At times it’s best to encounter a movie as a blank slate, even for film critics like me who have never been put off by any ounce of spoilers. If anything, there’s a different kind of pleasure that arises from experiencing something for the first time, and it’s often ambrosial …
The Peruvian director Augusto Zegarra presents his debut feature, Runa Simi, at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. The film narrates the story of Fernando Valencia, an indigenous man from Cusco, Peru. He has been passionate about voice work since he was a young child, inspired by Walt Disney animations that …
In his debut feature, Backside, Mexican director Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana tells the untold stories behind one of the most crucial sports events in the United States, the Kentucky Derby. Every May, more than a hundred thousand people attend the traditional horse racing event at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Besides …
Romane Bohringer is a French actor who, for her second film as director, has chosen to make an extremely personal story about her search for more information about her mother, Maggy, who left the family before she was a year old and died when Ms. Bohringer was in her early …
In her sophomore effort, Suzannah Herbert premieres her film Natchez at the Tribeca Film Festival. The documentary title borrows its name from the city in Mississippi. In the 1800s, it was the city with the most millionaires in the world; cotton plantations and the slave trade were the main commercial …
Ukrainian directors Alina Gorlova, Yelizaveta Smith, and Simon Mozgovyi present their take on the war with Militantropos. The word, which appears after the title cards, comes from the Latin word Milit (soldier) and the Greek Antropos (human). The film uses the combination of those words to formulate its thesis on …
Independent Dutch director Suzanne Raes’ documentary, Where Dragons Live, revolves around Harriet and her siblings, who, following their mother’s death, begin preparing their stately childhood home, Cumnor Place in Oxfordshire, for sale. Sorting through the house that has become cluttered with forgotten and once-important belongings, stir memories of their childhood. …
In Ernest Cole: Lost and Found by the legendary Raoul Peck, we learn more about Cole and the South African apartheid. In 1948, with the election of Daniel François Malan as the first minister of South Africa, apartheid became a policy of the government. The black population of the country …
In recent years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a central part of the geopolitical discussions due to his scandals as the leader of his country. In 2016, Netanyahu was investigated for corruption and bribery. Over two years, Justice interrogated everyone near him. The result was thousands of hours …
On October 11th, 1975, television changed forever. NBC premiered a revolutionary concept. It combined a bunch of young and innovative comedians who would perform sketches written during the week. The show, commanded by the young Canadian writer Lorne Michaels, was Saturday Night Live. Fifty years later, SNL became a place …
The advance of societal organization in urban centers granted us a massive challenge: coexisting with nature on a grander scale. Cities have had to coexist with wild animals since their inception; however, the newer styles of glass, construction, and wildfires offer a dangerous obstacle to different species, especially birds. Director …
Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson returns to the directing chair with SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius). He became a legend in the music industry with the iconic hip-hop group The Roots. Alongside Black Thought and company, the group achieved critical success with their albums and popularized jazz rap within …
In early 2021, the then-President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, announced that American troops would withdraw from Afghanistan. As part of their strategy in the war on terror after the 9/11 attacks in NYC, the U.S. troops would arrive in 2001 and stay until 2021. In the …
There are moments in human history that become monumental marks of passage. They shift the years to come and how humanity reacts to the world around it. However, the stubborn characteristics of the individuals ignore warnings that may protect them from a grander danger. In Blame, Christian Frei covers a …
In 1954, the General of the Paraguayan army, Alfredo Stroessner, performed a military coup in which he would become the country’s President. At that time, Paraguay would be an internationally unknown territory between two massive South American potencies: Argentina and Brazil. In Under the Flags, the Sun, the Paraguayan director …
Since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, film production has shifted to narrating the intricacies of geopolitical matters. The 2022 Russian aggression and declaration of war by invading the Ukrainian borders provided different approaches to the reality in filmmaking. Therefore, the major film festivals in the world became a …
During the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), cinema was a meaningful tool for propaganda and Soviet cultural identity development. As the USSR had a massive territorial length, each region would have a unique voice in its approach regarding filmmaking. Therefore, plenty of the productions from the Soviet period are …
In 2021, the well-known director Stanley Nelson received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature for his film Attica. The film uses archival footage to tell an untold story about the most significant uprising in the American criminal system. Nelson fills a crucial vacancy in American filmmaking. He …
The sophomore effort in the Napo River (Toroboro) in Manolo Sarmiento’s diptych about the local communities is La Consulta Popular, or The People’s Referendum. He focuses on the political aspect of the situation. With this film, he shifts his lenses to the isolated tribes, who decided to continue far from …
The Ecuadorian director Manolo Sarmiento is a crucial figure in the local documentary community. He is the co-founder and executive director of EDOC, Encuentros del Otro Cine, a singular festival for Ecuadorian cinema. Sarmiento produced a diptych, a two-piece work on the native people of the Rio Napo. The indigenous …