By William Engel The year 2009 saw the release of “The Cove”, a harrowing documentary about the Japanese village of Taiji and their barbaric practice of ritualistic whaling. Nearly ten years later, “A Whale of a Tale” strives to set the record straight. “A Whale of a Tale” documents the journey of Jay Alabaster, an…
By William Engel “3 Years in Pakistan: The Erik Audé Story” documents the story of a Hollywood stuntman who got roped into a drug smuggling operation in Pakistan, leading to him being placed on death row for a crime he wasn’t responsible for. We’re taken though his desperate struggle to survive and prove his…
By William Engel “Virgin Blacktop: A New York Skate Odyssey” is a documentary chronicling the genesis, peak and dissolution of The Wizards, a team of nine New York teenagers united by their passion for skateboarding. The film is comprised of footage, news articles and stories spanning more than thirty years, compiled by Charlie Samuels,…
By William Engel “Transformer” is a documentary following the life of Janae Kroczaleski (née Matt), a world champion weightlifter and bodybuilder who came out as a trans woman in 2015. The film chronicles her life leading up to that point, and her trials and tribulations as a person in the process of transitioning, caught between…
By William Engel “To a More Perfect Union: U.S. v. Windsor” is an hour-long documentary telling the life story of Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, allowing same-sex unions to receive the same protections as heterosexual unions under federal law. The film…
By William Engel Told with great simplicity and power, “Bridget and Iain” is a heart wrenching story of a mother and son who have a wedge driven between them by the latter’s drug addiction. The film begins with the mother, Bridget, visiting her son, Iain, in rehab. The two of them have a tense conversation…
By William Engel The PBS broadcast of “The Chinese Exclusion Act”, was a daring, sobering documentary about the titular law that prevented Chinese-Americans from being recognized as citizens for more than half a century. Through multiple accounts and both primary and secondary sources, the film provides an in-depth look at the history of the Chinese…
By William Engel “Regionrat”, based on the Richard Laskowski novel of the same name, follows Ray (Connor Williams), a broke and lonely young man who spends six months trying to make it in Seattle before deciding to move back to his hometown to finish high school. He runs into trouble before long, however, when the…
By William Engel It is a world that proves to be more intricate, more fascinating and even more disturbing than it appears on the surface. The film focuses on Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, one of the most accomplished and notorious trolls in the history of the net. The prodigious provocateur has, to date, publicly revealed…
By William Engel After years of building up a reputation as one of the industry’s top special effects gurus, Hiroshi Katagiri made his feature length directorial debut with the premiere of c. I’m happy to report that it succeeds not only as a horror film, but as a harrowing drama that casts a damning light…
