Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***½
Governmental property seizure is a tough cinematic sell. If the rules of society have broken down to the point where thugs, corrupt political officials and/or armed militias are forcibly removing people from their homes there are usually even more viscerally terrifying crimes happening in the foreground that are likely to capture public attention. But when the peace treaties have been signed, the news cameras have left and the garbage is getting picked up each week there are still deep wounds that can leave generations of disenfranchised and embittered people whose ancestors have been stripped of their homes, livelihoods and cultural legacies.
Rating (out of 5): ***½
Governmental property seizure is a tough cinematic sell. If the rules of society have broken down to the point where thugs, corrupt political officials and/or armed militias are forcibly removing people from their homes there are usually even more viscerally terrifying crimes happening in the foreground that are likely to capture public attention. But when the peace treaties have been signed, the news cameras have left and the garbage is getting picked up each week there are still deep wounds that can leave generations of disenfranchised and embittered people whose ancestors have been stripped of their homes, livelihoods and cultural legacies.
- 1/11/2011
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****
Within America’s conversation about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan much criticism has been lobbed at journalists who reported from warzones while being embedded with the troops. Critics say a reporter’s chief concern should be objectivity which would (understandably) be comprised when sharing life and death situations on a daily basis. Proponents say it provides an invaluable view of war from the ground-eye perspective of the troops. I tend to fall in the latter category, and feel it’s a far more damning statement about the predicament of journalism that any one reporters’ work is expected (by editors or readers) to be all things to all people.
Restrepo [official site], the collaborative effort between author Sebastian Junger (who also penned the bestseller The Perfect Storm) and photographer Tim Hetherington, depicts five months (over the course of a year) spent at an outpost in the Korengal Valley,...
Rating (out of 5): ****
Within America’s conversation about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan much criticism has been lobbed at journalists who reported from warzones while being embedded with the troops. Critics say a reporter’s chief concern should be objectivity which would (understandably) be comprised when sharing life and death situations on a daily basis. Proponents say it provides an invaluable view of war from the ground-eye perspective of the troops. I tend to fall in the latter category, and feel it’s a far more damning statement about the predicament of journalism that any one reporters’ work is expected (by editors or readers) to be all things to all people.
Restrepo [official site], the collaborative effort between author Sebastian Junger (who also penned the bestseller The Perfect Storm) and photographer Tim Hetherington, depicts five months (over the course of a year) spent at an outpost in the Korengal Valley,...
- 12/2/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****
Emily Hagins had been a cinephile since age 7 and at the age of 12 was determined to make the leap to feature-length director with Pathogen, an original zombie film she penned herself. Growing up in Austin, TX, a hotbed for Diy film-making, she has aww-inspiring parents who, with some mild amusement and exhaustive determination to help her succeed, support her creative endeavors.
...
- 11/16/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Reviewer:Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): **
It's difficult to avoid comparisons between A Mother's Courage (originally titled The Sunshine Boy) with The Horse Boy (originally titled Over the Hills and Far Away) another recent autobiographical documentary on the stress put on families dealing with Autism. With Horse Boy, Rupert Isaacson documented his family's trip from their cozy Texas suburb to the far-flung provinces of Mongolia to seek shamanic treatments from reindeer herders. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Courage centers on Margret Dagmar Ericsdottirs, an Icelandic women from a similarly privileged family who travels to the States to visit different schools and individual specialists in the field of Autism. Their 8 year old son Kaley has gone through many experimental treatments with little results and has now aged past the point of most effective interventions.
Rating (out of 5): **
It's difficult to avoid comparisons between A Mother's Courage (originally titled The Sunshine Boy) with The Horse Boy (originally titled Over the Hills and Far Away) another recent autobiographical documentary on the stress put on families dealing with Autism. With Horse Boy, Rupert Isaacson documented his family's trip from their cozy Texas suburb to the far-flung provinces of Mongolia to seek shamanic treatments from reindeer herders. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Courage centers on Margret Dagmar Ericsdottirs, an Icelandic women from a similarly privileged family who travels to the States to visit different schools and individual specialists in the field of Autism. Their 8 year old son Kaley has gone through many experimental treatments with little results and has now aged past the point of most effective interventions.
- 10/27/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ***½
At the center of Videocracy, Erik Gandini's snapshot of Italy's celebrity-obsessed popular culture, is Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi, a millionaire turned television mogul turned billionaire turned Prime Minister, is an untouchable figure who has become the revered and reviled focal point for Italy's perception of itself. (See Michael Moore's Roger & Me for a different version on a similar theme.) Berlusconi made his fortune by buying up 90% of Italy's television networks and churning out cheap programming that was high on nudity, silliness and spectacle.
- 9/14/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****
On its face, Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi is a story about the death of 24 year old Afghani Ajmal Naqshbandi. A "fixer" by trade, Naqshbandi made his living translating, driving and navigating cultural considerations for foreign journalists as they tried to obtain interviews with Taliban officials, mullahs and local residents. In early 2007, Naqshbandi and a team of Italian journalists were double-crossed by Mullah Dadullah, who kidnapped and held them for weeks while demanding the release of Dadullah's brother and several other imprisoned Taliban officers. Unfortunately, the Afghanistan government's priorities were so focused on avoiding an international incident that when the Italians were released no one noticed Naqshbandi wasn't among the liberated. His family went on television, pleading to the better nature of their fellow Muslims to let their son go, but negotiations broke down and Naqshbandi was beheaded. Video footage of his...
