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The Chicago Reader

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Film, Movie Review Jan 18, 2018
Video
Jane Goodall and Hedy Lamarr: Bold, beautiful, and brilliantly unschooled

Two recent documentaries, Jane and Bombshell, profile women whose modest educations left them open to new ideas.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Jane, Bombshell, Hedy Lamarr, Gombe Stream Game Reserve, David Greybeard, Cambridge University, National Geographic, Hugo van Lawick, documentaries, women in science, movies, Gustav Machaty, Ecstasy movie, Fritz Mandl, Louis B. Mayer, City of Benares, George Antheil, National Inventors Council, Fleming Meeks, Jane Goodall, Tanzania, Anthony Loder, U.S. Navy, Jeanine Basinger, Screen Actors Guild, Bournemouth England, Louis Leakey, Bombshell The Hedy Lamarr Story, Alexandra Dean, Jane, Brett Morgen, Hedy’s Folly, Richard Rhodes, frequency hopping, Forbes magazine, Video

Film, Movie Review Nov 2, 2017
Recommended Video
With Human Flow, Ai Weiwei takes a global perspective on refugee crises

The latest documentary from the Chinese artist and filmmaker presents all exiled peoples as one.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Human Flow, Ai Weiwei, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, international refugees, documentaries, Recommended, Video

Film, Movie Review Oct 26, 2017
Inside the sanatorium that produced outsider artist Henry Darger

With Revolutions of the Night, documentary maker Mark Stokes uncovers the childhood trauma that inspired the controversial fabulist.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Review, Revolutions of the Night, The Enigma of Henry Darger, Mark Stokes, outsider art, mental illness, documentaries, Henry Darger

Film, Movie Review Oct 5, 2017
Recommended
In Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris, the public library is still a laboratory of democracy

The legendary documentary maker dives headfirst into the New York public library system.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Ex Libris: The New York Public Library, Frederick Wiseman, Public Housing, Titicut Follies, Paris Opera Ballet, La Danse, Crazy Horse Paris, R. Lord’s Boxing Gym, National Gallery London, Tony Marx New York Public Library, OneNYC, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Ted Merwin, Pastrami on Rye, Yusef Komunyakaa, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, public libraries, inclusive city, documentaries, Recommended

Film, Movie Review May 11, 2017
Recommended Video
Boy, do we need Jane Jacobs now

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City profiles the author who battled urban expressways and high-rise housing.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Matt Tyrnauer, Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Robert Moses, Washington Square Park, West Greenwich Village, SoHo, Architectural Forum, Robert A.M. Stern, Geoffrey West, Paul Goldberger, Thomas J. Campanella, Alexander Garvin, Mayor Robert F. Wagner, lower Manhattan expressway, city planning, urban planning, public housing, high-rise construction, historical preservation, documentaries, Recommended, Video

Film, Movie Review May 3, 2017
Recommended
Up close—maybe too close—with Julian Assange

Laura Poitras, who recorded the Edward Snowden leak in Citizenfour, returns with her latest documentary, Risk.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, Laura Poitras, Citizenfour, Risk Laura Poitras, U.S. Justice Department, Edward Snowden, Jacob Appelbaum, Tor Project, national security, government transparency, espionage, documentaries, Recommended

Film, Movie Feature Apr 19, 2017
A local documentary maker stages his great-grandfather’s lost Colombian opera

With The Way to Andina, Arlen Parsa records his journey from filmmaker to musical impresario.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Feature, Arlen Parsa, Columbia College, Eustasio Rosales, Bolero Eustasio Rosales, The Way to Andina, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Three Spanish Dances, Athenaeum Theatre, Expatriation Act of 1907, Errol Morris, Bronzeville, Chris Ramaekers, Luis Carlos Rodríguez Álvarez, University of Antioquia, National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, immigration, Colombian music, Latino film, documentaries

