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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
New Doc: Ex-Con Detectives Fight to Exonerate Wrongfully Convicted
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- April 29, 2013 11:01 AM
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- 1 Comment
Jamie Meltzer, the director of "Informant," a recent favorite doc of mine which I called "a 'Fog of War' for the age of Occupy" about anarchist turned informant Brandon Darby, has a new project, looking for funds on Kickstarter, which seems worthy of our attention. Called "Freedom Fighters," the new doc focuses on a Dallas-based detective agency started by a group of exonerated men who have all spent decades in prison.
Race, Class and Warfare at Tribeca
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- April 25, 2013 10:33 AM
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- 0 Comments
One of the most powerful new documentaries at this year's Tribeca, Dan Krauss’s well-crafted and compelling investigative
expose "The Kill Team," hits all the right buttons: political injustice, moral outrage, and emotional catharsis. Of all the films I've previewed from this year's festival, Krauss's is one of the most important; for the purposes of political heft, "The Kill Team"--along with the upcoming release "Dirty Wars"--provides some of the most damning evidence of the atrocities and injustices of the U.S. military that we've seen on screen since America's War on Terror began.
"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?
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?
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.
What's More Inane than "2016: Obama's America" Filmmakers Whining About Oscar?
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- December 6, 2012 12:58 PM
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- 2 Comments
What's more inane? That Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of "Schindler’s List "and "2016: Obama's America" and the doc's director Dinesh D’Souza believe they should have been on the Oscar shortlist for best documentary? Or that The Hollywood Reporter published a story about their ridiculously unfounded complaints? According to the trade/gossip rag, the filmmakers state that their film's lack of recognition by the Academy proves that the industry is biased against conservatives. What they don't account for, of course, is that the film's lack of recognition by the Academy may be, in fact, because the movie is bad.
"Gasland's" Josh Fox Unleashes "Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change"
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 27, 2012 9:35 AM
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- 0 Comments
Is Josh Fox the new Michael Moore? Or perhaps Brave New Films' Robert Greenwald is the better analogy. From fracking to climate change, the "Gasland" filmmaker is turning into a one-man agit-prop movie machine, unleashing short films to activate his nearly 10,000 Twitter followers and effect the debate on energy issues. This Wednesday, Fox will join Occupy Sandy Relief organizers, 350.0rg, The Other 98%, and The Illuminator for a secret premiere of his new short film “Occupy Sandy: A Human Response to the New Realities of Climate Change." According to its Facebook page, the film "viscerally shows the damage left behind by the storm, highlights the heroic grassroots efforts of Occupy activists, and draws the connections between the storm, climate change, and the reckless greed of the fossil fuel industry."
Israeli Occupation Doc "The Law In These Parts" Opens as Violence Escalates in Israel
- By Anthony Kaufman
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- November 15, 2012 2:48 PM
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- 0 Comments
While I'm sure no one is happy that war is about to break out in the Middle East after Israel's targeted assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed al-Jabari on Wednesday, the timing couldn't be more perfect for this week's Film Forum release of "The Law In These Parts," Ra'anan Alexandrowicz's sound attack on the Israeli legal system that has sanctioned the illegal occupation and oppression of the Palestinian peoples. As the UN Security Council meets in an emergency session and rockets fire from the Gaza Strip, killing Israelis in retaliation, Alexandrowicz's compelling documentary explores how we got into this mess in the first place.
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Recent Comments
This is such an embarrassing article. "All this is to say, I guess, that white people can have
wow, Thor. I think you are the one that is bitter. I'm so not obsessed by race---it seems
@kaffeeklatsch "How many years ago did those movies get made?" 5 and 7, but what is your
Discussing issues of race, especially when the article in question is the one that brings up the
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