The participants of a late-1990s Japanese reality series look back on their experience in The Contestant. In 1998, Nasubi was chosen to participate in producer Toshio Tsuchiya’s spinoff of his hit show Denpa Shonen, called Denpa Shonen: A Life in Prizes. Nasubi was forced to strip naked before being locked in a small apartment. His …
reenactment
Michael J. Fox reminisces about his career and the struggles of three decades of having Parkinson’s in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. Born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia, Michael J. Fox developed the acting bug at a young age, getting cast in his first role in the 1978 CBC sitcom …
A UCLA study about sex disorders from the 1950s and 1960s is reenacted in the style of a talk show in Framing Agnes. Using never-before-seen transcripts from the archive of Dr. Harold Garfinkel, filmmaker Chase Joynt sets out to recreate Garfinkel’s interviews with gender non-conforming individuals. Garfinkel’s key subject was Agnes (Zackary Drucker), who would …
The story of the journalist best known for writing the “Millennium” trilogy of novels is told in Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Played with Fire. Released posthumously, Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” series, beginning with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” have gone on to sell ninety million copies worldwide. However, long before that, Larsson was a …
The influences and history behind Ridley Scott’s Alien is told in Memory – The Origins of Alien. When it was produced in 1979, Alien was quite unlike any science fiction film being produced at the time. Part of this comes from the synergy between screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, conceptual artist H.R. Giger, and director Ridley Scott. …
A rape victim goes through the process of bringing her sexual assault to trial in Slut or Nut: The Diary of a Rape Trial. In 2015, Mandi Gray was sexually assaulted by a union leader she was dating from York University. She decides to report the assault to police, but is initially assumed that she …
The history of the activism by indigenous females are told in Warrior Women. In the 1970s, Madonna Thunder Hawk of the Lakota First Nation was one of the leaders of the American Indian Movement, which thought for the rights of the indigenous population. This fight continues today, with Madonna’s daughter Marcy joining in the activist efforts. …
The most famous murder case in Iceland is revisited in Out of Thin Air. In early 1974, Gudmundur Einarsson and Geirfinnur Einarsson disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Two years later, six suspects confessed to the murders of the men and served prison sentences for the crime. However, it soon comes to light that the suspects might have …
An escaped convict living in exile in Cuba tells his story in The Skyjacker’s Tale. In 1972, eight people were murdered on a Rockefeller-owned golf course in the US Virgin Islands. Local black radical Ishmael LaBeet is one of those charged and convicted for the murder, with him sentenced to eight lift sentences, plus 90 years. As his …
The review was originally published as part of my coverage of TIFF 2015 A groom gets possessed during his wedding day in Demon. Peter (Itay Tiran) is preparing to marry his fiance Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska) at her family’s country home in Poland. The night before the wedding, Peter finds skeletal remains on the property, after which he …
The final months of a missing woman with mental illness are told through her diaries in God Knows Where I Am. In May 2008, the body of a woman was discovered in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse. Through diaries discovered on the scene, the woman was identified as Linda Bishop, who had a history of …
A death row prisoner tells his story in The Fear of 13. After spending 23 years on death row, convicted murderer Nick Yarris decides to drop all appeals and ask to be executed. Through one highly performative monologue, Yarris tells his story and why he ultimately reached this final decision. From British documentary filmmaker David Sington comes …
A groom gets possessed during his wedding day in Demon. Peter (Itay Tiran) is preparing to marry his fiance Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska) at her family’s country home in Poland. The night before the wedding, Peter finds skeletal remains on the property, after which he begins acting strangely during the wedding reception. It quickly becomes apparent that …
In Searching for Bill, a man named Bob Maser travels from his home in New Orleans to Detroit, in order to recover his car, which was stolen by a grifter named Bill. After finding Bill’s notebook in the car, Bob decided to go on a cross-country roadtrip to location this elusive figure. In the meantime, …