Film, Movie Feature Mar 29, 2017
Recommended
The Doc10 film festival offers an alternative to alternative facts

Ten new documentaries make their Chicago premieres at this year’s edition.
- Tags: Movie Feature, Doc 10, Society for Arts, Chicago International Doc Film Festival, Bus 174, The Murder of Emmitt Till, The Same River Twice, OT: Our Town, Chicago Media Project, Casting JonBenet, Kitty Green, The Cinema Travelers, Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya, A Useful Life, Death in the Terminal, Tali Shemesh, Asaf Sudry, Obit movie, New York Times, Vanessa Gould, William McDonald, Bruce Weber, Rat Film, Theo Anthony, Sweet Dillard, James Virga, Christopher Dorsey, Dillard Center School for the Arts, Trophy movie, Shaul Schwarz, Christina Clusiau, Whose Streets?, Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis, Ferguson Missouri, Michael Brown Jr., documentaries, film festivals, Recommended

Film, Movie Review Mar 15, 2017
Jon Stewart talked the talk; Bassem Youssef walked the walk

Daily Show producer Sara Taksler directs this profile of the Egyptian political satirist who went too far.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Rosewater movie, Maziar Bahari, Sara Taksler, Tickling Giants, Bassem Youssef, Al Bernameg, Mohamed Morsi, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, CNN International, Hosni Mubarak, Tahrir Square, The B+ Show, ONTV Egypt, Capitol Broadcast Center, Muslim Brotherhood, Cinema Radio theater, Middle East Broadcasting Center, Egyptian revolution of 2011, documentaries

Blogs, Bleader Feb 10, 2017
Video
After Sundance, the impact of the Chicago Media Project’s films continues

After backing seven films at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, CMP focuses on the future.
- By Leah Pickett
- Tags: Film, Moviegoing, Education, Chicago Media Project, Sundance, Paula Froehle, Icarus, Trophy, Step, Bending the Arc, Whose Streets, Strong Island, CNN, Netflix, The Orchard, documentaries, DOC10, Davis Theatre, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Showtime, HBO, PBS, POV, Independent Lens, The Newburgh Sting, Meet the Patels, The Eagle Huntress, Good Pitch Chicago, The Homestretch, Cause Vox, Blueshift Education, Picture Motion, Romeo Is Bleeding, Video

Blogs, Bleader Oct 14, 2016
Video
Charlie Siskel discusses his new documentary about the author of The Anarchist Cookbook

The Chicago native interviewed William Powell for American Anarchist, a probing documentary that screens at the Chicago International Film Festival this weekend.
- By Leah Pickett
- Tags: Books, Film, Arts, Politics, Charlie Siskel, American Anarchist, Finding Vivian Maier, Anarchist Cookbook, William Powell, documentaries, Video

Blogs, Bleader Jul 22, 2016
Video
The Witness revisits a story falsified in search of a higher truth

The Witness revisits the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, which became a symbol of bystander apathy.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Crime, Film, The Witness, Kitty Genovese, Kew Gardens, Queens, Martin Gansberg, New York Times, Jim Rasenberger, Bill Genovese, Winston Moseley, James D. Solomon, Charles Skoller, Joseph De May Jr., ABC News, 20/20, Lynne Tillotson, Hattie Grund, A.M. Rosenthal, Thirty-eight Witnesses, bystander effect, crime, documentaries, movies, Video

Film, Movie Review Jul 21, 2016
Recommended
Are you happy? Inquiring nuns want to know

A 1968 documentary from Kartemquin Films explores the nature of fulfillment.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Gordon Quinn, Gerald Temaner, Sister Marie Arne, Sister Mary Campion, Inquiring Nuns, Kartemquin Films, Millennium Park, Philip Glass, happiness, documentaries, Recommended

