In 2018, the couple Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin made a splash at the Telluride Film Festival with their film, Free Solo. At that time, they were known for their 2015 Meru, another documentary about mountain climbing. However, Solo changed everything for them. It was a massive hit at the …
Šarūnas Bartas is one of the most prominent Lithuanian directors. Over three decades, the filmmaker has produced films such as Few of Us, The House, Peace to Us in Our Dreams, Frost, and In the Dusk. Those films would premiere at the world’s principal film events, such as the Cannes …
Documentary filmmaking is a tool for encapsulating time. Actually, all films are, but the non-fiction frames a specific portrait of an individual in a particular period. Despite the apparent manipulations, such as camera angles and editing, the documentary features a level of realism that fiction fails to reach. Therefore, we …
In modern Ukrainian filmmaking, Valentyn Vasyanovych is one of the best-known names on the festival circuit. His films Atlantis and Reflection premiered at the Venice Film Festival. In this sense, the director has already been discussing the Russia-Ukraine conflict in his work. Reflection narrates the kidnapping of a Ukrainian surgeon …
Few documentary filmmakers analyze the political landscape as well as Raoul Peck. Born in a country historically attached to Colonialism and imperialism, the Haitian filmmaker has a broad range of work, from narrating the transatlantic slavery trade and its impact on structural racism to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. In …
Few countries in the world have invested in documentary filmmaking as much as Spain. In recent years, films like Tardes de Soledad by Albert Serra have impacted the festival circuit with their gut-wrenching observations of bullfighting. Also, there are new names in the Spanish non-fiction community, such as Patricia Franquesa in My Sextortion Diary. …
Documentary filmmaking is probably the cinematic medium that benefits the most from technological improvements in the arts. Each new tool used in production allows the directors to fill gaps caused by the lack of archival footage and the limitations of interviewing subjects. Hence, in recent years, we have observed the …
The Malaysian/Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang is one of the most prominent figures in slow cinema. This philosophy of filmmaking contradicts the modern postulates of the commercial cinema, where the film features multiple cuts and plenty of scenarios to compose its story. As the name suggests, this form of filmmaking contemplates …
During the peak of the internet’s spread in the early century, the media and the world were still coming to terms with the reach of this new medium. One of the questions and a new understanding related to information access: shifting from the concentration of it in selected vehicles and …
When discussing the sociopolitical problems of the United States, health care and housing are the primary issues in American society. The elevated prices of houses are due to the real estate industry, which raises the costs of residences to gain higher profit margins, benefiting from a basic human necessity: a …
Ever since the organization of humanity in societies or colonies, female sexuality has been exploited. Hence, either through prostitution or paid pregnancies, there is a trade for the reproductive capacities of women. In a modern context, despite the prohibition in plenty of countries, surrogacy is a commercial practice that generates …
Love+War is the second film in 2025 by Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. Their first release, Lost in the Jungle, follows the survival of four children in the Colombian Amazon after a plane crash in the woods. The new projects from the Academy Award-winning recipients had premieres at two crucial …
The British multi-artist Charlie Shackleton is among the most fascinating figures in modern non-fiction. Throughout his extensive catalogue of short films, the director discussed criticism in the TikTok era, low-budget film production in the 1990s, but his most well-known work is a 607-minute static shot of paint drying on a brick …
Immigration is a central aspect of humanity. Since the beginning of time, the human being has had the need to transition from one place to another. Yet, the reasoning behind that shifted throughout the years. At the outset, individuals would move to access food and protect themselves from danger. However, …
Documentary filmmaking captures a particular notion of reality. Although common sense believes non-fiction means an utter sense of reality, it is a false premise. Every frame shot by a camera is an illusion, a magical process provided by technique to transform into imagery; consequently, it eternalizes something. The same goes …
Some labour and activities have existed since the beginning of human organization. One of them is midwifery. The assistance of a female individual during the birth of a child became an ordinary practice for several centuries. Yet, the professionalization of obstetrics replaced midwives with nurses, who assist the doctor during …
The American documentary filmmaker Michéle Stephenson is one of the most exciting directors in the non-fiction community. Usually collaborating with her husband, Joe Brewster, the duo studies the Black American experience in their films. In 2023, they delivered an impressive pair of projects: the feature Going to Mars: The Nikki …
There are a few artists who make a generational impact. A work that influences and emotions for multiple decades, even if they are not with us anymore. It is the outstanding beauty of artistry that breaks the geographical and time barriers. An accurate example of that concept is Selena Quintanilla, …
Airplanes are a relatively new technology and type of transportation. Igniting in the 1900s, aviation quickly developed, taking less than 40 years from the first flights to their use as war machinery in World War II. However, at the end of the 1700s, the creation of balloons occurred. Even after …
In the non-fiction medium, there is a fascinating sub-genre. In recent years, filmmakers have been documenting unconventional competitions. In both Girls State & Boys State, we follow a mock representative election by high school students who are aficionados of politics. In Pianoforte, the filmmakers narrate the International Chopin Piano Competition, …