The 11 best films of 2017… and their posters

My list of best films of 2017 opens with Maren Ade’s Oscar nominated comedy Toni Erdmann, a brilliant (and surreal) film that genuily illustrates our capitalist lives with perfectly balanced comedy. Featuring an amazing rendition of 'The Greatest Love of All' and perhaps the warmest fatherly love, Ade's film stole our hearts. Then Finnish director-screenwriter… Continue reading The 11 best films of 2017… and their posters

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The best exhibitions of 2016

From London to Copenhagen, Hanover and the town of Lyssarea in Arcadia, here’s a roundup of the year’s best exhibitions and best young festivals.   We’ve brought together two new documentary festivals that merged new forms of documentary and art – one that launched for the very first time this year and the other in its… Continue reading The best exhibitions of 2016

The silent return of the voice of God in documentary

BRITDOC's Luke Moody questions the power of words on screen in recent documentary journalism.   Long and short form documentary film, informed by deep journalism, is encountering a formal challenge. As filmmakers and editors strive to make poetry of complex information, they increasingly find creative anchoring in journalism’s most comfortable medium: the written word. Looking… Continue reading The silent return of the voice of God in documentary

Patricio Guzmán on The Pearl Button

Have the strongest people always dominated everywhere? We look into Patricio Guzmán’s new film The Pearl Button, ahead of its UK release this week.   “I’d love for these water people not to have disappeared.” Patricio Guzmán, The Pearl Button Chilean documentary filmmaker Patricio Guzmán was held in solitary confinement in Santiago’s National Stadium and… Continue reading Patricio Guzmán on The Pearl Button

Making it real together

Revealing creative dialogues in nonfiction films, a playful act between filmmaker and subject as early as 1950, are evidence that documentary filmmaking is the art of collaborative conceit.   Last June Robert Greene’s Actress and Måns Månsson’s Stranded in Canton had their UK premieres at London’s blossoming Open City Documentary Festival. Both films use models… Continue reading Making it real together

Kim Longinotto on Dreamcatcher

The master director of films on women’s rights talks to us about her picture based on Brenda Myers-Powell and the girls on the street corners of Chicago.   Documentarian Kim Longinotto returns this year with a film about prostitution. Perhaps, an obvious and depressing subject about sex victims wouldn’t appeal to many people at first.… Continue reading Kim Longinotto on Dreamcatcher

Independent spirit: 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest

Continuing its reputation as the biggest international documentary film festival in UK, the 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest welcomed documentarians and activists from the public domain with a fierce independent spirit this year.   The past is always with us. But who wants to live in an antique shop? - Ian McShane in How We Used To Live… Continue reading Independent spirit: 21st Sheffield Doc/Fest

Archipelago connected: 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

Coinciding with the events in Thessaloniki as the European Youth Capital, the screens in the northern Greek city wrote ethics, truth and literacy on the wall.   Peter Wintonick once wrote: "We should attempt to pour our work and activism into the forge of human service. Let us become our own masters, re-appropriate our media away… Continue reading Archipelago connected: 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

Animal features: new nature documentary

As Leviathan hits London cinemas this month, Luke Moody compiles a list of animal features and talks about the endoscopic camera eye in the new nature documentary.   I’ve never worked a wave beaten shift on a night time fishing trawler in the North Atlantic. I will never become a motor-powered boat nor squirm like… Continue reading Animal features: new nature documentary

Act normal: hybrid tendencies in documentary film

On the release of Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing in UK cinemas, some excitement is emerging about the possibilities of new hybrid forms of documentary.   "All great fiction films tend towards documentary, just as all great documentaries tend toward fiction.” Jean-Luc Godard Aside from this admiration, the film has provoked reactions of both… Continue reading Act normal: hybrid tendencies in documentary film