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ReelPolitik
A blog about film and politics, and the politics of filmmaking.
Anthony Kaufman is a film journalist and critic, who has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Village Voice and Slate, and contributes regularly to Variety, indieWIRE, the Wall Street Journal Online and the Utne Reader.
[Email Me]
Articles
- "Piracy May Be an Indie Filmmaker's Best Friend" (Indiewire, October 2011
- "The Decline of Indies on Netflix" (indieWIRE, Sept, 2011)
- "Secretariat" Isn't Hollywood's Only Secretly Conservative Blockbuster" (IFC News, October 2010)
- "Absurdistan: The New Iraq War Cinema" (Village Voice, April 2008)
- "Is Foreign Film The New Endangered Species?" (New York Times, January 2006)
ReelPolitik
"The Gatekeepers" and Israeli's Leftist Docu Wave
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- February 1, 2013 10:52 AM
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- 0 Comments
Are Israel's acclaimed documentaries -- "The Gatekeepers" (which opens today in New York and L.A.), "5 Broken Cameras" and "The Law in These Parts" -- helping to swing public opinion in Israel to the left? That's the question I explore in my Docutopia column this week at SundanceNow. With the results of last Tuesday's election surprising many with the weaker-than-expected turnout for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there may be a shift towards the political center and a better chance for compromise with the Palestinians.
Leftwing Doc-Makers No Longer Easy On Obama
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- January 28, 2013 1:47 PM
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- 1 Comment
Are progressive documentary filmmakers finished with giving Barack Obama a free pass?
The Best and Worst of Sundance 2013
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- January 24, 2013 11:15 AM
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- 8 Comments
It was a pretty good year for American independent cinema in Park City.
Behrouz Ghobadi, brother of Bahman Ghobadi, Released from Prison
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- January 22, 2013 8:51 PM
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- 0 Comments
Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Behrouz Ghobadi – a younger brother of internationally acclaimed film director Bahman Ghobadi (Rhino Season) – has been freed from prison in Iran, according to Amnesty International. Since his arrest on November 4, Behrouz Ghobadi was held in an undisclosed location and unable to talk to anyone. His lawyer and members of his family were repeatedly refused in requests to see him.
For Late-term Abortion Doc "After Tiller," Sundance Increases Security
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- January 18, 2013 4:33 PM
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- 3 Comments
With Oscar Nom, Will Palestinian Doc "5 Broken Cameras" Enter Mainstream Debate?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- January 10, 2013 11:08 AM
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- 3 Comments
I've been advocating on behalf of "5 Broken Cameras," Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi's engrossing and intimate doc chronicle of Burnat and his village's struggles for self-determination in Occupied Palestine, for nearly a year now. I first wrote about in March, then championed it again on my year-end lists, and am sincerely excited to see the film nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, just one day after it won the best doc prize from the Cinema Eye Honors. I don't think "5 Broken Cameras" will win an Academy Award, but will its nomination vaunt this important film into the wider cultural conversation?
Lost William S. Burroughs Doc Resurfaces; Seeks Funders
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 20, 2012 1:48 PM
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- 0 Comments
With a film version of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" about to be released and next month's Sundance fest premiering two films that deal with the Beat Generation ("Kill Your Darlings," a fictional portrait of beat legends Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs; and Michael Polish's adaptation of Kerouac's "Big Sur"), it's a perfect time to remember counter-cultural icon William S. Burroughs, one of the founding fathers of the movement. Actually, anytime is a perfect time to remember Burroughs, the radical thinker, "Naked Lunch" author and all-around-subversive rabble-rouser, whose Thanksgiving Day prayer remains a favorite YouTube clip. With the man in mind, there's a worthy Kickstarter campaign, with just one week to go, that's aiming to re-release and remaster the seminal 1983 doc "Burroughs: The Movie."
Reconsidering "Elephant" in the Wake of Newtown
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 20, 2012 9:06 AM
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- 1 Comment
In 2003, I ranked Gus Van Sant's "Elephant" the best film of the year. I was entralled by its mesmerizing long-take visuals, its unconventional sound design, and its eerie, unsettling position on an American tragedy. And then after last week's shootings in Newtown, I suddenly found my favorite movie of 2003 to be a little distasteful and perhaps irresponsible. Everything I loved about it nine years ago I now disliked. Everything that impressed me now repelled me. Reaching middle-age may have something to do with it, but my shift on the film opened up an area of discussion--an age-old one, I might add--that I thought was worth revisiting.
Post-Newtown Tragedy, "Bowling for Columbine" Finds New Relevance (again)
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 16, 2012 7:49 PM
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- 3 Comments
Michael Moore's 10-year-old documentary about gun violence in America, "Bowling for Columbine," is once again finding new relevance--and audiences--because of current events. In the wake of the Newtown school shootings, the film is spreading like wild fire on the Internet and among discussion boards. just as it did last July after the Aurora movie theater massacre. Posted for free on YouTube, the movie has been seen more than 437,000 times since it was uploaded in April 2011. Though Moore has been a ferocious advocate for gun control, he has not appeared on the talk-show news circut as he has in the past, citing, via Twitter, an interview he did last July.
The Top 12 Political Films of 2012
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 13, 2012 2:02 PM
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- 4 Comments
As an election year, 2012 was particularly rife with political filmmaking. Capitalizing on the highly energized, contentious race for the White House—and a body politic particularly attuned to issues of economic inequality and foreign instability—Hollywood definitely got into the act: Even "The Dark Knight Rises" presented muddled perspectives on the super-rich and the less fortunate, hero-izing and condemning both elite and revolutionaries, alike. I don't think the film is one of the best political movies of the year—can anyone clearly identify its political stance, after all?—nor will I take this space to herald "Argo"—which I've written about elsewhere, and find to be deeply problematic in its depiction of Iran's Islamic Revolution—or "Zero Dark Thirty," which, likewise, confirms my suspicions about any movie that has CIA agents or American men with guns vanquishing an enemy.
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Recent Comments
Hadn't thought about this film from such aspects.
By the way, why is everyone so racist here? White people this, white people that? Anyway, just so
A lot of people don't seem to get Baumbach at all. He isn't here to make some
No one is preventing white people from telling their stories, they are everywhere if you've
New York = Money. Money is the reason these stories are bland and inherently annoying because
The problem is not that white middle class angst isn't angst, it is that it seems like white
Once again we see how the reviewer helps sell albums for his crush and love he'll never have or
Cinematic wealth is the new cinematic violence. We deride it while still paying to see it and
Don't blame me; blame the BBC! They're the spoilers.
luckily i saw this film last night. you need to take this down and re-edit it. you are spoiling a