International Feature Race - 15 Contenders Thus Far

by Nathaniel R

Though I know I've been absent from writing, I have been updating the International Feature Film Oscar charts to track the submissions. So far 15 countries have announced their submissions, some of which are available to US viewers. After the jump, the list so far, impending decisions from Israel and South Korea, and general observations...

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Review: Yance Ford's "Power" Succinctly Details A Violent History of U.S. Policing

by Nick Taylor

There will always be room for art chronicling the systemic and individual injustices wrought on America by its own police force. Hell, you could probably apply that sentiment to police in any country, to an armed institution given virtually unchecked power on any scale. Power, the latest documentary from filmmaker Yance Ford, follows the history and development of US policing with a dry, succinct eye...

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Doc Corner: Best Documentaries of 2023

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

I usually give myself until the Oscar ceremony to do any best-of-the-year lists. Mostly because I like to be as thorough as I can be. This year, however, lent me a few extra hurdles to jump over, which meant it took me a little bit longer than normal. Buying my first home, a litany of illnesses, the loss of a close friend, and general exhaustion with the movies of 2023. But, hey, here we are at the end of March and, honestly, movies don’t just vanish once the year is out so why not finally go about publishing my best documentaries of the year list?

This year in documentary lacked the sort of movie like All the Beauty and the Bloodshed or Collective that loomed over the entire end-of-year discussion and therefore there was no clear number one title of the year. For me, at least. But that didn’t mean there weren’t many to choose from. Most critics groups lingered on the sort of American movies that the Academy does not gravitate towards. Some didn’t like that the Academy ignored them all, but if the industry is so hung up on American features not being nominated then maybe they need to fund and release more challenging works. Just a thought.

I wanted to start, however, with a few special citations before we get to the top 15 documentaries of the year.

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SXSW Review: ‘Plastic People’

By Abe Friedtanzer

How much do we actually want to know about the products we use? It’s easy to write off potentially problematic labor processes or ingredients for the sake of convenience, though that’s probably not the smartest idea long-term. Those who would rather not turn a blind eye to unnerving science and would prefer to be in the know will find plenty to learn - and be endlessly disturbed about - in the documentary Plastic People, which dissects just how far we’ve already gone in terms of our indulgence in a problematic industry…

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Sundance Review: Tracing the History of the Police in ‘Power’

By Abe Friedtanzer 

Police reform is a hot-button issue, with calls from the left to "defund the police" and responses from the right that “blue lives” matter. Complicating those concepts is the fact that every American has grown up with the police as an established reality. Considering what something else could look like requires an acknowledgment that it hasn’t always been this way and perhaps shouldn’t be. Yance Ford’s documentary Power looks at the history of the police and how that’s shaped where we as a country now.

So much of present-day policing stems from racist institutions, beginning with slave catchers as the original model for police forces, which first began in Boston and quickly spread throughout the country...

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