Bravura Story Telling of the Fight of Ordinary Americans Against Laws Sweeping Across the Country to Strangle Cherished First Amendment Rights Right Under Our Noses. Part 1 Film review by Gregg W. Morris
DOC NYC BOYCOTT Film Review – Part 1
Author: Greggory Morris
A 2021 DOC NYC Film Festival Wrap Up:
PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON – Part III
Says Photo Journalist Brent Jones who shot innumerable headline news making pictures of Chicago’s First Black Hizzoner: “I was covering Harold Washington from just before he made his run and until his passing. I covered his funeral. There were many people who thought that I was actually on his staff because I was around him so much. I was privy to his daily schedule and came up with ways to be where he would be.” Jones was the first Black photographer to have a picture on the front page of Newsweek.
Washington’s campaign was a centrifugal force for news attention, Jones says. It created serendipitous opportunities for people of all stripes as well as diverse areas of Chicago that had rarely attracted much notice from the mainstream news media. He was literally and figuratively putting people and places on the map unlike ever before.
Damn the Pandemic, Full Speed Ahead Film Review
PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON – Part II
PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON is an enthralling cinematic tour de force about Chicago’s first African American Hizzoner, who was a riveting political tour de force. By Gregg W. Morris
2021 DOC NYC Film Review Teaser: PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON – Part 1
Director Joe Winston chronicles the historic legacy of Chicago’s first African American Mayor, Harold Washington. PUNCH 9 FOR HAROLD WASHINGTON draws on archival footage of 1980s Chi-Town with all its corruption and racial discrimination as well as the resilience and determination of Black Chi-Towners. IT includes candid interviews with Rev. Jesse Jackson, David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett. The film shows Washington’s political repertoire of skills and stratagems as well as stinging betrayals, and unlikely victories.
Winston and his filmmakers believe Washington’s legacy continues to resonate for the Windy City and the nation, confronting the never ending social issues that undermined the country.
By Gregg W. Morris
DOC NYC Film Festival 2021
The Mother of All Documentary Film Festivals – More than 120 feature-length documentaries among over 200 films and dozens of events. Included are 32 World Premieres and 34 US premieres. Opening Night film was Penny Lane’s Listening to Kenny G, Closing Night is Matthew Heineman’s The First Wave and Centerpiece docs are Sam Pollard and Rex Miller’s Citizen Ashe and Dave Wooley and David Heilbroner’s Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. By Gregg W. Morris
Damn the Pandemic, Full Speed Ahead Film Review of …
SALARYMAN, Directed by Allegra Pacheco
SALARYMAN blew the minds of judges and audiences at the DOC LA Film Festival, winning awards for Best Movie and Best Filmscore. It has more mesmerizing scenes and moments than any other feature or documentary that this reviewer can recall in many years.
By Gregg W. Morris
FRIMAS – Short Movie Review
Kara, who lives in a dystopian country where abortion is illegal and the penalties are draconian for those who break the law, is desperate to get one, nevertheless, and that desperation has driven her to take risks that could get her imprisoned if not dead on a slab in an abortion clinic. She is willing to take any risk, face any peril – and she most certainly does in Director Marianne Farley’s foreboding but exquisitely made five-star edge-of-the-seat thriller. Is Dirctor Farley’s FRIMAS a prophetic foretelling of what is on America’s horizon because of TX SB8?
Film Update: klutz.
After a successful premiere at Dances With Films, Michelle Bossy’s short film – klutz. – starring Malka Wallick, produced by Girl Gang Production(s) is screening at several additional and upcoming film festivals.
LAST NIGHT IN ROZZIE Film Review
A sublime piece of filmmaking about the horrors of traumatic childhood experiences by a filmmaker who, Caveat Emptor, makes sure you feel the pain. Writes Dr. Murray A. Strauss, Founder of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire, “The family is the most violent institution, group, or setting that a typical citizen is likely to encounter. There are exceptions such as the police or the army in time of War.” – By Gregg W. Morris
Straight No Chaser Film Short Review
A GOOD COUPLE
A 14-minute film short made with extra tender loving care, as if every scene was meticulously planned, down to the last nuance, down to the last surprise. The filmmakers, drawing on a well of creativity, infused imaginative scenarios of the everyday angst of lovee-dovee neurotic couples with a verisimilitude that syncs well with an other worldly cosmic finish. It’s that good. – By Gregg W. Morris