In the opening scene of "The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs" we see an elderly, short Peruvian woman cutting the bark off a mahogany tree. Her name is Sara Flores and the wood is an ingredient she collects to create intricate designs on textiles, following a traditional Peruvian geometrical design system called kené. Flores is unique in becoming internationally famous for her kené artwork; her...
I had never heard of Uppaluri Gopala (or "U.G.") Krishnamurti before seeing the new documentary "The Natural State," which just had its premiere at this month's 2026 Telluride Film Festival. U.G. was famous for being an "anti-guru" who, after a long search for enlightenment, decided that such a mission was misguided and even fatuous. Even so, he was sought out the rest of his...
Anytime Martin Scorsese talks film I’m glued to the screen. If you’ve seen his own documentaries “A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American...
The 17th edition of our continent’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese film, “Japan Cuts: Festival Of New Japanese Film," kicks off July 10. There...
Two documentaries about the coal industry’s ruthless exploitation of workers and natural resources in the Appalachian mountains are required viewing for anyone who cares...
34-year-old Lucy Kerr’s fascinating debut feature film “Family Portrait” (which won major awards at the recent Locarno Festival in Switzerland) is a “portrait” in...
The two main characters in Joel Potrykus’s “Vulcanizadora” were introduced ten years ago in his hilarious 2014 film “Buzzard.” Once again Potrykus plays Marty...
“Emergent City” documents the struggle of longtime residents of the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York to stop the Jamestown investment group from...
There are so many documentaries which profile a single person–an artist, musician, writer, politician–or group of allied people that I find it useful to...
When Americans think of cheese it is usually cheese burgers or those horrible cellulose “cheesy poofs” beloved by Cartman in “South Park.” Orange, mild...
(above: "Daddio")
The Tribeca Film Festival (June 5-16) is already underway. The festival keeps expanding: more venues, more genres. It’s not just films (narrative, documentary,...
