Mandel Maven's Nest Reel Life: Flick Pix
Nora Lee Mandel is a member of New York Film Critics Online and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Her reviews are counted in the Rotten Tomatoes TomatoMeter:
Complete Index to Nora Lee Mandel's Movie Reviews
Since August 2006, edited versions of most of my reviews of documentaries/indie/foreign films are at Film-Forward; since 2012, festival overviews at FilmFestivalTraveler; and, since 2016, coverage of women-made films at FF2 Media. Shorter versions of my older reviews are at IMDb's comments, where non-English-language films are listed by their native titles.
TV Recommendations
As of mid-2014, I am marking my own stricter application than others to fiction features of the Bechdel-Wallace Test
Originally suggested by Allison Bechdel, as inspired by her friend Liz Wallace (so her name was added to the symbol as of 2016), in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1985 to note a film that features (1) at least two named female characters; (2) who talk to each other; (3) about something besides a man. Symbol first designed by the Swedish chapter of Women in Film and Television; thanks to The Hot Pink Pen for the updated image. But my own criteria consider a substantive interaction about substance.
My Best Films of 2018
My Best Films of 2017
My Best Films of 2016
My Best Films of 2015
My Best Films of 2014
My Best Films of 2013
My Best Films of 2012
My Best Films of 2011
My Best Films of 2010
My Best Films of 2009
My Best Films of 2008
My Best Films of 2007
My Best Films of 2006
My Best Films of 2005
My Best Films of 2004
My Best Films of 2003
My Best Films of 2002
My Best Films of 2001
Reviews by Nora Lee Mandel in my idiosyncratic categories of how I think of of flicks:
CHICK FLICKS
IMPACT OF 9/11 ON NYC THROUGH MOVIES
IMAGES OF DENTISTS AND PREVENTIVE TOOTH CARE IN MOVIES (carrying on the work of Dr. Irwin D. Mandel z”l)
JEWISH WOMEN IN (and missing from) THE FLICKS
MASTERPIECE THEATER: MOVIES AS MEDICINE
For the MIDDLE-AGED AT HEART: HURRAH FOR GROWN-UPS!
For the MUSIC (and/or the dancing)
NEW YORK NEW YORK: IT'S A HELLUVA TOWN
NOIR NIGHT OUT
OGLING TEENS AND '20SOMETHINGS
POPCORN EATERS
ROMEO AND JULIET (and friends) ACROSS THE ETHNIC DIVIDE
SCI-FI and FANTASY from A DISTAFF POV
And then there's RUSSELL CROWE (with commentary on the actor)
Friends don't let friends watch bad movies! -- John Ridley
It is not enough to like a film. You must like it for the right reasons. -- Pierre Rissient
Mothers of America/let your kids go to the movies! -- Frank O’Hara, Ave Maria
MY BEST FILMS of 2018 (In the order I saw them, many reviews yet to be written, particularly of festivals-viewed, non-theatrically distributed films):
The Insult (Qadiat raqm 23)
Vazante (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image) (Kudos to director/co-writer Daniela Thomas, cinematographer Inti Briones and sound designer Vasco Pimentel)
Princess (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Scrap Dolls (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
See You Up There (Au revoir là-haut) (Kudos to cinematography by Vincent Mathias, music by Christophe Julien, masks by Hélène Defline, and costumes by Mimi Lempicka) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Final Journey (Leanders letzte Reise) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
To Dust (Kudos to Géza Röhrig) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Death of Stalin
The Seagull (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Dead Women Walking (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Silent Night (Cicha noc) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Gauguin - Voyage To Tahiti (Kudos to Vincent Cassel)
Runners-Up: MOVIES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Colo (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image) (Kudos to cinematographer Acácio de Almeida)
Foxtrot (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ava (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Cocote (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
The Nothing Factory (A Fábrica de Nada) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Outside In (Kudos to Laurie Metcalf) (preview courtesy of The Orchard)
Smuggling Hendrix (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Kuleana (seen courtesy of Hawaii Cinema)
Bye Bye Germany (Es war einmal in Deutschland...) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
Nigerian Prince (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Yellow Birds (preview courtesy of Lionsgate)
The Catcher Was A Spy (So, nu: my commentary on the putative Jewish woman.)
