Biographical Sierra Pettengill, Director Focuses on the warped narratives of the American past. Most recently, she directed the archival short The Rifleman, which premiered at the 2021Sundance Film Festival. Her 2017 feature-length film, the all-archival documentary The Reagan Show,…
In RIOTSVILLE, USA, Director Sierra Pettengill, like a consummate painter with a cinematic palette, fuses archival national news media reportage from the late 1960s with archival U.S. military film and video footage from that same period in a cinematic exposition exposing the insidious nature of the militarization which was – and continues to be – primarily, but not exclusively, focused on Black people fighting for the real Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Pettengill’s paints veraciously without one misstep of historical and philosophical significance unlike so many other chroniclers, filmmakers and documentarians of that period. – By Gregg W. Morris
Director Joshua Seftel: “To me, this is the story of a collision course between Richard “Mac” McKinney and the congregants of the Muncie Islamic Center. It’s a story so relevant to our world today – a world filled with misunderstanding, people taking sides, and seemingly unbridgeable societal gaps – and yet this story shows there is hope. I believe the film can serve as a glimpse into what is possible when we stay open and kind, a story about family, compassion, and forgiveness.” – Review by Gregg W. Morris
LOW LIFE generates a visceral cinematic vibe akin to the visceral whoosh Ukraine freedom fighters reportedly get from a f*ckin anti-Putin HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) obliterating a column of #fckinRussian tanks and weaponry – if not Vladimir Putin himself. True, this movie is not about the Ukraine-Russian war but a war of sorts being wage against pedophiles by a small time YouTube-ing vigilante, Benny Jensen, played by Wes Dunlap. – By Gregg W. Morris
TOO ROUGH has cinematic derring-do and an inimitable storytelling prowess that can leave audiences in blissful awe. – By Gregg W. Morris
The astonishing way that the filmmakers can teleport audiences back to that day in 1963 will have audiences on the edge of their seats, literally and figuratively, every time they decided that they have to see it one more time. – By Gregg W. Morris
The way that Director Jake Wachtel made his film can mesmerize audiences around the world. He uses a “sci-fi lens to tell the story of a boy facing the alienating effects of technological progress (the literal displacement of his soul) as a mirror for forms of neo-colonialism and cultural displacement.” It is shot through a prism of mesmerizing psychedelic dreamscapes about reincarnation, artificial consciousness, and the Buddhist search for enlightenment, giving KARMALINK an amazing irresistible hallucinatory feel about it.
By Gregg W. Morris
Screened Yesterday, June 21, for Delegates at Austrian University’s Asia Pacific Week, w/ Q&A by Creative Team and Is Now Streaming on Amazon The cinematography of Director Robert H. Lieberman’s ECHOES OF THE EMPIRE brilliantly blends panoramic landscapes and…
LIFT, shot over a period of 10 years, is a riveting 87 minutes because of Director David Petersen’s consummate cinematic story telling about The New York Theatre Ballet’s LIFT scholarship program for selected children to develop untapped skills as classical dancers and pursue their dreams. The kids and their families are in constant peril because of the homelessness plaguing them in the hellholes of the worse Bronx and South Bronx neighborhoods. – By Gregg W. Morris
Bravura 2021 NYC DOC Selection being released on digital and cable on Demand Platforms in the U.S. Tuesday, June 14, 2022. VOD Platforms include Apple/iTunes, Amazon, GoogldePlay, Vudu, Microsoft – and more. Review by Gregg W. Morris