Spike Lee’s Cannes grand prix winner is the director’s best work since his Oscar-nominated 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls. Combining the stylistic slickness of 25th Hour with the controversial potential of Bamboozled, it’s a stranger-than-fiction tale (“based upon some fo’ real, fo’ real shit”) of an African American cop infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1970s. Produced by the team behind Get Out (it was Jordan Peelewho brought the story to Lee), BlacKkKlansman slips seamlessly from borderline-absurdist humour to all-too-real horror, conjuring an urgent blend of sociopolitical period satire and contemporary wake-up call. John David Washington gives a wonderfully wry and nuanced central performance as Ron Stallworth,…
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Social Justice Cinema
The African American Film Critics Association and TCM have collaborated for a month long programme titled The Black Experience on Film. The event is scheduled to screen 32 films which deals with depictions of African Americans throughout cinematic history. It begins on 4 September and airs every Tuesday and Thursday in prime time slots. The president of AAFCA mentioned that such an opportunity was a matter of honour as it gives an opportunity for “impactful programming”. Emphasising the fact that several African American narratives often go unheard, and more dangerously untold, the president mentioned that this historical trend has been a…
Errol Morris’ look at Steve Bannon, Alexis Bloom’s dissection of Roger Ailes, and James Longley’s unflinching portrait of life in war-torn Afghanistan are just a few of the politically charged documentaries that will screen as part of this year’s New York Film Festival. The annual gathering for cinephiles and Oscar hopefuls has unveiled the complete lineup for its Spotlight on Documentary section, and it’s filled with some of the biggest names in non-fiction filmmaking. These directors are turning their cameras not just on agitprop masters and geopolitical hotspots, they’re also highlighting artistic giants, social justice champions, and off-beat fashion photographers. The…
Movie-goers to a special film screening will be helping Syrian refugees build a kitchen garden half a world away. Timaru is getting an extra film from the New Zealand International Film Festival’s line-up to raise funds for the charity Syria’s Forgotten Families. The one-off screening, of Lebanon film The Insult, is scheduled for 7pm on September 4, four days after the conclusion of the film festival at local cinema Movie Max. Fundraiser co-organizer Jayne Blakemore said money made from selling tickets at $20 would go towards providing the basics of a small kitchen garden for refugee families living in a camp in…
Angelena Bonet, founder and CEO of her companies Crystal Heart Productions and Crystal Heart Records, has won another three prestigious Awards of Recognition from the IndieFEST Film Awards and The Accolade Global Film Competition. One award was given for Bonet’s biopic documentary feature film “Angelena: Change The World” in the Liberation/Social Justice/Protest category and two awards for “Tragic Fairytale” in the Best Music Video category. Bonet has created three documentary films thus far, including the soundtracks, which she has written, directed, edited and produced in their entirety. https://youtu.be/ozal73tDn-M Angelena Bonet’s multi-award winning documentary feature film “Angelena: Change The World” and documentary short film “Change The World” both feature the soundtrack she co-wrote from her heart…
Several years ago, residents of Roudbar village in northern Iran learned that the existence of their hamlet would be sacrificed to what the Iranian government deemed a higher good: the construction of a dam to produce electricity for the regional grid. https://vimeo.com/285591514 In their documentary film, “Stoppage Dam,” — the second-place winner of the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest — videographers Yaser Talebi and Mitra Roohimanesh speak with villagers who lament their relocation to a barren settlement and the government’s inadequate compensation scheme, which doesn’t begin to cover the cost of building new homes. The Clourd Dam was completed recently; many of…
WIM Wenders has been given access to Pope Francis and produced a film that gives the viewer a line that tends to reiterate what many feel is known already – namely, he is the most likeable and progressive Pontiff, well, ever. Called Pope Francis: A Man of His Word, it doesn’t so much tell us about what it’s like to be given such a job, but give him space to talk about inequality and social justice. The interview is hardly Paxman-esque, but still offers an insight as to being the head of the Catholic church today. https://youtu.be/MOmY8i-uBcY • The Negotiator, starring Jon…
M. Karunanidhi, five-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu and one of the dominant figures in the politics of southern India for half a century, died on Tuesday at the age of 94. An outspoken atheist in a country where politicians often trumpet their piety, Karunanidhi built his political machine as a crusader for social justice, with policies aimed at helping those at the bottom of India’s rigid Hindu caste hierarchy. Thousands of his supporters gathered outside the hospital in Chennai to mourn his demise, as scores of policemen kept watch. Roads outside the hospital and at Karunanidhi’s residence were packed…
For those looking for social justice films and films about environment protection, there is a new streaming service: ECOSTREAMZ. ECOSTREAMZ is ad-free, subscription-based VOD platform delivering factual and narrative content, both feature and short about environmental, conservation, human rights and social justice-themed issues, to laptops, mobile devices and HD televisions worldwide. In these polarizing and often difficult times we currently live in, easy access to information about important environmental and societal issues is critical to raising awareness and ultimately improving the world around us. Yet, the mainstream media, only covers a fraction of the problems we face on a daily…
The feature documentary Gaza Surf Club continues its commercial screenings across the Arab world after it was first released in Kuwait as the first documentary to be screened in Kuwaiti cinemas. The film will be commercially released in Prime Cinemas at Baraka Mall in Jordan starting Thursday, 26 July. Recently, Gaza Surf Club opened the 3rd Karama Beirut Human Rights Film Festival with a full house screening. It also witnessed several successful screenings at Cairo Cinema Days and the Goethe Institutein Cairo. The film also took part in the Haifa Independent Film Festival (HIFF) and the MONA Film Festival. In November, 2017, the film received the University Juries Award for Best Documentary at…