Friday, December 6, 2013

Long Night's Journey into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth & Reconciliation (2000)

Directors: Deborah Hoffman, Frances Reid
Run Time: 94 min.

"Surprisingly, in almost every case the murderers don't look as penitent as one might expect. They are not sobbing or begging for forgiveness. All of them (except for the young rioters who killed Biehl) look twisted in some way, intent on justifying themselves, and as though they're merely going through the motions of apologizing.  This hardly takes away from the film. It adds a layer of complexity. One wonders: Are these people killers because they were weird to begin with -- or is their odd detachment the result of having to live with their crimes?" 
—Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle 

Monday, December 2, 2013

The Flat (2013)


Director: Arnon Goldfinger
Run Time: 98 min.

"In his autobiographical documentary The Flat, filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger travels to Tel Aviv to clean out the apartment of his recently-deceased German-born Jewish grandmother. Goldfinger begins an unsettling journey into his family's history and discovers that knowing the truth can be a terrible burden. Both arresting and heartbreaking, The Flat is a real-life suspense story about how the past can return to haunt the present."
The Flat film jacket