ReelPolitik

Why ITVS should be held accountable and "Citizen Koch" should be called "Citizen Corp"

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:04:16 GMT

By not further commenting on its role to pull out of Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's documentary "Citizen Koch," ITVS, the prominent independent documentary funding organization, is shooting itself in...

The Anti-"Milk": Will "Behind the Candelabra" Get Tarnished as Homophobic?

Anthony Kaufman — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:48:41 GMT

Watch out, GLAAD. While filmmaker Steven Soderbergh's Liberace bio-pic "Behind the Candelabra" presents a complex, ambiguous portrait of the famous flamboyant performer, the gay establishment could...

Cannes front-runner Asghar Farhadi can't escape politics of "The Past"

Anthony Kaufman — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:00:54 GMT

A front-runner for Cannes' top prize, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's "The Past," does not, on its surface, take up the dicey social and political questions that hovered around the surface of his...

In Defense of "Frances Ha": Why Middle-Class White Angst Is Angst, Too

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:51:52 GMT

In some corners, Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha" is getting lumped in with a certain cycle of mumblecore movies that focused on young white people with nothing to do with their lives except whining and...

"My Neighbourhood" Exposes Israelis Brutal Displacement of Palestinian Families

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:55:22 GMT

"I hate them, I hate them for a reason," says Mohammed El Kurd, the young boy who is at the center of Julia Bacha's Peabody-winning short film "My Neighborhood," which bracingly shows the experiences...

Jia Zhang-ke's "A Touch of Sin" Divides Critics, Adds Bloodshed to Critique of Capitalist China

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:22:18 GMT

Jia Zhang-ke's latest "A Touch of Sin" is dividing critics in Cannes, but the bigger surprise is that Chinese officials haven't censored the film. This more mainstream depiction of Jia's trademark...

Who is "Politizane" and What's Next for the Income Inequality Viral Video

Anthony Kaufman — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:56:25 GMT

I'm a little late to pseudonymous filmmaker Politizane's viral income inequality video, which peaked in March and has now ratcheted up more than 6 million views on YouTube. Thanks to Errol Morris's...

Abrams' New "Star Trek" Loaded with Political Parallels: Kirk as Obama

Anthony Kaufman — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:14:06 GMT

Oops, Hollywood did it again. It seems every big-ticket summer movie these days gets loaded with overt political content. First, it was "Iron Man 3"; now it's the latest "Star Trek" installment from...

Will "Gatsby"'s Anti-Semitism Cost it Oscar Noms?

Anthony Kaufman — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:35:33 GMT

Movies with racist portrayals of African Americans haven't hurt their Oscar chances much--consider "Secretariat" or "Million Dollar Baby" or any number of well-meaning racially-charged movies that...

All Tomorrow's Parties: "The Great Gatsby" Meet "Spring Breakers"

Anthony Kaufman — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:11:02 GMT

Within the span of a couple months, audiences and media have witnessed the debauched excess of the American Dream gone sour, of attractive young men and women imbibing themselves to delirium,...

Anti-Abortion Groups Attack "After Tiller" and Its Subjects

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:42:50 GMT

An anti-abortion group has released an undercover video, it is being widely reported, that attacks the acclaimed documentary "After Tiller" and one of its subjects, Dr. LeRoy Carhart. The video...

End Times: Violence and Destruction at Cannes 2013

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:15:00 GMT

There's nothing like the world's most prestigious film festival to take the pulse of our collective consciousness. And if you look closely at this year's films, the results are downright brutal, with...

LGBT Film Fests Drawn Into International Political Disputes

Anthony Kaufman — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:26:25 GMT

Two stories received over the transom today reveal the tricky international politics of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film events, and the activist beliefs they stand by. While San...

From Michael Haneke to David Lynch, Filmmakers Protest to Protect Local Film Markets Before U.S. Trade Negotiations

Anthony Kaufman — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:35:52 GMT

More than 150 filmmakers, mostly from Europe, are demanding that movies and other audiovisual media be excluded from negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union and the U.S.,...

Baz Luhrmann's Glitzy "Great Gatsby": Out of Step with America's 99%

Anthony Kaufman — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:30:14 GMT

Still struggling with the Great 2008 Depression, enduring economic inequality and Congressional intransigence, Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" looks as if it will become a major miscalculation--not...

Will Spielberg's "American Sniper" Anger the NRA or Celebrate It?

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:06:59 GMT

He lived by the gun and died by the gun. This was one of many similar headlines when celebrated U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle was killed earlier this year. Now that Steven Spielberg has announced his...

The 10 Best #SarahPalinFilms Tweets and Why Netflix's "Iron Sky" Isn't One of Them

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:07:13 GMT

Who doesn't love a meme. The best one for today is the viral exploding Twitter hashtag #SarahPalinFilms, which features names of films or made-up films that people are using to trash the former...

The Politics of "Iron Man 3": Pro-Capitalist and Anti-War; Anti-Capitalist and Pro-War

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:57:26 GMT

The summer's first would-be superhero blockbuster opens Friday, and with it comes a familiar colliding mix of ideological positions being shoved down our collective throats. Without the strangely out...

Spiritualist Activism? Occupy Meets "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

Anthony Kaufman — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:17:20 GMT

Ever since the success of "What the Bleep Do We Know?", the 2004 spiritual self-help documentary, a cottage industry has developed around films that cater to spiritual-minded audiences. Distributor...

Andrew Breitbart and the Hypocrisies of Rightwing Docs

Anthony Kaufman — Wed, 01 May 2013 13:33:04 GMT

The hypocrisies of the rightwing media are fascinating to behold: Claiming bias while engendering further bias; disavowing race and class warfare while fomenting racial and class divides; and taking...

Provocative Nuclear Power Doc "Pandora's Promise" Drops On Theaters This Summer

Anthony Kaufman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:13:18 GMT

Director Robert Stone's controversial doc "Pandora’s Promise," which challenges environmentalists’ assumptions on the dangers of nuclear power, will be released in theaters on June 12 by distributor...

Is Gael Garcia Bernal the Most Progressive Force in World Cinema?

Anthony Kaufman — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:25:43 GMT

Hot on the heels of Participant Media's recent production announcement of Lluis Quilez's supernatural thriller "Out of the Dark," which is likely to be infused with political undertones, the company...

Will Participant's Latest Spanish Coproduction Expose Corporate Pollution?

Anthony Kaufman — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:37:15 GMT

Last week, it was announced that Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman would star in Lluis Quilez's "Out of the Dark," a supernatural thriller presented by Participant Media, the company known for...

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

Anthony Kaufman — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:01:29 GMT

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,...

"At Any Price": Zac Efron and The Decline of America's Heartland

Anthony Kaufman — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:17:55 GMT

Is the most politically thought-provoking film of the season a drama starring Zac Efron as an aspiring racecar driver? Seems so. Directed by Ramin Bahrani, the director of such small class-conscious...