Documentary films
Filmmaker Faces Her Father's Mortality By Staging His 'Death' Again And Again
Kirsten Johnson's new Netflix documentary, Dick Johnson Is Dead, tells the story of moving her dad out of his home in Seattle and into her apartment in New York. It also enacts her father's death from imagined accidents, like getting hit in the head by a falling air conditioner or tripping on a crack in the sidewalk.
Johnson has worked as a cinematographer for over 50 documentaries, and has directed seven movies, including Cameraperson and the short film The Above. She says her father laughed when she pitched the idea to him.
Documentary Chronicles Students' Fight For Black Rights During 'Freedom Summer'
Freedom Summer, now streaming on PBS, focuses on the 1964 movement to get Black people to vote in Mississippi. Director Stanley Nelson and organizer Charles Cobb discussed the film in 2014.
'Guide To Freedom' Documentary Chronicles The Real Life 'Green Book'
Filmmaker Yoruba Richen's documentary, The Green Book: Guide to Freedom, tells the story of the manual that helped African-Americans find safe places to stay, eat, shop and do business on the road.
Netflix Documentary Revisits Decades-Old Mystery Between Filmmaker And Mentor
Sandi Tan was 19 when she wrote and starred in a film directed by her 40-year-old mentor. Then her mentor disappeared with the film footage. Twenty years later, Tan chronicles the mystery in Shirkers.
A Filmmaker's 'Quest' For A Quiet Family Portrait Is Pierced By Unforeseen Trauma
Jonathan Olshefski spent 10 years filming Christopher Rainey and his family, who run a recording studio in a working-class African-American section of North Philadelphia. Then their daughter was shot.
'Becoming Cary Grant' Reveals The Self-Invention Of A Hollywood Icon
The new documentary about Cary Grant is a fascinating look at the contrast between Grant's personal unhappiness, and onscreen persona.