The Brooklyn Rail

The Filmmaker’s a Clown

By Lisa Rosman

Here’s a dilemma. Say you always complain that filmmakers need to be more socially responsible, that they need to—not to put too fine a point on it—get off their cinematic asses and make films—no, movies that reflect that, aside from Michael Jordan, Mohammed, or Jesus Christ, nobody plays a greater hand in forming how and what people today believe and do than filmmakers.

Bukowski: Born Into This

By Williams Cole

The cult of Charles Bukowski, based as it is on reverence for the drunken down-and-out poet who speaks the truth, is ready-made fodder for both celebrities as well as hipsters seeking literary street cred.

In Conversation

Jehane Noujaim

By Mridu Chandra

Control Room gives us an account of the first 6 weeks of the war in Iraq from the inside of Al Jazeera, the satellite news network based in Qatar and watched by millions in the Arab world.

Docs in Sight: The New Dawn of the Profitable Political Film

By Williams Cole

May 5 wasn’t only Cinco de Mayo but also marked a day of revolution for political documentaries in the arena of popular culture.

Yvonne Rainer: Dancing in the U.S. Interstices of Experimental Film

By Michael Joshua Rowin

Existing in that obscure space between the didactic, leftist cinema of Godard and the time-based cinema of Warhol, and often lost among better-known legends of the avant-garde stands Yvonne Rainer.

Everyday People

By Theodore Hamm

Sometimes the biggest issues can only be dealt with in the smallest stories.