Utah Film Center’s Through My Lens screening to feature short documentary films about immigration, migration by Salt Lake City valley students, their teachers

Sixteen short documentary films produced by students in schools throughout the Salt Lake City valley in collaboration with their teachers and featuring a wide range of stories about immigration and migration will premiere May 1, as part of the Utah Film Center program Through My Lens, an educational collaboration unlike any other in the U.S. … Read more

Utah Film Center’s 8th Peek Award honors exceptional Intelligent Lives documentary

Within the first three minutes of the exceptional documentary Intelligent Lives, the viewer is introduced to the film’s two most important themes. The first dismantles the narrow yet long accepted perceptions of measuring intelligence that have done more damage than good in gauging a person’s meaning or value to their community. The second strikes down … Read more

From high school dropout to award-winning international filmmaker, Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina discusses poignant inspiration for Supa Modo, Tumbleweeds Film Festival opener

When Supa Modo, the award-winning feature-length narrative film from Kenyan director Likarion Wainaina, opens the Utah Film Center’s Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth on Friday (March 1, 7:30 p.m., The City Library auditorium), Wainaina will be in attendance. As mentioned in the festival preview last week at The Utah Review, Supa Modo sets … Read more

Utah Film Center set to present 8th Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth March 1-3

The eighth presentation of the Utah Film Center’s Tumbleweeds Film Festival for Children and Youth from March 1-3 brings in a slate of Utah premieres including films from Swaziland, Kenya, two from Iran and another from the Ladakh region of India. Twelve of the 13 feature-length films are exclusively from outside the U.S. while the … Read more

Sundance 2019: Knock Down The House documentary a true audience pleaser about new American political possibilities

Just days before the Democratic primary for the U.S. Congressional 14th District seat in New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign had just enough money to commission a poll to gauge the first-time candidate’s standing in the electorate. It showed her 35 points behind Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent who also was one of the most powerful … Read more

Sundance 2019: The superpowers of music and silence, as explored in exquisite documentary Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements

In the documentary film Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements which premiered at this year’s Sundance, viewers see Jonas, in his early teens, experiencing something familiar to every musician –amateur or professional, student or virtuoso. At times, Jonas become frustrated at the mistakes and imperfections in his playing, whether he is practicing alone or during … Read more

Sundance 2019: Always in Season an exceptional documentary on communities of memory, history of lynchings

One of the most controversial elements in the annual reenactment of the Moore’s Ford Bridge quadruple lynching that occurred in 1946 in Georgia is a tiny doll. One of the women in the reenactment carries it under her clothing. In Monroe, Georgia, many local black residents believe that one of the victims was seven months … Read more

Sundance 2019: The Great Hack important starting point on complex issues of user data, breach of trust and privacy

Prior to the opening of this year’s Sundance, producer Geralyn Dreyfous said the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data breach is part of two of the biggest stories of the year. After watching The Great Hack, directed by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, which made its Sundance premiere, Dreyfous’ assertion rings with conviction. The 139-minute documentary, which will … Read more

Sundance 2019: Where’s My Roy Cohn? a supremely well-timed documentary with urgent political relevance

On Jan. 29, Roger Stone, who served as President Trump’s political consultant to use his skills in opposition research, emerged from a Washington, D.C. court, giving the crowd a Nixon victory salute while others chanted “lock him up.” Stone was pleading not guilty to seven criminal charges as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. … Read more

Sundance 2019: Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins is rousing tribute to one of best American political columnists ever

In the trade publication Editor and Publisher, when nationally syndicated columnist Molly Ivins died in 2007 after a triple bout with cancer and its complications, Greg Mitchell recalled in a piece headlined Molly Ivins: The Plucking Truth a classic moment that eventually would lead the stuffed shirts at The New York Times to send her … Read more