BEST FEMALE POV
Fiction Division
In Between (Bar Bahar) (seen in 2017 Film Movement 15th Anniversary Celebration at Museum of the Moving Image) (Kudos to writer/director Maysaloun Hamoud) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Marlina The Murderer In Four Acts (Marlina Si Pembunuh Dalam Empat Babak) (My additional notes.) (Western Division) (Kudos to director/co-writer Mouly Surya) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Game (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Guardians (Les Gardiennes) (Way Back Division) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Number One (Numéro une) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Sower (Le Semeur) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Closeness (Tesnota) (So, nu: commentary on the Jewish women.) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Scary Mother (Sashishi deda) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Jellyfish (Kudos to Liv Hill) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Slut In A Good Way (Charlotte a du fun) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Lemonade (Luna de Miere) (Depressing Romanian Division) (Kudos to Mălina Manovici) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) Beauty and the Dogs (La Belle et la Meute) (Kudos to Mariam Al Ferjani and writer/director Kaouther Ben Hania) (seen courtesy of Oscilloscope)
Everything Else (Todo lo demás) (preview at 2016 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Daughter of Mine (Figlia mia) (Kusoa ro Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, and Sara Casu) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Garden (Sommerhäuser) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
The Impossible Picture (Das Unmögliche Bild) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
Woman Walks Ahead (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Mary Shelley (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Duck Butter (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (Lesbian Division)
Little Woods (Kudos to Writer/Director Nia Dacosta; Tessa Thompson and Lily James) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Diane (Kudos to Mary Kay Place) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Party's Just Beginning (Kudos to Writer/Director/Star Karen Gillan) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Dead Women Walking (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tully (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
When She Runs (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bao (animated short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Late Afternoon (animated short) (preview at 2018 Mirette (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Love Letter (Michtav Ahava Lam ‘em Sheli) (short) (My commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Paper Roof (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
So You Like The Neighborhood (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Miracle (Stebuklas) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Summer 1993 (Estiu/Verano 1993) (Coming of Ager) (preview courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Adrift (Adventure Division)
Dark River (Kudos to Ruth Wilson)
Documentary Division
Tongue Cutters (Tungeskjærerne) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Lives of Thérèse (Les vies de Thérèse) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Instructions on Parting (Of white, Christian, middle-class NH/UT POV) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Mama Colonel (Maman Colonelle) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Call Her Ganda (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Judge (at 2017 DOC NYC Festival/PBS Independent Lens 2018)
Blowin’ Up (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Bleeding Edge (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Time for Ilhan (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Girl and the Picture (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Birth Control Your Own Adventure (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
RBG (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
A Woman Captured (Egy nö fogságban) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Other Side of Everything (Druga strana suega) (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
A Thousand Girls Like Me (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Runners-Up: FEMALE POV I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Fiction Division
Blame (Preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Boy Downstairs (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (Preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
My Art at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Half Magic (Satirical Comedy Division)
Montparnasse Bienvenüe (Jeune femme) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Milla (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Nervous Translation (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Sunday’s Illness (La Enfermedad del Domingo) (Depressing Division) (Kudos to Susi Sánchez) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
I Kill Giants (Girl/Animated Divisions)
Virgins (Vierges/Ein Betulot Bakrayot) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
All About Nina (Kudos to Mary Elizabeth Winstead) So, nu: My commentary on the Jewish women. (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Amateurs (Amatörer) (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Blue Night (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Radium Girls (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Salam (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Puzzle (remake of Rompecabezas)
What Will People Say (Hva vil folk si) (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Documentaries
Yellow Is Forbidden (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Netizens (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Women of the Venezuelan Chaos (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
On Her Shoulders (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Generation Wealth
BEST FEMALE VIEW OF MALES
Zama (Re-Imagined Colonial Division) (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Rider (at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Western (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
You Were Never Really Here (Very Violent Division)
Mapplethorpe (Gay Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
O.G. (Violent Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Back Roads (Female Writer) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Knuckles (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Last Romantic (El Último Romántico) (Romantic Comedy Division) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Before Summer Ends (Avant la fin de l'été) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
BEST COMING OF AGERS
A Ciambra
