Political Docs

New Doc: Ex-Con Detectives Fight to Exonerate Wrongfully Convicted

Jamie Meltzer, the director of "Informant," a recent favorite doc of mine which I called "a 'Fog of War' for the age of Occupy" about anarchist turned informant Brandon Darby, has a new project, looking for funds on Kickstarter, which seems worthy of our attention. Called "Freedom Fighters," the new...

Race, Class and Warfare at Tribeca

One of the most powerful new documentaries at this year's Tribeca, Dan Krauss’s well-crafted and compelling investigative expose "The Kill Team," hits all the right buttons: political injustice, moral outrage, and emotional catharsis. Of all the films I've previewed from this year's festival, Krau...

"The Gatekeepers" and Israeli's Leftist Docu Wave

Are Israel's acclaimed documentaries -- "The Gatekeepers" (which opens today in New York and L.A.), "5 Broken Cameras" and "The Law in These Parts" -- helping to swing public opinion in Israel to the left? That's the question I explore in my Docutopia colum...

Leftwing Doc-Makers No Longer Easy On Obama

Are progressive documentary filmmakers finished with giving Barack Obama a free pass?

For Late-term Abortion Doc "After Tiller," Sundance Increases Security

With Oscar Nom, Will Palestinian Doc "5 Broken Cameras" Enter Mainstream Debate?

I've been advocating on behalf of "5 Broken Cameras," Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi's engrossing and intimate doc chronicle of Burnat and his village's struggles for self-determination in Occupied Palestine, for nearly a year now. I first wrote about in March, then championed it ...

The Top 12 Political Films of 2012

As an election year, 2012 was particularly rife with political filmmaking. Capitalizing on the highly energized, contentious race for the White House—and a body politic particularly attuned to issues of economic inequality and foreign instability—Hollywood definitely got into the act:...

What's More Inane than "2016: Obama's America" Filmmakers Whining About Oscar?

What's more inane? That Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of "Schindler’s List "and "2016: Obama's America" and the doc's director Dinesh D’Souza believe they should have been on the Oscar shortlist for best documentary? Or that The Hollyw...

"Gasland's" Josh Fox Unleashes "Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change"

Is Josh Fox the new Michael Moore? Or perhaps Brave New Films' Robert Greenwald is the better analogy. From fracking to climate change, the "Gasland" filmmaker is turning into a one-man agit-prop movie machine, unleashing short films to activate his nearly 10,000 Twitter followers and effect the deb...