This is an effective anti-sugar propaganda piece. It pushes an extreme criticism of the food industry and those in government complicit in pushing their agenda. By using the heartfelt stories of extremely overweight young people, it poses that just exercise cannot be enough to keep Americans healthy and what has been pushed as healthier alternatives is anything but. It’s very effective, but not very clear on the data that supports its various assertions.
Telling the story of the NAMES Project Memorial Quilt, this film focuses on the stories of 5 individuals featured on the quilt, told through recollections by family and loved ones. I’ve seen exhibits of the Quilt and witnessed people seeing their loved one’s panel for the first time. It’s a powerful and emotional experience, as is watching this documentary. It doesn’t hide from its duty to provide the history, the negligence, and the awfulness that occurred during the early days of the epidemic, but it remains dedicated to showing the real humans living and dying with this horrible disease.
Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features
I’m so glad this film exists. History, particularly the type that powerful people don’t want shared, is so often lost after the people who lived it die. This documentary is filled with interviews and footage from loyal members and supporters of the American Communist Party. It tells the history of the party in the US, particularly from its highest popularity to its decline during the derangement that was the Second Red Scare. It’s intriguing to me that this was made during the climax of the Cold War and still painted a sympathetic view of these American patriots.
Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features
As a lifelong casual fan of The Go-Go’s, this offered a fun glimpse into their early years. There’s plenty of footage from their punk days and includes enough interviews with each of the members to leave no doubt that a ‘girls’ group can be as raucous as any of their male counterparts. The constant reminders that they were the ‘first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs and have a No. 1 album’ made some of the film feel like a successful pitch for them to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. There’s also a complete erasure of 30 years of the band’s turbulent history: they were successful in the 80s, broke up, and ta-da they’re now recording music again. It’s a decent rockumentary for anyone jonesing for a Behind the Music fix. 
It’s an interesting fact that protest songs play an important role during civil rights struggles. During the many long years of apartheid, music helped unite and motivate South African activists during the various stages of their struggle. Amandla! features interviews from many performers and other revolutionaries who were active during those years, giving their own accounts of the events they experienced. As that, it’s a valuable time capsule, but what really shines in the film is the music itself. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.
After watching Streetwise, I had wanted to see this follow-up to the life of Erin Blackwell. There had been a couple of other short updates over the years. I wish I had watched those before seeing this one as they provide a much better introduction than immediately starting with Erin’s more recent life. This film jumps between original footage from Streetwise to the shorts to recent footage with little division or clarity even to which of Erin’s ten children are being featured. I wish they had chosen to include an intro similar to the Up series and then jumped into the current update instead of interspersing the timelines. While there is evidently a pattern to be seen from generation to generation, there is no commentary on that or any other contemporary issues that could be explored with the subjects. The film stays solely in the Where Are They Now category.
I spent my time watching this being extremely torn. There’s the strong pull to want to ‘save’ these kids from the future that is most likely to look just like their parents’ present. But is it really the job of an outsider to swoop in and ‘fix’ someone else’s system? Helping even a handful of individuals, while worthwhile, won’t necessarily solve the problems in the brothels. At the conclusion of the film, I ended up hoping that it had just concentrated on the lessons and experiences with photography that the kids delighted in, even if it was just illustrating a short chapter in their lives. An epilogue could have been tacked on to give insight into whatever long term benefits those experiences had given them.
Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features
Mothers experiencing one of the worst things imaginable and using that grief to push for the truth is inspirational. Sadly, the quality of this film is not quite able to do the subject justice. It has the feel of a nightly news exposé rather than a meaningful documentary. I appreciate that this film exists to give light to the atrocities that had been committed in Argentina and the fight of these women.
Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features
My first exposure to Rose Marie was watching Match Game reruns. Having never watched The Dick Van Dyke Show, I wasn’t even aware she was part of the cast. It was only in recent years that I saw a bit of her singing as Baby Rose Marie and was completely surprised to discover they were one and the same person. I’m glad that they were able to make this film before she passed on because her nine decades long career spans so many aspects of show business from radio to television to stage to film. As a biopic, it stays mainly on the glossier side of things, only lightly addressing the child exploitation and mob tie aspects of her career, but it’s great to see interviews from so many nonagenarian performers, such as Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Peter Marshall, and Rose Marie herself.
All of my South African apartheid viewing has been limited to the days of segregation. I’m poorly informed on how the post-Apartheid era. I appreciated this window into the Truth and Reconciliation Committee even if the production quality was not far from a Public Access television level. I especially laud the choice of the filmmakers do focus on the stories themselves, only telling the viewer of the conclusion in an epilogue.
Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features