

This film has haunted me since I saw it. What begins as a simple and seeming by the numbers look at how the influx of tourists into a historic town may not be a good thing, becomes something much more complex as the film takes the time to reveal the complexity of not only the situation but also the people on screen.  Things go from breezy  to someing much heavier. There is a great deal to think about and it weighs heavily on us because of how things have been presented.

When it was done I paused to sit and think. That may not sound like unless you know that the Tribeca press screenings were back to back affairs and we had to run from the theater to theater to catch the next film.

Highly recommended, this film will make you reconsider your favorite tourist destination.

SPIN WARS (2026) Tribeca 2026

A look at the fitness craze of stationary bike classes and the warfare between the various companies that are trying to cash in.

This is a good look at the various spin cults and the drive to make money and be the numberone brand. Its a look at the people who have made it their life to make cash riding nowhere.

I don't know how much more to say beyond that because I really don't care. Don't get me wrong I like to ride, but I don't care about anything that involves being hip and happening and spending lots of cash to look showy so that people who I don't know will think I'm cool. I strive not to be that vapid.

On the other hand the film is strangely compelling- enough that I watched it twice.

A very short pointer toward Mouth Full of Golds (2026) Tribeca 2026

This is the history of the rise of the grillz, teeth adorned with gold and jewels.

I am exactly precisely the wrong audience for this film. I do not have any jewelry of any sort. I was never one for the display of chains and such. In part because I never had the money to buy any, but more because since I had no money I was afraid of losing it. As a result I never developed a sense of need for gold.

That said, this is a breezy fast paced history of the jewel encrusted teeth  that tells us everything we wanted to know and more. If you are curious do see this film. 

Time Warp (2026) Tribeca 2026

A drag theater company in Rocky Springs Wyoming stages a shadowcast performance of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

For those who don't know a shadow cast performance is when a group of actors perform live infront of the screen.

A film filled with "gee whiz, let's put on a show!" engery, TIME WARP is a sweet, if incredibly messy, look at the company coming together to put on the performance in a place that seems like it should be going on.  It is a film that exists purely on the heart of the people on screen and the filmmakers behind the camera. Its a film that is going to find its audience because there are going to be a lot of peoplewho relate to the people on screen and realize that they can do the same thing, and thus find their people.

Honestly this film is so earnest and honest, and good, that I really can't critique it because it just doesn't seem fair to point out every little problem.

That said, there are two things that I can't let go. The first is the fact that at 115 minutes the film is probably 20 minutes too long . Some sequences run a little too long. I felt the wrong sort of tired at the end. The other problem is some things are left hanging. Most are minor but just about the very end we get a mention that there was a mass shooting in a nearby town just after the performance. It makes sense as to why the shooting should be mentioned, but in all honesty it  should have resulted in some sort of on camera reaction and not just some lines of text.

Quibbles aside this is, as I said above, is a sweet little film. It may not be the best film you see all year but it will be one that makes you smile.

Death Boom (2026) Tribeca 2026

Now that the Baby Boomers have shifted into the last years of their life there is now a boom in the death rate, as more and people are passing away. How are we going to handle it.

First a warning: This film is graphic. It does not look away during embalming nor during cremation, nor during anything else. If that is going to bother you do not attend the film. 

This is a very good film that looks into all the issues surrounding dying, including new additions to the death industry (composting), Pollution (embalmed bodies can and do pollute ground water when the chemicals leach into the ground and cremation pollutes the air),  the way the business is run and the way people think about death. It's a film that is full of everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

I really liked this a great deal and I can't wait to share it with several people I know who are interested in the subject.

At the same time the film isn't perfect. It has a definite point of view and it fumbles a few facts. For example to spin the death rate during during covid into a warning of what we will be facing very shortly. The problem is that covid was an abnormal factor that increased the death rate in a short period of time The disease was killing people all at once, and it was not the normal ebb and flow, just a sudden spike.

Quibbles aside, this is a super film and a must see for anyone interested in what happens after we die.

