It seems fitting that perhaps one of the most important First Amendment cases of our time revolves around the publication of a sex tape featuring renowned former WWF superstar Hulk Hogan sharing a bed with the wife of his best friend, Bubba the Love Sponge. That’s the kind of stuff of which good First Amendment…
Streaming giant Netflix has cemented its position as a leading documentary platform in 2017, releases nearly 30 original documentaries docu-series. One of the most recent docu-series to hit the Netflix site is The Confession Tapes. The Confession Tapes is a seven-episode documentary series about murders throughout the United States that resulted in convictions based on taped confessions. These…
“Wikipedia is a gift from God.” These are the words of Ari Hershkowitz, an ex-Hasidic Jew who has decided to break away from the only way of life he’s known. He says these words with a smile, leaning up against the brick of his drug rehabilitation center as he takes another pull from his e-cig….
What if individuals were given the chance to experience death before dying? What if the sensation of losing yourself became so profound there was nothing left to feel or love in the world? What would happen if there were a death trial run that had a stronger effect than a near-death experience and had a…
If there was ever comedy deemed ahead of its time, it might be The Dana Carvey Show. Such is the premise of the new Hulu documentary Too Funny to Fail, about the ill-fated 1996 sketch series. The film tells this story through the use of archival footage and interviews. Some may say the show got…
Chinese film director Ke Guo has directed two films, Thirty Two and Twenty Two, to tell stories of comfort women who were forced by Japanese soldiers to become sexual slaves during World War II. Thirty Two was started in 2012 and screened in 2014, and Twenty Two was started in 2014 and screened in 2017….
Last year, I found myself taking a film studies course which focused on indigenous people’s role in film. I had no idea what to expect as this was a topic I had never truly thought about before. Storytelling plays a major role in indigenous culture as a very personal and simple vehicle of truth and…
When many of us think about the differences between fiction films and documentaries, we think they seem pretty obvious, right?. But when the medium of film was just being invented, every film was documentary to some extent. The first movie ever made was footage of the arrival of a train shot by the Lumière brothers…
Sighted Eyes, Feeling Heart, the debut documentary from director Tracy Heather Strain, is making the rounds at festivals such as the Chicago International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival this year. It explores the dynamic and unconventional life of young playwright and activist Lorraine Hansberry who came of age in the Civil Rights…
“I wish this film wasn’t still relevant,” Erik Nelson said on Oct. 7, 2017 at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas. While Nelson helped Werner Herzog produce his film Grizzly Man, the pair switched roles for A Gray State, in which Nelson was director and Herzog executive producer. Both films chronicle true stories…