1. Documentary Review: Until I Fly (2024) by Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty
At the same time though, and if one looks at the story in a wider prism, the issues with emigration and the racism that results from it are highlighted quite eloquently, along with a comment that problems like that become even more significant in small societies, where one can definitely not ‘hide in the crowd'. As such, the movie is induced with a more universal essence, which definitely helps raise the quality of its context.
2. Interview: Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty
3. Queer Japan (2019) by Graham Kolbeins
Choosing the protagonist wisely, “Queer Japan” gives space to a good sample of voices to be listened to. Butoh dancers, drag queens, club founders and owners, author of gay manga featuring bear gays, erotic drawing artist, politician. Gay, lesbian, bi, trans men, trans women, non-binary people, pansexuals, all kinds of various fetishes lovers and many many others. All of them as walking and talking proves of human sexuality going beyond gender. (Anomalilly)
4. Johatsu-Into Thin Air (2024) by Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori
The best trait of Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori's work is definitely the thoroughness of their research and the way they present it on screen, covering the concept from every possible angle. In that regard, “Johatsu” deals with the people who run the ‘night-moving' companies, who are soon revealed to be individuals who also ran at some point, their clients, as in the people who run, their reasons and their lives after their escape, and the people who are left behind, not all of which are actually as malevolent as in some cases. In that regard, it is definitely an achievement, considering the essence of the whole concept, how the directors managed to convince these people to appear on camera and talk in detail about their reasons, their current lives and their dreams of the future, in what is, clearly, a series of shocking revelations.
5. Documentary Short Review: An Asian Ghost Story (2023) by Bo Wang
Everything looks fake and real at the same time, in distinct mockumentary fashion. Feng Shui masters jumping around and reciting Mao's poems become parts of the story, along with the ever present ghosts that seem to always be connected with hair and wigs. The narrator also changes the story's focus eventually, focusing on herself, and another absurd tale which has her becoming a wig and travelling abroad. The aforementioned elements continue as the movie progresses, with the stories becoming more and more ludicrous. The “Sadako” interview (and the translation) cements the whole thing in the most fitting way, while songs sung backwards and a series of performances close the movie.
6. Documentary Review: Kabul Beauty (2023) by Margaux Benn and Solène Chalvon-Fioriti
The combination of the two axes is quite well presented, and essentially one of the best technical aspects of the movie, as the change between the streets, the parlor, the girls' homes and eventually Europe, keeps the documentary entertaining, from beginning to end. At the same time that their trip, both literally and metaphorically, is successful, at least until the movie ended, at and at least to a point, provides a breath of fresh air in a setting such as the one of the Taliban's Afghanistan, where the positive stories are not exactly in abundance.
7. Documentary Review: From Abdul to Leila (2024) by Leila Albayaty
As such, the documentary unfolds in a number of axes, which border from the usual documentary approach to the delirious. Her father's stories about Iraq are quite interesting to listen to, as much as her mother's, which also include how the two met. Leila's issues with her father during her childhood to teenage years are also revealed, while the shadow of what happened to her in Iraq is hanging above the whole narrative here. Scenes of her dancing in a club, her drawings, her effort to learn Arabic, and her collaboration with her father in order to turn his poems into songs she sings are also repeated in the documentary. Lastly, a trip she takes to Egypt, where she also has a discussion with a victim of torturing in Iraq and a number of events that made the relationship between the West and the Arab world (Bataclan, USA's ‘war on terror”) conclude the rather multilevel approach.
8. Documentary Review: And So It Begins (2024) by Ramona S. Diaz
As such, “And So it Begins” emerges as a mixed bag, as it manages to shed light in the aforementioned campaigns, and parts of local history many seem to have forgotten, but never actually delving deeper, in an approach that borders on the epidermal. Furthermore, the inclusion of Ressa's “arc” seems forced on occasion, to the point that it looks as if Diaz was not sure about the direction her film wanted to take, thus ending up with a level of compromise. The film is not bad per se, but compared to the Filipino's previous works, it is definitely on a lower level.
9. Documentary Review: Pol Pot Dancing (2024) by Enrique Sánchez Lansch
The historical and political aspect of the documentary is truly captivating to watch in its various forms. People's testimonies, from both cities and the rural areas, footage from the past including interviews with Pol Pot, the stories Chea Samy shares, all create a portrait of terror. The forced relocation of the urban population to the countryside, where they were forced to work on collective farms, the abolishing of money which led to mass hunger, and the forced pairing of men and women which still torments the country are all mentioned here in all their appalling glory. The terrifying stats, which mention that around 25% of the population died, either due to hunger and other ailments, or simply murdered as political adversaries, conclude this shocking portrait of genocide.
10. Documentary Review: The Making of a Japanese (2023) by Ema Ryan Yamazaki
“The Making of a Japanese” is an excellent documentary that sheds much light on how the locals are shaped from the elementary level, as much as a testament on how the order that dominates most aspects of life in the country is instilled in them.