The Lorraine (2026) Tribeca 2026

THE LORRAINE is one of the great films of Tribeca. The film is the history of the African Experience in America through the lens of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Of course, we all know the Lorraine as the place where Dr Martin Luther King was shot and killed, however the truth is it’s so much more. In a time of segregation, it was one of the few places that people of color could stay. It is also a gateway into Memphis which was an important stop for people traveling north and south through the country.

I was about ten minutes into the film when I just stopped taking notes. There was too much here, too many facts too many stories, too much life to try and make notes. I had to simply let the film wash over me. Notes would come on the second of third trip through. This was something I just needed to experience.

What kicked this film up in my opinion was that the filmmakers give everything a context. We are not given facts, but also the explanation of why they are important. The really amazing thing is that the film  gives us the context so flawlessly that we are just surfing the stories. Everthing builds on everything else. This is a magnificent achievement in documentary filmmaking.

I can’t recommend this film enough.

See it

COLORS OF WHITE ROCK (2026) Tribeca 2026

This is a portrait of a woman who drives trucks from Mongolian coal mine into China as a means of making money to feed her family. The film is also a look at the changing landscape both physical and financial in Mongolia as industrialization and capitalism come into play.

On my list of must see films at Tribeca because no other films of the 60 I had seen to that point could match it visually, COLORS OF WHITE ROCK is a thoughtful and medatative look at a life most of us can't imagine. This is a world like our but also far away. I was entranced.

While the film has much to say about life in general what you are going to remember is the images. Huge shots of vast expanses, of strip mines, industrial machines, traffic jams, sun sets and people's faces shot so beautifully that you wil want to run off and see them imperson. This film is so gorgeous to look at you will curse the fact that despite documentaries being eligible for the Best Cinematography Oscar, they are never actually nominated (or rarely).

This is a film to see on a big screen with no distractions.

If you love the art of cinema- go see this film.

Brief thoughts on Hollywood Does Abortion (2026) Tribeca 2026

This is a clip filled look at how Hollywood handles abortion. FIlled with clips from TV and the movies that are coupled with writer, actors and heathcare people, the film seeks to chart the changes in cinema and society as a reult.

I am going to be brief concerning this film because this is exactly what the title says it is. Its a look at abortion as seen via Hollywood. It's a one stop shop for everything you wanted to know about the subject. It's very well done, though I wish some of the clips had been shorter because they went on past what we needed to see.

I liked the film but I don't have a great deal to say about it.

MEXICANAMERICAN (2026) Tribeca 2026

Filmmaker Eddie Sanchez tries to connect his life now to the one he had while growing up by using interviews with his parents and the VHS tapes that they shot where they recorded their migration to the US.  Sanchez seeks to work out how the family with connection to Mexico changed and resulted in children who are less connected to their parents, the country of the origin and the old ways, and instead speaking English and more American.

I think this film is absolutely brilliant.Sanchez has made a magnificent film that really hits home. Filled with moments that reveal how people see each other (Sanchez points this out). It’s a film that makes us see how the act of moving to a new country changes us on all sorts of levels. What makes the film so telling is that Sanchez knows what moments to use to illustrate his points. Rarely has any film so perfectly nailed each and every point.

And while I will happily die on the hill that MEXICANAMERICAN is one of the best films at Tribeca and possibly the year,  I will also say that the film didn’t fully emotionally connect to me. It is not that there is anything bad with the film, but rather that the film just ticked the grey cells but didn’t play the heart strings. It’s nothing bad, just a mention that this is more a film for my head then heart.

A must see at Tribeca, especially if you want to understand how changing countries can change who we are,

The Second Life of Freddie Nole (2026) Tribeca 2026

Portrait of Freddie Nole who served  49 years in prison because I man died of an aneurism during a robbery when he was 17. Because his co-defendants were underage the judge threw the book at him. He was only released because it was argued that giving a 17 year old life without parole for this kind of crime was wrong. When he got out of prison he started a program to help men who are getting out of prison find their way. Where 66% of people who come out of prison end up back in, almost everyone in Nole‘s program stays out.

Glorious portrait of a man, his wife and their program to help ex-cons. This is a lovely portrait of how one man who cares truly can change lives and society. This is one of the great finds of this year’s Tribeca and a must see.

