Film & Documentary

October 1, 2021 • View in browser

A New Documentary Explores the Life of Unheralded Civil Rights Activist Pauli Murray

Filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen talk to Hyperallergic about Murray’s archives and holding themselves accountable as white women biographing a Black figure. | Bedatri D. Choudhury

The Gothic Tale of a Girl With Ice Cubes for Teeth

Lucile Hadžihalilović’s English-language debut Earwig is another odd but assured film about the relationships between children and their guardians. | Jourdain Searles

A Washed-up Porn Star Wreaks Trumpian Mayhem in His Hometown

Sean Baker’s film about a washed-up porn star seducing a teenage girl is sexually frank in a way few US films are now. | Grace Han

Don’t Miss These Experimental Works at the New York Film Festival

With films touching on protest in France, China’s one-child policy, and Indigenous life in Canada, the 2021 Currents program stays both culturally and politically forward-thinking. | Ela Bittencourt

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Bob Ross the Dreamer Got a Rude Awakening

The new documentary Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed pulls back the curtain to expose the realities of Bob Ross, Inc. but does it go far enough? | Hrag Vartanian

The Story of the “First Lady of Religious Broadcasting”

The Eyes of Tammy Faye features a riveting performance from Jessica Chastain, but proves less interesting than the documentary it’s based on. | Beandrea July

With The Gaze, Barry Jenkins Asks Us to Reflect on Black Trauma Narratives

Jenkins’s new short film, the centerpiece of a MoMI exhibit on The Underground Railroad, uses his signature techniques to confront the viewer. | Justin Kamp

In 1940s Japan, a Trophy Wife Becomes a Spy

In Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a woman becomes embroiled in exposing Japanese war crimes in Manchuria. | Ren Scateni

LOCKDOWN TELEVISION

In our latest Sunday Edition, John Yau, Seph Rodney, Erin Thompson, Alicia Eler, Dorian Batycka, and Angelica Frey focused their lens on the shows they were watching during the pandemic; taking on classic series, "trash" Italian television, and expand on themes of queerness, identity, and decolonization in more recent programming.

Get started with this issue's introduction below.

Screens: 🎨 Art Critics on Pandemic TV 📺

In this issue, we asked six art critics to focus their critical lens on the television programs they were watching during the pandemic. | Hrag Vartanian

UPCOMING RELEASE

Revisit Hrag Vartanian's review of Jessica Kingdon's latest film, Ascension, which opens in theaters next Friday, October 8.

The Industry and Leisure of the World’s Largest Middle Class

Jessica Kingdon's new film Ascension documents the factories, etiquette centers, and other contemporary curiosities of China. | Hrag Vartanian