Should one buy popcorn before watching a documentary about the cruel (albeit, sometimes thrilling) realities of war? That’s one of the confounding contradictions posed by a theatrically-released war documentary such as Restrepo, the Sundance documentary that was directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington. Are we supposed to enjoy watching documentaries, like any other good […]

“Genius.” “Brilliant.” Those were words used to describe Joan Rivers Monday night at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, the story of the comedienne-entertainer. I was interested in seeing the film largely because I was curious about how two serious doc directors I respect, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg […]

Tonight’s broadcast of The English Surgeon has received some great advance reviews in both the press and online. Blogger Michael Tully at the Hammer to Nail blog effused, “For all of you television watchers out there, do the right thing tonight and put your sitcoms, one-hour dramas, and sports on hold in order to take […]