Ava (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Lean on Pete (Kudos to Charlie Plummer and the scenery)
Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
The Elephant and the Butterfly (Drôle de père) (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
All These Small Moments (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Life of Esteban (Het Leven van Estaban) (short) (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Breath (Kudos to the water cinematography)
Prickly Pear (Bajtra Tax-Xewk) (short) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Maltese Fighter (short) (Kudos to Malcolm Ellul) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Eve (Lejliet) (short) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Leave No Trace
BEST ROMANCES
Almost Paris (seen at 2016 Tribeca Film Festival)
Keep The Change (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women) (previewed at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Signature Move (Cross-Cultural Lesbian Division) (preview courtesy The Chicago Project)
Oh Lucy! (Dark Comedy Division) (preview courtesy of Film Movement)
On Body and Soul (Testről és Lélekről) (seen on Netflix)
M (preview and coda at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Disobedience (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Runners-Up: ROMANCES I Recommend Despite My Gripes
The Female Brain (preview courtesy IFC Films)
The Leisure Seeker
Untogether (previewed at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women)
BEST ACTIONERS/THRILLERS
Goldstone
The Guilty (Den skyldige) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Good Manners (As Boas Maneiras) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Stockholm (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Runners-Up: ACTIONERS/THRILLERS I enjoyed despite quibbles
Gringo
Unsane
A Violent Life (Une vie violente) (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
This Is Our Land (Chez Nous) (Political Division) (preview courtesy of Film Forum)
BEST NEO-NOIRS
The Great Buddha+ (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Sicilian Ghost Story (preview at 2018 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Boys Cry (La terra dell'abbastanza) (preview at 2018 Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/APOCALYPTIC
Cargo (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Night Eats The World (La Nuit A Dévoré Le Monde) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Runners-Up: BEST SCI FI/FANTASY/SUPERNATURAL/APOCALYPTIC I Recommend Despite My Gripes
Zoe (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Dark (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Laboratory Conditions (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
BEST MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries):
Django (preview at 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
The Opera House (preview at 2017 New York Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Mama Africa (re-issue) (briefly reviewed in Final Roundup of the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival)
American Folk (Commentary on 9/11 treatment.)
Becks (Kudos to “lesbian folk rock” songs by Alyssa Robbins & Steve Salett) (Recommendation is not because the spouse of my 2nd cousin twice removed has a tiny part) (preview courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment)
Sing Song (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Day I Beat The Sky (Le jour où j'ai battu le ciel) (short animation) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Souvenir (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Hybridos, the Spirits of Brazil (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Barbara (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Rock in the Red Zone (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Azougue Nazare (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Howard (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Bathtubs Over Broadway (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Satan & Adam (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
United Skates (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Homeless: The Soundtrack (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
The Velvet Underground Played At My High School (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (seen on HBO)
Runners-Up: MOVIE MUSICALS (and music/dance bio-pics and documentaries) I Recommend Despite My Gripes:
Saturday Church (for the musical numbers) (preview at 2017 Tribeca Film Festival)
Act & Punishment:The Pussy Riot Trials
Flip The Record (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Habaneros (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Untitled (Pow Wow) (short – part of the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Songs for Spirit Lake” project) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Nico, 1988 (Kudos to Trino Dyrholm) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc) (preview at 2018 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Flock of Four (preview courtesy of Abramorama)
Blue Note Records: Beyond The Notes (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Hearts Beat Loud (preview courtesy Gunpowder & Sky)
BEST USE OF THE WAY BACK MACHINE
Journey’s End
The Young Karl Marx (Le Jeune Karl Marx)
The Forgiven (preview courtesy of Saban Films)
Chappaquiddick
Blood & Glory (Modder en Bloed) (preview courtesy of Cleopatra Entertertainment)
In Times Of Fading Light (In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts) (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
BEST ANIMATION (and use of animation)
Mary and The Witch's Flower (preview courtesy of GKids)
Have A Nice Day (Chinese Noir Division) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
Black Barbie (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Next Door Spy (Nabospionen) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Cat Days (Neko No Hi) (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm (Museum of Jewish Heritage/HBO documentary short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Tehran Taboo (preview at Film Forum)
KCLOC (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Liyana (Kudos to directors Amanda & Aaron Kopps, storyteller Gcina Mhlophe, and animator Shofela Coker) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight/also shown at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
Five Years After The War (Cinq ans après la guerre) (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
BEST ACTORS/ACTRESSES better than their movies:
Sir Ben Kingsley in An Ordinary Man
BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun? (seen at 2017 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival)
Communion (Komunia) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Last Days In Shibati (Derniers Jours a Shibati) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
A Taste of Cement (Kudos to cinematographer Talal Khoury and his short Mediterranean) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Railway Sleepers (Mon Rot Fai) (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Playing Men (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
