Deconstructing the machinery of cinema.
Enock is a Malawian teenager nearing the end of his high school studies. Since the age of six, he has lived inside a Taiwanese Buddhist orphanage - one of several built across sub-Saharan Africa. As his final examinations approach, Enock is forced to decide what direction he wants to take in his future. Chinese investment ...
In 2017 a widely promoted island music festival in the Bahamas collapsed, leaving a raft of rich young dilettantes and social media influencers trapped in a post-apocalyptic mess of soaked-through tents, inedible catering, missing transport, and broken promises. The Fyre Festival, launched by musician Ja Rule but ostensibly organised by entrepreneur Billy McFarland, was a ...
Women do not get the opportunities in film-making that men do. That is demonstrable fact, and to understand exactly how and why institutional sexism is harming the American film industry you couldn't do much better than watch Amy Adrion's admirable and engaging documentary Half the Picture. Through a well-considered and arranged series of interviews, it basically ...
There is a huge range of subject matters available for a good documentary. The best to my mind are those that showcase something very real, but which you would be unlikely to believe unless someone had spend years putting together a documentary about them. That is certainly the case with Chris Sievey, an aspiring pop ...
In a difficult-to-access region of Taiwan's Yushan National Park, Professor Hwang Mei-hsiu undertakes research into the obscure and endangered Formosan Black Bear. Accompanied by indigenous ranger Lin Yuan-yuan, Professor Hwang tracks, tags and studies this remarkable animal that is under pressure from encroaching civilization and poaching. Six years in the making, Lee Hsiang-hsiu's documentary Black Bear ...
In 2008, and following a controversial election in which long-running President Robert Mugabe was re-elected to lead Zimbabwe, both government and opposition meet to draft a new and democratic constitution for the country. The process is depicted through the eyes of two men on opposite ends of the political spectrum, both of whom have been ...