Rating (out of 5): ****
On its face, Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi is a story about the death of 24 year old Afghani Ajmal Naqshbandi. A "fixer" by trade, Naqshbandi made his living translating, driving and navigating cultural considerations for foreign journalists as they tried to obtain interviews with Taliban officials, mullahs and local residents. In early 2007, Naqshbandi and a team of Italian journalists were double-crossed by Mullah Dadullah, who kidnapped and held them for weeks while demanding the release of Dadullah's brother and several other imprisoned Taliban officers. Unfortunately, the Afghanistan government's priorities were so focused on avoiding an international incident that when the Italians were released no one noticed Naqshbandi wasn't among the liberated. His family went on television, pleading to the better nature of their fellow Muslims to let their son go, but negotiations broke down and Naqshbandi was beheaded. Video footage of his...
- 9/9/2010
- by GreenCineStaff
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****
A fascinating theme emerges early on in Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers: that the same circular thinking and one-upsmanship games inevitably will overtake hyper-insulated circles once their belief system come under fire. Whether they be grassroots activist groups, major media companies, the Department of Defense or the White House -- the wheels come off with striking similarity and lead to some fantastic collapses.
Rating (out of 5): ****
A fascinating theme emerges early on in Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers: that the same circular thinking and one-upsmanship games inevitably will overtake hyper-insulated circles once their belief system come under fire. Whether they be grassroots activist groups, major media companies, the Department of Defense or the White House -- the wheels come off with striking similarity and lead to some fantastic collapses.
- 7/21/2010
- by GreenCineStaff
- GreenCine
Reviewer: Erin Donovan Rating (out of 5): ****½
In 2005, Kimberly Reed documented her first trip back to her hometown of Helena, Montana after moving away 20 years prior. The impetus is a high school reunion, but Reed's nervousness about returning to her small town roots goes beyond the typical teenage angst laid on top of mid-life anxieties. During the long separation, in the years since Reed graduated high school, she transitioned from male to female and has actively avoided seeing anyone from her "Paul" years.
But her former classmates provide nary an ounce of coastal schadenfreude. While word has certainly gotten around that the former star high school quarterback is now a lipstick lesbian living in Manhattan, most of her former classmates find the transgender issue a fairly dull one. One woman laments, "None of us are who we thought we'd be when we were 18." Another cracks a joke about 'lady drivers'...
In 2005, Kimberly Reed documented her first trip back to her hometown of Helena, Montana after moving away 20 years prior. The impetus is a high school reunion, but Reed's nervousness about returning to her small town roots goes beyond the typical teenage angst laid on top of mid-life anxieties. During the long separation, in the years since Reed graduated high school, she transitioned from male to female and has actively avoided seeing anyone from her "Paul" years.
But her former classmates provide nary an ounce of coastal schadenfreude. While word has certainly gotten around that the former star high school quarterback is now a lipstick lesbian living in Manhattan, most of her former classmates find the transgender issue a fairly dull one. One woman laments, "None of us are who we thought we'd be when we were 18." Another cracks a joke about 'lady drivers'...
- 7/14/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
To celebrate the release of the Henri Cartier-Bresson DVD set, GreenCine teamed up with our friends at Photojojo for our first ever photo contest. We asked you to send us your photos inspired by a film, and we received some amazing submissions! Thanks to all the photogs who entered, and to Photojojo for supplying the awesome prizes, the Digital Harinezumi 2.0 and the magnetic photo rope. And thanks to our judging panel, which included GreenCine's Craig Phillips, Maian Tran, plus film critics Jeffrey Anderson and Erin Donovan.
Congrats to our first prize winner Juan Rodrigo Jardón Galeana for his photo inspired by Wings of Desire.
See more of our favorite entries after the jump!
Congrats to our first prize winner Juan Rodrigo Jardón Galeana for his photo inspired by Wings of Desire.
See more of our favorite entries after the jump!
- 5/27/2010
- by weezy
- GreenCine
Updated through 1/26.
Erin Donovan: "A (self-described) unscrupulous journalist, and a Danish-Korean comedy duo (one who is mentally disabled and wheelchair-bound) spend two weeks in North Korea with the stated agenda to perform for the residents of Pyongyang in a show of respect for Kim Jong Il. But in actuality they are there to make a guerilla-style expose of the ruthless police state. Under the careful eye of their state-assigned hostess Ms Pak and each night submitting their footage to the state's 'video specialists' (who edit out any material that might impugn the Dear Leader) and Mads Brügger's documentary directorial debut The Red Chapel was born.... To say that the film tests the boundaries of documentary ethics would be a thundering understatement. The Red Chapel challenges every documentary ethic known to the filmmaking world."...
Erin Donovan: "A (self-described) unscrupulous journalist, and a Danish-Korean comedy duo (one who is mentally disabled and wheelchair-bound) spend two weeks in North Korea with the stated agenda to perform for the residents of Pyongyang in a show of respect for Kim Jong Il. But in actuality they are there to make a guerilla-style expose of the ruthless police state. Under the careful eye of their state-assigned hostess Ms Pak and each night submitting their footage to the state's 'video specialists' (who edit out any material that might impugn the Dear Leader) and Mads Brügger's documentary directorial debut The Red Chapel was born.... To say that the film tests the boundaries of documentary ethics would be a thundering understatement. The Red Chapel challenges every documentary ethic known to the filmmaking world."...
- 1/26/2010
- MUBI
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