German filmmaker Hermann Vaske spent 30 years working on various projects, but always returned to the fundamental question asked in the title of this documentary. As he meets one celebrity after the other while traveling all over Europe and the U.S., these undeniably creative people are sometimes startled to be asked that question and try … Continue reading Why Are We Creative: The Centipede’s Dilemma
FIRST THE WHITE HOUSE. THEN THE WORLD. One of two documentary portraits of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon made about the same time (the other one being Errol Morris’s American Dharma), this one following him as he embarks on his next projects – getting Republicans elected during the 2018 U.S. midterms and trying to build … Continue reading The Brink
EVERYONE TOLD HIM IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE. Former correspondent Folke Rydén invites us to witness a different kind of Iraq as we’re introduced to Murtada al-Hachami and his family, who escaped from Saddam Hussein and returned to Iraq after the fall of the dictator. Trying to create a new life in their old country, Murtada becomes … Continue reading Balloons Over Babylon
The last film Agnès Varda made was fittingly another autobiographic look back at her career (in the vein of The Beaches of Agnès (2008)) and what drove her as an artist, identifying three themes that she’s always relied on – inspiration, creation and sharing. At the core of this film is a compelling lecture that … Continue reading Varda by Agnès
THE TRUE STORY OF THE LAST FILM FROM ORSON WELLES. The same year when Morgan Neville made the critically celebrated Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, he also took on Orson Welles and the fabulous story of how the director spent years trying to finish his last movie, The Other Side of the … Continue reading They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
WORDS CAN BE STRONGER THAN WEAPONS. An ambitious film many years in the making that takes us to Angola after the start of the civil war in 1975, when the Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski risked his life behind the front lines. A novel way to present a documentary; interviews with people who were in Angola … Continue reading Another Day of Life
An incisive documentary that chooses its perspective well and then uses it as a starting point for the greater story of Ingmar Bergman’s life. The year 1957 became his most decisive, a time when he was juggling several film and theater productions. The experience made Bergman find his voice as a filmmaker, emboldening him to … Continue reading Bergman: A Year in a Life
YOU’RE INVITED. Simple but funny and charming – a conversation featuring four outstanding actresses who have all been knighted for their services to drama and also share a decades-long friendship. Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright gather for our benefit at the country cottage the latter shared with her late husband Laurence … Continue reading Nothing Like a Dame
HERO. ICON. DISSENTER. A very likable and substantive documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, justice on the Supreme Court since 1993, who has increasingly become the target of right-wingers. Even if she’s in her 80s, we learn that she’s in excellent health, as diligent as ever, even having a little fun with her status as a feminist … Continue reading RBG
A documentary and a road movie that unites two different artistic talents – French New Wave icon Agnès Varda and the photographer JR who’s turned flyposting black-and-white photos into his trademark. There are many things that separate them, including age (JR is half a century younger than Varda) and style; they’re not always the best … Continue reading Faces Places
AN UNFORGETTABLE TOUR OF THE CULINARY WORLD. Making a documentary about Alain Ducasse, the French chef who has earned 21 Michelin stars, sounds like a perfect opportunity to delve into the life of an immensely successful person. Gilles de Maistre begins by explaining to his audience why this is a man who deserves to be … Continue reading The Quest of Alain Ducasse
NO FEAR. NO LIMITS. NO EQUAL. Asif Kapadia’s breakthrough as a documentary filmmaker is a critically lauded portrait of Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian racing driver who became one of the sport’s greatest, eventually dying in an accident while racing in 1994. After breaking through in the 1980s, he became famous for being fast (always in … Continue reading Senna
There are plenty of documentaries detailing the civil rights struggle for gay people, but this one finds a new angle by depicting something that only remains a dream in most countries – the world’s first city-sponsored community for gay seniors, The Rainbow, which opened in Stockholm in 2013. The director (with her wife serving as … Continue reading Living. Loving
