13TH
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2016: Nonfiction Storytelling in a World of Fake News
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” as the maxim goes, and that was certainly the case in 2016. Following the election of Donald Trump, the fictional dystopian worlds of The Hunger Games, Westworld, and Black Mirror suddenly seemed pointedly realistic, and our new reality felt mighty strange. Some of the year’s most powerful nonfiction films, including Ava DuVernay’s 13th, Dawn Porter’s Trapped, and Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, took on new urgency as civil rights and reproductive rights increasingly came under fire. By intercutting scenes of Trump supporters physically assaulting African-Americans at his rallies with scenes of whites threatening black people during the civil rights movement […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 29, 2016 -
2016: The Year in 10 Double Features
The double feature has been a moviewatching mainstay since at least the 1930s. Their appeal is obvious: What better way to cap off a film than to delay real life for a few hours more with another one? Few of us catch double bills at a theater anymore, but their allure remains strong at home. As sites like Mashable and Uproxx reported this year, Netflix users can access double-feature-friendly micro-genres with ease. These days, the work of curating a dual bill of “critically-acclaimed gritty independent crime dramas” is practically done for you. You can even start the next film without […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Dec 22, 2016 -
Trailer Watch: Ava DuVernay’s 13th
Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, will have its world premiere as the Opening Night selection of the 54th New York Film Festival. The first-ever nonfiction work to open the festival, 13th will debut on Netflix and open in a limited theatrical run on October 7. You can check out its first trailer above. The title of the film refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The film chronicles the history of racial inequality and examines how the U.S. has produced […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 26, 2016
