“Dividers need us to stay in our own little bubbles talking about each other rather than to each other. We need to try something else.” We live in a politically polarized world. For many, this has led to a deep cynicism about the political process. When two sides won’t even talk to each other, how…
The teen years can be a challenge. It is a time when people struggle with their identity and their place in the world. Even for the most ?normal? of teens, these years can be a struggle. Add to that having to deal with a disability. In Matthew Ogens?s documentary short Audible, we meet a young…
Now that AFI Docs has wrapped up, it?s time to see the winners and to make note of my favorites. Here are the award winners from the festival: AUDIENCE AWARD: FEATURE STORM LAKE DIRS: Jerry Risius and Beth Levision. For 30 years, in Storm Lake, Iowa, Art Cullen and his family have been publishing a…
Often when important events happen, those involved pay homage to the past by talking of standing on the shoulders of giants. (This actually goes back to before its attribution to Sir Isaac Newton, so there are obviously lots of giants.) Today?s films look back at a couple of those giants upon whose shoulders others have…
Today?s films range from the mundane to the worlds of power and money. Documentaries are ways to mark points in time, to see life in new ways, and to broaden our knowledge. That happens in these films. The HBO Documentary Series Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union premiered the first two episodes at…
Welcome to the real world. Documentaries take us into the world to show us lives and issues that we might otherwise not know about. AFI Docs is a festival filled with documentaries to challenge us to see the world around us from a new perspective. In the current American political environment, it seems like no…
One of my favorite film industry events is the annual AFI Fest in the fall. It always has a collection of the best films of the year. The American Film Institute has another important festival each year, AFI Docs, that centers on documentary films. AFI Docs usually takes place in Maryland (close to Washington, DC,…