Haunting of Pennhurst (2026) Tribeca 2026

Pennhurst was once a hospital where "feeble" minded people were parked away from polite society. Anyone with any disability was shipped off to the hospital. It gained a reputation for being horror show place where the patients were abused and neglected. It was eeventually shut down.  Now, many years later the place is being being used as the location of a haunted house put on by many of the people who decades earlier would have been the inmates.

This was one of my my see films of the festival. Growing up doing hauunted houses in my basement and being a monster kid all my life this seemed like it was going to be up my alley. I was un happy because in the weeks before Tribeca it looked like I would not be able to see the film, but fate stepped in and I was able to view it.

To be honest THE HAUNTING OF PENNHURST disappointed me. It's not that what here is bad, so much as the film is trying to do too much in too little time. In its way its three different films and juggling the three threads makes it so none of them feel fully formed.

The first film would be the history of Penhurst itself. The film gives us a cooks tour of the hospital and its history. We get a brief over view of the hospital and its horrors, but there is a sense that we could have known a bit more. 

The second film is the story of the haunted house. We watch as the the crew puts the monsteer show together and trains.  This is good but by the numbers. It reminded me of a number of other haunted attraction films but slightly shorter (there are other things going on). It does show us about how the event comes together (and also the ghost hunting tours) but at the same time there is a distance between the filmakers and what we are seeing.

Lastly there is the story of the cast and crew. The film follows the crew as they are trained for the event and put things together. We do get a sense of who some of them are, but at the same time the filmmakers keep us kind of tied to their being at Pennhurst so we don't really see them in connection to life outside. I wanted to see more. I think I wanted to see more because the filmmakers never seemed to get people when they weren't on. Everyuone is aware of the cameras and they play to them.

While none of the sections are bad, I still wanted more from all of them. I wanted to know more about everything in a larger context and not just  see the it in the context of Pennhurst. And thats the problem, we are largely just at the old hospital and there is no outside world.

I don't dislike the film, I do like what it's trying to do, but I wanted more from all the bits and more in the way of context.

(And I'm not sure why this is in the Escape From Tribeca section since it's not really a fringe subject)

Tik Tok Never Dies (2026) Tribeca 2026

 

This is a good look at the life and times of Tik Tok and the efforts by the US government to keep the people safe, and this being America under the Trump administration, get the money maker in the hands of someone other than the Chinese government. It’s a film that is everything you wanted to know about the platform and more.

To be honest I have no real contact with tik tok other than when I see reposted videos. I am amazed that people are making large fortunes doing short videos. I have been intrigued by the legal wrangling concerning the platform which is why this film was of interest. It’s a kind of one stop shop that gives you everything you wanted to know about the platform. It gave me information and it entertained me.

Did it make me want to go on the platform? No. I really can’t be bothered. I’m to busy doing things that interest me instead making things that faceless strangers will like.

On the other hand I had a good enough time with this fil that I will happily watch it again as soon as I get a chance to do so away from the Tribeca crush.

Kids Like Me (2026) Tribeca 2026

Oliver is an incredibly bright young man who loves murder mysteries. Oliver also has some physical disabilities that can restrict what he he can do. However not being able to make a murder mystery film with friends and relatives is not one of them.

This is a sweet little film.  Its a nice portrait of a young man who is not letting his physical limitations stopping him from getting through life. Oliver is, for a  the most part a sweet kid.

How much you like the film is going to  how you react to Oliver. I say that because while Oliver is mostly a sweet kid, he is also a handful. He's a kid who has some weird ticks that constantly causes clashes with his sister Willa. There are things that Oliver insist on (he wants nothing pink or even the use of the word, and he insists on being the one talking, unless his parents tell him to Willa talk),  which cause friction. 

Don't get me wrong, I like Oliver but at the same time I think Willa is getting sainthood for dealing with her brother. I am worried about Willa's mental health since the fact that the whole world orbiting her brother clearly bothers the young girl, even if she loves him. (I don't care if he is sweet the treatment of Willa probably is abusive.) 

As much as Oliver is a handful, he is also charming and watching his efforts to make a film is a delight. If you can be forgiving Oliver's quirks, give this film a try.