Almost from its first frames, director Talal Derki’s (The Return to Homs) latest, Of Fathers and Sons, feels like a movie that shouldn’t exist. The filmmaker spent two years pretending to be an Al-Qaeda […]
What I thought might be a documentary companion piece to last year’s thought-provoking Boy Erased, about the abhorrent practice of teen gay conversion therapy, turns out to be a wholly different but not […]
As we previewed last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered with a handful of movie theaters across the country (including Chicago’s own Music Box Theatre) to show each of […]
From January 4 through 31, the Gene Siskel Film Center celebrates the art of the documentary with its annual series Stranger Than Fiction: Documentary Premieres. This year, the theme of identity in […]
There’s no way you don’t come out from watching Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, the latest by director Alexis Bloom (Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds), and […]
I have vivid memories of watching old episodes of both the NBC and CBS versions of David Letterman’s late night talk show and always getting a kick out a repeating bit he […]
In a cinematic feat that I’ve never seen attempted before, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has partnered with a handful of movie theaters across the country (including our beloved […]
Last year, I had a bit of an adventure as an extra on a movie set. And not just any movie set, either. I ended up as an extra in a bar […]
I’ve attended more opera in the last year than I have in all my years of attending theater (and that’s a lot of years!). I’ve been able to see several productions at […]
One musician featured in the documentary Horn from the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story jokingly bemoans the fact that it almost isn’t fair that Butterfield was such a talented blues harmonica player […]
Cinematic blindspots, those gaps in our film viewing history that mean we have to sheepishly admit to having not seen a certain classic or a hot new release, are a reality. Especially […]
One of the many success stories in the field of documentary films released in 2018 is the mountain-climbing thrill ride Free Solo. For those fortunate enough to see 2015’s Meru, you witnessed […]