You Have No Idea How Much I Love You (Nawet Nie Wiesz, Jak Bardzo Cie Kocham) (at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Polluting Paradise (Müll im Garten Eden) (preview courtesy of Strand Releasing)
The King of Twirl (De Majorette Koning van het Noorden) (short) (preview at 2018 New York International Children’s Film Festival)
In The Intense Now (No Intenso Agora) (seen at Film Forum)
Ramen Heads (preview courtesy of Gunpowder & Sky)
Jesser and the Sugarcane (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Abbeville (short) (Kudos to Equal Justice Initiative) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Spirit Lake (short – part of the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Songs for Spirit Lake” project) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Find Fix Finish (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
The Long Season (Kudos to Leonard Retel Helmrich and Ramia Suleiman) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
’63 Boycott (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Black Memorabilia (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Rio Verde: El tiempo de los Yakurunas (Green River: The Time of the Yakurunas) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Leaning Into The Wind – Andy Goldsworthy
The Ancestral Sin (Sallah, Po Ze Eretz Yisrael) (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Makala (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
House Two (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Roll Red Roll (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Tanzania Transit (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Island of The Hungry Ghosts (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
When Lambs Become Lions (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The Feeling of Being Watched (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Nana (preview courtesy of First Run Features)
After Auschwitz (preview courtesy)
Studio 54 (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Charm City (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Home + Away (preview at 2018 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival)
It’s A Hard Truth Ain’t It (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
The River of the Kukamas (The El Rio de los Kukamas) (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Wendy’s Shabbat (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
5 October (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Hey Ronnie Reagan (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Won’t You Be My Neighbor (Commentary on 9/11 reference.)
What Haunts Us (seen on Starz)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Voices of the Sea (Voces del Mar) (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Silence of Others (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Angkar (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
It Will Be Chaos (seen on HBO)
Runners-Up: Documentaries I Recommend Despite my Gripes
Tinselwood (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Mr. Gay Syria (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
Starting Over Again (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA)
Meteors (Meteorlar) (preview at 2018 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Workers Cup (preview at 2017 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
Momentum Generation (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Crossroads (preview at 2018 Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival)
Far From The Tree (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
The Steel Mill Café (Buffet Željezara) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Beyond The One (Al Di Là Dell'uno) (seen at 2018 Panorama Europe Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Anote’s Ark (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
The Unafraid (preview at 2018 Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center and IFC Center)
BEST BIO DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or glosses:
The Peacemaker (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Seeing Allred (seen on Netflix)
Western Wild…or how I found wanderlust and met Old Shatterhand (short) (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
13, a ludodrama about Walter Benjamin (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
George (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight)
When Paul Came Over The Sea: Journal of an Encounter (Als Paul über das Meer kam – Tagebuch einer Begegnung (preview courtesy of KINO! 2018 Festival of German Films)
McQueen (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
BEST DOCUMENTARIES FOR CINEPHILES:
Prototype (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Room H.264: Brooklyn, NY, June 2016/Room H.264: Astoria, NY, January 2018 (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
The Exiled (L'Exilé) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Other Episodes/Missing Episode (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Measuring Change/L. Cohen/Readers (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Get Up and Go/A Spin Through Night City/Along The Elevated (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
Hitler’s Hollywood: German Cinema In The Age Of Propaganda: 1933 - 1945 (preview courtesy of Film Forum)
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (Note on 9/11 reference)
Cosmic Debris (short) (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
Saving Brinton (Bravo Mike Zahs)
- NYC Opening Night panel on women directors: Director Amy Adrion; interviewees Mary Harron & Chris Hegedus, and Women & Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein. (I attended courtesy of FF2 Media)
Half the Picture
EDUCATIONAL DOCS you can learn from despite gaps and/or flaws):
In The Land Of Pomegranates (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.)
Ghost Hunting (Istiyad Ashbah) (seen at 2018 First Look Festival at Museum of the Moving Image)
West Of The Jordan River (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish women.) (at 2018 New York Jewish Film Festival of Film Society of Lincoln Center/The Jewish Museum)
Out of My Head (seen at MoMA’s 2018 Documentary Fortnight) (also shown at 2018 Reelabilities Film Festival - NY)
Why Do They Hate Us? (Pourquoi nous détestent-ils) (seen at 2018 New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival)
Black Mothers (preview at 2018 New Directors/New Films of Film Society of Lincoln Center/MoMA
Eating Animals (preview at 2017 DOC NYC Festival)
Into The Okavango (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival)
John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (preview at 2018 Art of the Real of Film Society of Lincoln Center)
General Magic (preview at 2018 Tribeca Film Festival) (So, nu: my commentary on the Jewish woman)