Film, Movie Review Jul 7, 2016
Recommended
Frank Zappa was so left, he was right

A documentary profile of the avant-garage musician reveals his political conservatism.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, Frank Zappa, Eat That Question—Frank Zappa in His Own Words, Thorsten Schütte, Parents Music Resource Center, Senate committee for Science Commerce and Transportation, Tipper Gore, Al Gore, Albert Gore Jr., Susan Baker, James Baker, Ronald Reagan, The Real Frank Zappa Book, Paula Hawkins, rock music, classical music, experimental music, music censorship, drugs, documentaries, Recommended

Arts & Culture, Feature Mar 5, 2015
At Mad Mobster's peculiar crossroads of real and imagined horrors

As geeks descend on this weekend’s Wizard World Comic Con Fan Fest, we wade into the morally murky serial-killer culture of a far more unusual convention, the Mad Mobster True Crime & Horror Expo.
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Feature, Mad Mobster True Crime & Horror Expo, horror, crime, Mad Mobster, conventions, fan conventions, Mad Monster, Gunnar Hansen, Kyle Skogquist, Impaler, movies, fiction, reality, Kevin Blanchfield, horror movies, actors, Brad Dourif, Kane Hodder, Jason Voorhees, Virginia Curry, Richard Castaldo, Columbine High School, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Steve Railsback, William Forsyth, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, Ed Gein, serial killers, paraphernalia, memorabilia, collecting, Eben McGarr, ethics, celebrity, Kyle Kuchta, documentaries, John Borowski, Carl Panzram, H.H. Holmes, Jeffrey Dahmer, murderers, Macabre, Hart Fisher, murderabilia, Aileen Wuornos, panel discussions, William Harder, MurderAuction.com, eBay, Andy Kahan, Crime Victims Office, exhibits, Jesse James Hollywood, Nicholas Markowitz, Charles Manson, monsters, John Russo, Jon Polito, Wednesday 13, Murderdolls, David Fincher, Richmond Arquette, Charles Fleischer, Roy Hazelwood, Levi Tinker, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold

Blogs, Bleader Nov 13, 2014
Are some documentaries above criticism?

What we talk about when we talk about documentaries
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Media, Film, History, Watchers of the Sky, documentaries, Edet Belzberg, Rafael Lemkin, genocide, Shoah, Claude Lanzmann, Errol Morris, The Fog of War

Music, Gossip Wolf Jul 30, 2014
Gossip Wolf: The Thalia Hall team launches the Promontory in Hyde Park

Plus: The Mopery's new identity, a release party for Novembers Doom, and more
- By J.R. Nelson and Leor Galil
- Tags: Gossip Wolf, The Promontory, Bruce Finkelman, Craig Golden, Empty Bottle, SPACE, Pilsen, Thalia Hall, Hyde Park, The Promontory, Tom Tom Washington, South Side Big Band, Roctober, Jake Austen, Chicago Reader, Maceo Parker, Ramsey Lewis, Syl Johnson, footwork, Japan, DJ Weezy, DJ April, DJ Fulltono, Booty Tune, Teklife, DJ Spinn, Abbey Pub, Juke Fest, Logan Square Fitness, The Mopery, John Yingling, documentaries, Monica Kendrick, Novembers Doom, Reggie's, albums, release shows

Film, Movie Review Jul 30, 2014
A Chicago street gang tries to go straight in Lord Thing

DeWitt Beall's 1970 documentary recalls the doomed reform of the Conservative Vice Lords.
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Movie Review, gangs, street gangs, documentaries, 1970, Chicago Film Archives, Conservative Vice Lords, Lawndale, Edwin Perry, crime, VLs, Vice Lords, Cobras, social programs, The African Lion, CVLs, Rockefeller Foundation, DeWitt Beall, Bobby Gore, Kenneth Parks, Dartmouth College, Leonard Sengali, Blackstone Rangers, Richard J. Daley, Fred Hampton, Alfonso Alford

Film, Movie Feature Jul 2, 2014
Reluctant auteur Steve James on life and Life Itself

