A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Australian and New Zealand Films
Karina Holden, “Blue” (2017) Instead of bashing its audiences over the head with facts ‘n’ figures about the impact of human activities on oceans and marine…
Tim Usborne, “Secret Science: Chemical and Biological Weapons” (2016) In 2016, the year of its centenary, Britain’s major defence science and technology park, popularly known as…
Raoul Peck, “I Am Not Your Negro” (2017) Initially an expose of the modern history of the United States as seen from the viewpoint of black…
Sam Ellis, “This jet fighter is a disaster, but Congress keeps buying it” (Vox channel, 26 January 2017) Google the term “F-35” and among the suggestions…
James Corbett, “The Corbett Report (Episode 33: Meet Edward Bernays, Master of Propaganda)” (February 2008) It might be a bit dated, what with social media platforms…
Harvey Cashore, “Brainwashed: The Secret CIA Experiments in Canada” (The Fifth Estate, December 2017) As The Fifth Estate’s website post on this documentary says, the scenario…
Australian and New Zealand Films
Catherine Hunter, “Glenn Murcutt – Spirit of Place” (2017) A beautiful and graceful documentary as elegant as the architecture of the man whose work it documents,…
Laura Poitras, “Risk” (2016) Filmed over six years, its focus on the life of Julian Assange since he founded Wikileaks and obtained and released thousands of…
Maurice May, “BBC Panorama: What Facebook Knows About You” (2017) Half an hour for a documentary simply doesn’t do justice to the topic of what social…
Italian and Italian-language Films
Gian Micalessin, “Ukraine: the Hidden Truth” (2017) A short but very pithy Italian documentary, “Ukraine …” focuses on the notorious episode in Kiev in mid-February 2014…