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Alison [ Hits:2350 ]
Review: Alison is the powerful true story of a South African woman, who reclaimed her life after being raped, disemboweled, nearly decapitated and left for dead. Directed by Uga Carlini, this part documentary, part docudrama and has been treated like a fairy tale, getting the inside story from various interviewees, who helped Alison along her journey. Sitting on a throne and set against sketches of the moments they witnessed, each are ascribed a fantasy title like Knight, Sage or Bard for their heroic e...

Sachin: A Billion Dreams [ Hits:2167 ]
Review: Sachin: A Billion Dreams is a documentary about the Indian cricket prodigy, who went on to inspire a nation. Directed by James Irvine and featuring a host of interviews and voiceovers from cricket legends, personalities, family and friends - this comprehensive film covers his early childhood, how he was introduced to cricket and how it became his life. While many will have heard the name, Sachin Tendulkar, known as "The Little Master" in cricketing circles, few know the back story and impact he'...

Warehoused [ Hits:2208 ]
Review: An estimated 12 million people are living in refugee camps with only 0.1% being re-integrated into normal society. Directors, Asher Emmanuel and Vincent Vittorio, seek to address this problem through Warehoused: The Forgotten Refugees of Dadaab, an earnest documentary dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of refugees and their need for basic human rights like education, safety, shelter and clean water. While the film takes a global stance on the issue of refugees, it focuses on those li...

The True Cost [ Hits:2237 ]
Review: The True Cost is a documentary written and directed by Andrew Morgan, which explores the impact of "fast fashion" on people and the planet. This timely documentary latches onto the fashion industry, another example of how big business is driving profits at the cost of social and environmental responsibility. Juxtaposing the consumer materialism and capitalist mindset against the reality of sweatshops in developing countries, we explore many facets of this tension as Morgan gives us a behind-the...

Democrats [ Hits:2434 ]
Review: Democrats is a 2014 Danish documentary about the contentious 2008 election in Zimbabwe and the subsequent coalition's attempts to redraft the country's constitution. The film, directed by Camilla Nielsson, has been subsequently banned in Zimbabwe. In an interview with eNCA, Douglas Mwonzora, a lawyer and representative of the MDC-T said that the depiction of violence at various political meetings forced the censorship boards to ban this honest account of what happened behind-the-scenes. Filmed o...

Mandela's Gun [ Hits:2400 ]
Review: Nelson Mandela has become immortalised as an international icon for peace and transformation. Many know the story of the wise man and freedom fighter, who led a country through a turbulent time in South Africa's history as newly elected President, after being incarcerated as a political prisoner on Robben Island for almost three decades. This true story is comparable with The Count of Monte Cristo and has been popularised in world media, but what about Mandela's life before he was arrested? Mand...

Where to Invade Next [ Hits:2327 ]
Review: Michael Moore's latest documentary, Where to Invade Next, has a very similar format and slant to Sicko. Instead of contrasting medical aid schemes and healthcare policy with other first world countries, he's decided to rather stake a claim over other countries great ideas. Using an American flag, he travels Europe and Northern Africa planting it once he's established that the idea could be feasible for America. France, Germany, Finland, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Iceland and Tunisia are his hunti...

The Boers at the End of the World [ Hits:2666 ]
Review: The Boers at the End of the World is a remarkable documentary from writer-director, Richard Finn Gregory, who preceded it with the short, The Last Boers of Patagonia. In Argentina's Patagonia region exists a farm community of Afrikaans-speaking people. They're like a lost tribe, having preserved the traditions and language of the Boer ("farmer") culture for over 100 years. Their apparent dislocation stems back to South Africa in 1902, after their forebears witnessed the destruction of their far...

Ocean Driven [ Hits:2596 ]
Review: Ocean Driven: The Chris Bertish Story is an inspiring surf documentary about self-belief, will power and the human spirit. Describing himself as a Waterman, Bertish has been instrumental in getting the film finished over the last 4 years, another achievement in itself, in addition to writing Stoked!, an inspiring story about courage, determination and the power of dreams. Chris Bertish is a South African big wave surfer, whose love for water sports was passed down to him and his brothers by hi...

204: Getting Away with Murder [ Hits:5345 ]
Review: 204: Getting Away with Murder is a docudrama that unearths the shocking story behind the murder of Brett Kebble. The title is a little clunky, but don't let it deter you, 204: Getting Away with Murder is an absorbing, gritty, pulpy and layered documentary. To clear things up a bit, '204' means a full and permanent indemnity from prosecution in exchange for truthful testimony, which is what was afforded to many key individuals in the wake of Brett Kebble's demise. The documentary sets about prof...