The man behind Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters, and the new Roger Ebert chronicle Life Itself is one of America's most well-respected documentarians, but you probably couldn't pick Steve James out of a lineup.
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Movie Feature, Steve James, film, filmmakers, PBS, Hoop Dreams, CeaseFire, The Interrupters, Stevie, Big Brothers, The New Americans, Life Itself, Roger Ebert, movies, Oak Park, Kartemquin Films, gardening, Rushville, Illinois, work, Judy James, sex offenders, careers, family, Hollywood, narrative film, television, TV, documentaries, Peter Gilbert, Prefontaine, James Madison University, auteurs, Alex Kotlowitz, Frederick Marx, film credits, SIU, Southern Illinois University, Big Muddy Film Festival, Jerry Blumenthal, Gordon Quinn, David Simpson, Leslie Simmer, film criticism, Errol Morris, Jean Renoir, Orson Welles, humor, Flame-O Coby

Best of Chicago, Arts & Culture Jun 25, 2014
Critics' Picks
Best Dead Artist Marketing Campaign

Vivian Maier
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Best of Chicago 2014, Vivian Maier, John Maloof, photography, Flickr, exhibits, books, documentaries, film, Critics' Picks

Best of Chicago, Arts & Culture Jun 25, 2014
Critics' Picks
Best Free Programming

Film Studies Center at University of Chicago
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Best of Chicago 2014, Univ. of Chicago Film Studies Center, Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago Film Studies Center, Smart Museum of Art, South Side Projections, Peter Kuttner, Kartemquin Film, documentaries, FSC, movie theaters, film screenings, Critics' Picks

Best of Chicago, Arts & Culture Jun 25, 2014
Critics' Picks
Best New Local Production (Documentary)

An Honest Living
- By Ben Sachs
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Best of Chicago 2014, Jordan Freese, documentaries, Gene Siskel Film Center, film, Critics' Picks

Best of Chicago, Arts & Culture Jun 25, 2014
Critics' Picks
Best Chicago Story

The Trials of Muhammad Ali
- By J.R. Jones
- Tags: Arts & Culture, Best of Chicago 2014, Muhammad Ali, film, documentaries, Kartemquin Films, Bill Siegel, Critics' Picks

Columns & Opinion, On Culture May 13, 2014
Vivian Maier, the lawsuit

The owners of Wicker Park gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey are being sued as a result of a 2012 exhibit of works by the photographer.
- By Deanna Isaacs
- Tags: Deanna Isaacs on Culture, Corbett vs. Dempsey, galleries, Vivian Maier, photography, Ron Slattery, John Maloof, Jeffrey Goldstein, bighappyfunhouse.com, Chicago Reader, Deanna Isaacs, documentaries, BBC, Pamela Bannos, John Corbett, Jim Dempsey, lawsuits, art conservation, art restoration, Kenneth Goldin, provenance, Eric Vander Arend, hinge tape, Joel Oppenheimer Inc., mediation

Music, In Rotation May 5, 2014
In Rotation: Metro publicist Jenny Lizak on a punk documentary to give teenage girls for Christmas

Plus: Smart Bar booker Marea Stamper on the best bathhouse party in Pittsburgh and Reader music editor Philip Montoro on French black metal that's mad for Lovecraft
- By Philip Montoro
- Tags: In Rotation, Metro, Smart Bar, Philip Montoro, Chicago Reader, Godflesh, Justin Broadrick, The Breeders, Amazon, Steve Albini, The Great Old Ones, black metal, documentaries, Kathleen Hanna, Music Box, Netflix, iTunes, Le Tigre, Bikini Kill, Questlove, essays, Vulture, CHIRP Record Fair, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jenny Lizak, Black Madonna, Hi-NRG disco, Frankie Knuckles, Pet Shop Boys, remixes, Neil Tennant, Pittsburgh, Jerry's Records, film, records, Marea Stamper, Patrick Cowley

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