Patrick Riviere’s 24-minute documentary Just a Broadway Baby: Mary Ellen Ashley opens by hinging itself on the wise old lady charm of its subject through a line of voiceover, beckoning the story to begin at the beginning. The narrative takes us to the WWII era: grainy footage, retro instrumentals and the cherubic face of child… Continue reading Just a Broadway Baby: Vivacious Mary Ellen Ashley in Career Documentary
Tag: Documentary Review
Cha Cha Charlie: Portrait of the Person Beneath the Persona
Matt Bieler’s 7-minute documentary glimpsing into the life of a wrestler takes family as the core of the bloody, bruising name. In turn, Byron, the subject of Cha Cha Charlie is pictured variously as a father, an insurance agent, and a wrestler—a constant in dramatically different settings. Byron Pepin aka Cha Cha Charlie balances his… Continue reading Cha Cha Charlie: Portrait of the Person Beneath the Persona
The Last Musketeer: A Portrait Defined by Its Missing Subject
Kyzen Del Aguia’s The Last Musketeer is a documentary in tribute to the late Canadian fencer, Douglas Jackson. Slated to be a character study of the fencer and coach with the man himself on screen, the film diverged down a different path when Douglas passed away early in 2023. In its place, Douglas’ peers and… Continue reading The Last Musketeer: A Portrait Defined by Its Missing Subject
Love, Dad: Tracing the Disintegration of a Family and the Leaving of a Father
Diana Cam Van Nguyen’s 12-minute documentary Love, Dad is an attempt to reconcile the past with the present by an adult daughter who rediscovers her father’s old letters from prison. The film becomes a process of examination, closer to reanimation than reconstruction, of all remaining evidence from the past—letters, photographs, memory—to understand what went wrong.… Continue reading Love, Dad: Tracing the Disintegration of a Family and the Leaving of a Father
Bloom in the Mirror: A Feat of Editing in Account of Relentless Movement
Eri Sawatari’s Bloom in the Mirror is a 6-minute fashion short for the brand Jill Stuart. Its subject, actress and model Kiko Mizuhara flits and struts through what doubles as a dreamlike character study. As glamorous as a magazine photoshoot, the cacophonous collage of Mizuhara’s professional life and persona shines a glossy light on the… Continue reading Bloom in the Mirror: A Feat of Editing in Account of Relentless Movement
Tumbling Towards Home: Tale of the Child’s Homecoming
Imelda O’Reilly’s documentary Tumbling Towards Home is the portrait of an actor through the people whom he loved and who made a mark on him. Actor Malcolm Adams, narrating for himself, delves into memory to understand the path that led him from Ireland to New York. An amalgam of old footage and photos, shot footage, animation, and… Continue reading Tumbling Towards Home: Tale of the Child’s Homecoming
Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero: A Fictional Foray Into the Context of a Musical Masterpiece
JZ Murdock’s 28-minute film-poem Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero uses the documentary format to imagine the private life of French composer Maurice Ravel during his service in WWI. Through this, Murdock imagines Ravel’s process that ended with the composition of one of the most famous pieces of classical music, Bolero. Set to the piece itself and other… Continue reading Pvt. Ravel’s Bolero: A Fictional Foray Into the Context of a Musical Masterpiece
Kasama: Documenting Food through Struggle and Comfort
Nick Cavalier’s culinary documentary Kasama is a sumptuous 17-minute story of how the eponymous Chicago-based restaurant came into being, struggled through COVID-19 lockdowns, and a menu flavoured with immigrant heritage. As its subjects are Tim Flores the chef and Genie Kwon the baker, couple and co-founders. The subjects are shot with languid natural lighting; the… Continue reading Kasama: Documenting Food through Struggle and Comfort
The Story of Mama Butterfly: Painstaking Creation and All its Poetic Ripples
YuQi-an’s 4-minute The Story of Mama Butterfly is short for a documentary but impactful nonetheless. Dispensing with perspective representation to a significant degree, it records the cultural history of a group through its embroidery tradition. The film documents the place of butterfly embroidery in the Miao group in China. Startlingly graphic in its non-perspectival layout,… Continue reading The Story of Mama Butterfly: Painstaking Creation and All its Poetic Ripples
Remembering Baba: An Ode To One’s Father
Directed, edited and produced by Daljit Singh, Remembering Baba is a 25:22-minute long documentary that essentially illustrates a son’s love for his father. Stylised as a visual eulogy, the film offers a cornucopia of photographs, home-video footages, CCTV footage along with hand-held camera moments to encapsulate the life of Balbir Singh. For the entire length… Continue reading Remembering Baba: An Ode To One’s Father