Leave it to Netflix to drop a Jeffrey Epstein docuseries in the midst of a global pandemic that’s left many Americans trapped indoors with lots of free time to binge. On May 27, the four-part series Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich will premiere on the streaming behemoth. Based on the book […]
Documentary film
12 posts
Last January, I sat in a packed audience at the Sundance Film Festival screening of On the Record, a documentary by directors Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick on rape allegations going back four decades against hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons. To date, upwards of a dozen women have accused him of […]
Norma McCorvey never knew who to trust. She was declared a ward of the state at 10. Then her father walked out, leaving her in the hands of an alcoholic mother and first cousin once removed, who she said raped her numerous times. By 16, she was married to Woody […]
In its final 20 minutes, the documentary film AKA Jane Roe delivers quite the blow to conservatives who have weaponized the story of Jane Roe herself—real name, Norma McCorvey—to argue that people with uteruses should have to carry any and all pregnancies to term. McCorvey, who died in 2017, became […]
Dinara Kasko, a Ukrainian baker and an architect by training, used a 3D printer to create cake molds with motifs inspired by plasterwork in the Palace of Versailles. She stacked three layers of berry biscuit crumb of various shades of red, which contrasted the white mousse on the outside. Sheer […]
On Oct. 28, 2015, Amel Alzakout embarked on a boat from the western coast of Turkey, destined for the Greek island of Lesvos. A Syrian refugee, Alzakout was hoping to join her partner in Germany, where he, a filmmaker, had been invited for the Berlin International Film Festival and had […]
In the early hours Friday, those braving tourist-free Times Square were treated to an arresting sight: a white billboard projecting the words ‘Trump Death Clock’ in big black letters; underneath, a counter in red reading ‘44,809.’ These are the deaths that, according to two of the world’s leading epidemiologists, could […]
Bernie Blackout, a new VICE TV documentary directed by Pat McGee examining the mainstream media’s alleged bias against the Sanders campaign, is rooted in independent and alternative journalism instead of the corporate cable news outlets like MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. While McGee’s film straightforwardly breaks down the cynical function […]
In the feature documentary Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, now streaming on Netflix, celebrities ranging from the Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz to comedian Ben Stiller recount their experiences tripping on drugs, ranging from the wild (rapper A$AP Rocky claims “a rainbow shot out of my dick” while having […]
Thank G-d my mother is already dead. I catch myself saying that a lot these days. Nine years ago, her cancer diagnosis and inevitable death were the most harrowing experiences I could have ever imagined. And for as long as I could, I didn’t. Until days before she died, I […]
Remember Quibi? The mobile-optimized streaming service for attention-deficit entertainment? Well, it seems like it has finally found a niche. Sports documentaries have recently become a focal point in television programming, particularly now that docuseries are widely available via streaming. ESPN has so far been at the forefront, with its 30 […]
With a title like Trial by Media, you’d naturally expect Netflix’s true crime series—executive produced by CNN and The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin, alongside George Clooney and Grant Heslov—to focus on the multifaceted ways print and TV reporting affected, for better or worse, high-profile legal cases. Like a student term […]