Film: Greta Thunberg, Algorithmic Racism, and Offbeat Veterans Day Picks

If you’re looking for a brief respite from the tumult of election season, check out our interview wit

Nov 13, 2020 • View in browser

If you’re looking for a brief respite from the tumult of election season, check out our interview with Hrishikesh Hirway, host of the podcast turned docuseries Song Exploder. We’ve also got reviews of films about Greta Thunberg, racism in tech, the aesthetics of dirt, and much more. Enjoy!– Dan Schindel, Associate Editor for Documentary

Diving Deep Into Songwriting

From "Song Exploder"

Hrishikesh Hirway recently turned his successful podcast Song Exploder into a series for Netflix. Rohini Kejriwal talks to Hirway about his process, and how he gets musicians to open up to him.

Latest Reviews

Kiyan Williams Digs Into the Meaning of Soil In her film on view at the Shed, the artist explores dirt’s unsettling aesthetic effects, as well as its conceptual resonances. Louis Bury

SPONSORED Check Out Indigenous Cinema With the National Museum of the American Indian For Native American Heritage Month, the Native Cinema Showcase includes over 60 free online screenings representing 49 Native Nations in 12 different countries.

A Documentary Portrait of Environmentalist Greta Thunberg I Am Greta captures some sobering truths about the nature of contemporary activism. Dan Schindel

An Unheralded Film About Girlhood Gets a Second Chance Smooth Talk, the 1985 Laura Dern breakout, has gotten a restoration and re-release after being ignored in its day. Dan Schindel

How Artificial Intelligence Becomes Racist The documentary Coded Bias reveals how prejudices are written into the algorithms that run our world. Dan Schindel

Dash Snow and the Price of Being a “Rebel” Artist The new documentary Moments Like This Never Last explores how Snow’s bad boy performance became a trap for him. William Powhida

What to Stream

From "The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On"

For Veterans Day this past Wednesday, the streaming column focused on some unusual films about veterans and the postwar experience.This week also marked the beginning of DOC NYC, one of the country’s most comprehensive documentary film festivals. Check out our roundup.Your must-watch video essay this week comes courtesy of Kyle Kallgren. In it, he synthesizes the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1980s documentary The Atomic Cafe, and the video game series Fallout for a thoughtful meditation on apocalyptic fiction.

THE ATOMIC CAFE: Coronavirus, Ducking, Covering, and the American Cultural FALLOUT - Brows Held High

Until we can see you in the theater again, stay safe!

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