Miners Shot Down [ Hits:2948 ]
Review: Miners Shot Down is a hard-hitting documentary about the Marikana massacre from the perspective of the low-paid striking mineworkers. In August 2012, mineworkers from one of South Africa's biggest platinum mines, began a strike for a substantial wage increase. After six days, police used live ammunition in order to put an end to the strike, killing 34 and injuring many in South Africa's first post-Apartheid massacre. When the shocking event took place, it made world headlines with the massacre ...

Finding Vivian Maier [ Hits:2984 ]
Review: Some of the best stories are the ones shrouded in mystery and history. Finding Vivian Maier is one such story, about a nanny whose street photography hobby established her overnight... years after her death. The reclusive Maier was an eccentric individual to those who knew her, but after her 100,000 photo collection was discovered, it seems as though no one ever really did. Finding Vivian Maier tries to piece together the puzzle of Maier to determine why she took photographs and steered clear of...

Stories We Tell [ Hits:2822 ]
Review: Every family has their secrets and your family may be protecting you from one of them. In Stories We Tell, indie film-maker Sarah Polley gets intimate and incredibly personal by turning the camera on her own family history. David Lynch turned Laura Palmer's portrait into a compelling small town mystery drama in Twin Peaks and Polley has swathed her haunting and moving family memoir in a similar way. Stories We Tell begins by unpacking the story of her mother, Diane, whose extroverted nature and...

Cutie and the Boxer [ Hits:2871 ]
Review: Cutie and the Boxer is a biographical documentary about art, culture and marriage. The opening credits show famed Japanese boxer painter Ushio Shinohara in action, using his paint-drenched boxing gloves to punch out another art work. The 81-year-old Shinohara returns to dip the attached sponges in black paint, shielding his eyes from splotches in a signature style that he could have done more than a thousand times. Shinohara is surely the most famous of struggling New York artists, having achie...

Blackfish [ Hits:10105 ]
Review: The Cove sent tremors around the world, exposing the barbaric hunting of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. The film-makers brought the shocking seasonal slaughter into full view, shining a spotlight on Japan and the International Whaling Commission's lax policies around whaling and so-called "research". The Cove's courageous and tenacious film and surrounding activism not only won more than 25 film awards, it helped effect change on a global scale. The Cove touched on some delicate matters, suggesting ...

Salinger [ Hits:3188 ]
Review: J.D. Salinger is an enigma. The American author shot to fame with The Catcher in the Rye, a novel which continues to sell hundreds of thousands of copies every year. The book, now considered a rite of passage for Americans, was revolutionary in its time and linked to several shootings. However, Salinger was not interested in fame, making the American icon and his subsequent writings a mystery to fans. Salinger the documentary seeks to uncover motivations for his work, most specifically hi...

Searching for Sugar Man [ Hits:7494 ]
Review: Rockumentaries are usually about fame, the paranoia of money and the affects of a sex, drugs and rock 'n roll lifestyle on the road. Searching for Sugar Man reinvents the genre with a real-life mystery about Sixto Rodriguez, a '70s music icon, whose career was stifled and forgotten... or so it seemed. Decades after Rodriguez vanished from the music scene, two South Africans decided to find out what happened to the shy and mysterious rock 'n roller. Searching for Sugar Man recounts Rodriguez's q...

The Cove [ 2009 ] [ Hits:6613 ]
Review: The Cove is a documentary about nature preservation and an attempt to make wrongs right. Ric O'Barry, famous for his work on Flipper and now for his activism, is the driving force behind this fascinating behind-the-scenes investigation into the annual dolphin drives in Taiji, Japan. The trainer-turn-activist has been campaigning for years to set dolphins free after ironically helping the much-loved species to stardom and creating a demand and ultimately a threat to their survival as a species. O...

Tyson [ 2009 ] [ Hits:6202 ]
Review: "I'm gonna f**k you till you love me". I can't think of anyone in their right minds, who'd want to trade places with Mike Tyson. The man has carved a little piece of hell for himself over the last four decades... from his childhood days of petty crime in Brownsville to becoming the most infamous heavyweight champion of the world. Fast, furious and reckless, Mike Tyson stormed the boxing world with a series of first and second round knock-outs making him the most formidable and intimidating oppon...

Fokofpolisiekar: The Movie [ 2009 ] [ Hits:9586 ]
Review: Fokofpolisiekar (fuck-off-police-car) are a five-piece Afrikaans punk band that hail from Bellville, Cape Town. When they formed back in 2003, they wanted to broadcast a lifestyle and spirit that reflected the state of affairs for Afrikaners in South Africa. Their complex heritage had left a generation of Afrikaans youth stranded; feeling displaced and alienated in their own country and it was time to forge ahead. Their heritage, the Church, enforced traditions, guilt for an era they had no ...

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