I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap heard ’round the world” wasn’t it—though that cast a pall over the proceedings, didn’t it?—but the … Continue reading Cinema 101
On August 1, 2019, D(onn) A(lan) Pennebaker, Penny to most, died. He was 94. A true titan of cinema, Pennebaker leaves behind a plethora of work, almost all of it falling under the category of Direct Cinema. His purpose was … Continue reading D. A. Pennebaker
Modern politics and media are so intertwined it’s hard to view one without the other. But hasn’t it always been this way? Where would the Framers be without the printing press? Franklin Roosevelt without radio? Trump without Twitter? And though … Continue reading Political Documentaries in a Partisan World
Various people began calling our films “direct cinema,” others called it cinema verité, but nobody really knew what to call them. Some even called it “fly-on-the-wall” but this wasn’t right, at least I never wanted to be a fly on … Continue reading Born On This Day — July 15, 1925
Michael J. Cinema 