What distinguishes the film from ordinary journalism, and what constitutes its intervention in reality, is a difference in timescale.
It’s to the Oscars’ shame that they couldn’t nominate a pair of movies each containing multitudes that would give Baskin-Robbins a cold sweat.
He hopes The Look of Silence can push Indonesia toward something like a Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
If The Look of Silence still remains a gripping, vital, consequential documentary, it’s in spite of its approach rather than because of it.
Many of the excellent documentaries screened at BAFICI articulate a surprisingly coherent argument about nonfiction filmmaking and its relationship to the real.
Director Joshua Oppenheimer emphatically suggests that all of humankind’s troubles begin and end with the body.
A new element in Look of Silence is the view it offers of those who knew murdered victims or who managed to escape death.
Oscar’s documentary lineup typically constitutes the black sheep-iest of the award show’s 24 races, but this year’s crop of nominees is less odd, less disreputable, than usual.
The film puts value back on people who’ve historically been undervalued, both by the Khmer Rouge and, by lack of mention, cinema history at large.
In Joshua Oppenheimer’s extraordinary The Act of Killing, film becomes the medium for a bold historical reckoning—and in more ways than one.
In Joshua Oppenheimer’s extraordinary documentary, film becomes the medium for a bold historical reckoning—and in more ways than one.
Before Midnight, the latest film by hometown hero Richard Linklater, was one of the festival’s most anticipated features, and it didn’t disappoint.
The film feels unexpectedly low-rent, even with its multimillion-dollar backdrops and earsplitting, rumbling soundtrack.
Shadowy cinematography isn’t enough to conceal Peter Hyams’s crashing directorial clumsiness.
Sahara may be B-grade drivel but the DVD may end up being the best-looking one of the year.
Any fondness the filmmakers have for Africa’s natural beauty is sabotaged by their infatuation with colorful “foreignness.”