Is there any story that embodies the idea of the American Dream better than a Lithuanian fisherman trying to escape Soviet rule by literally leaping across the open waters of the ocean from one boat to another, in the hopes of defecting to the United States? What sounds like an amusing premise for a charming…

“If you don’t like this…we don’t care” I remember the moment I became aware of Sparks – the faded, worn-out live recording where two peculiar individuals emerged onto a stage and performed a song I would soon come to learn was entitled “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us”. There’s a moment…

It’s incredibly likely that each and every one of us at some point in our lives as students encountered that one special teacher, the person who made us feel like we were the most valuable and cherished individuals in the world, and whose compassion and empathy made them vital role-models during those early years. Dieter…

In the promotion for the recently unearthed footage of the Harlem Cultural Festival that took place across the summer of 1969, it’s become popular to refer to it as the “Black Woodstock”, whereby not only did it occur concurrently to the iconic festival that was taking place not too far away, but also the array…

In the canon of iconic queer films, The Queen has always held a very special status, being one of the first documentaries that explicitly looked into the lives of members of the LGBTQIA+ community. In this instance, Frank Simon was documenting the preparations around the 1967 edition of the Miss All-America Camp Beauty Contest pageant…

There are many different forms of documentary, but the ones that tend to be the most fascinating are usually those that are portraits of unusual individuals. In this regard, you don’t get anyone more peculiar than Dr Timothy Leary, the world-renowned Harvard professor who abandoned his academic career to become inarguably the most notable proponent…

Death is inevitable – this is a fact we all learn quite early on in our lives, and it’s something that we all have to come to terms with in some way. However, this hasn’t stopped countless people throughout history from attempting to delay death in some way – whether through trying to prolong their…

What is love? This is a question that has challenged philosophers and artists for about as love as we’ve been sentient – the movement away from procreation for necessity towards putting value into interpersonal relationships has been one that has provoked countless individuals and produced so many fascinating interpretations. Pier Paolo Pasolini was a multi-hyphenate…

Frederick Wiseman revolutionized the documentary – in many ways, he essentially invented the modern form of non-fictional filmmaking, alongside the work done by other renegade auteurs such as the Maysles Brothers and Shirley Clarke, who sought to represent reality in a way that was honest, poignant and direct, with the results often being fascinating studies…

I’m not going to eulogize Agnès Varda in this review. Despite the fact that she’s an artist who means a considerable amount to me, and considering this is her final (and perhaps most personal) film, it seems inappropriate to use this space as one to lament her dying – not only because I’ve already written…