The Salt Of The Earth
Wim Wender’s Oscar nominated profile on the Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado is one of the most illuminating and deeply moving portraits of an artist to hit the screen in a very long time. Co-directed by Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro it focuses on the celebrated photographer’s extraordinary body of work with its powerful … Continue reading
THE SAPPHIRES
An indigenous Aboriginal girl group performing in some shanty town in the Australian outback are spotted by a washed-out Irish pianist down on his luck who perceives that the girls are talented and could be his ticket out of there. Not by singing their dreary country music at which they are addicted too, but by … Continue reading
The Search For General Tso
This odd but entertaining documentary from writer/director Ian Cheney is an inquiry into how a ubiquitous dish of fried chicken became a staple item on every single Chinese restaurant in the USA even though nobody back in Mainland China has ever heard of it. Cheney discovers there was an actual General Tso a military hero … Continue reading
The Second Best Marigold Hotel
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Jaipur is doing such good business these days that there is only one unoccupied room which causes a problem when two new guests arrive at the same time to claim it . It’s ladies first but before Lavinia Beech can check into the Hotel’s best room the key is … Continue reading
The Second Mother
Val is a much put-upon live-in maid to a lazy and self-absorbed wealthy family in Sao Paulo. She’s the housekeeper, cleaner, cook, gardener and even pool boy, yet she’s practically invisible to her employers Barbara and Carlos until they want something. Strangely enough she accepts their rather callous and off-hand treatment mainly because being there … Continue reading