If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to witness it, is there beauty in the destruction? The implication of “Encounters at the Edge of the World,” Werner Herzog’s new documentary, is that humankind, as the eyes and ears of the universe, is required for that perception. In evolutionary terms, the [...]
“Man On Wire” is the elegant telling of the particulars behind the legend of Phillipe Petit, the high wire artist who won fame by walking between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Built around interviews with the participants and accentuated by reenactments, the film is much more than a summation of [...]
Superheroes are a curious creature largely because they are such a specific fantasy. There is really no real world equivalent for them — unlike fairy tales of old, superheroes are not supernatural ways to explain natural phenomena or to pose moral lessons to children. Despite some roots in mythology and tall tales — as well [...]
I spoke to Rick Piltz in regard to his appearance in the film “Everything’s Cool,” which chronicled the efforts to get information on global warming out to the public and past the Republican propaganda machine. Piltz was a senior associate in the Climate Change Science Program Office under Bush — he started under Clinton — [...]
I was intrigued by Keir Moreano’s documentary film “Unspooled” when I first read about it. It’s the tale of an ill-fated student film shoot — it follows a crew of NYU film students trying to work on one guy’s senior project.
I’m a former NYU film student — some might say “failed,” but I would counter [...]
In “Autism: The Musical,” an extra-curricular program for autistic kids provides the framing device to gather different families and look into their lives.
Autism has gotten a lot of press lately, sometimes in the form of Asperger’s Syndrome, other times in the continued and controversial debate over causes and cures (science has found no conclusive evidence [...]
The Salton Sea is a man-made body of water created in 1901 after developers diverted water from the Colorado River and created a prosperous farming community in the Imperial Valley. Silt created by run-off from the farms blocked water entries to the canals, so engineers made cuts to allow the water to flow through, which [...]
Sarah Lamm’s film, “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox,” tells the story behind Dr. Bronner’s Magical Soap, a product as renowned for its packaging as it is for its efficacy — which is considerable in its own right. The soap is a multi-purpose cleaning agent — it’s reported to perform as a body and hand soap, as [...]
When Lizzie Gottlieb decided to make a documentary about her brother, she hoped that it would lead to some understanding of his life for her family and herself. Since the release of her film “Today’s Man,” it has opened up a world of people who share his disabilities and have helped open up a world [...]
The documentary “Free Spirits” functions an amazing window to a lost world, infiltrating the lives and minds of participants in an actual hippie commune, created in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts the late 1960s by Mike Metelica, prone to childhood visions and an interest in being a rock and roll bad boy.
The commune — originally [...]
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