documentaries

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  1/15/2021
  

  A New Film Details the FBI’s Relentless Pursuit of Martin Luther King Jr.

  The new film "MLK/FBI" addresses Americans' failure to remember that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was unpopular, labeled as divisive and subversive, and subject to harassment by federal law enforcement agencies during his life. 

• 
• SOURCE: Paste
  12/15/2020
  

  Paste Magazine's Best Documentaries of 2020

  Documentaries on the memory of the Civil War and the beginnings of the disability movement are among Paste's best of the year. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/6/2020
  

  A Polarizing Documentary Spurs Debate Over a Violent Time in Quebec

  Canadians are debating whether a documentary released at the fiftieth anniversary of a campaign of political violence by Quebecois separatists valorizes terrorism and ignores peaceful progress toward a bicultural Canada; the filmmaker is the son of one of the convicted conspirators.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/3/2020
  

  ‘Billie’ Review: A Legend, in a Different Light

  A new documentary examines the lives of both the great singer and the filmmaker who died suddenly while working on a documentary of Billie Holliday's life. 

• 
• SOURCE: LA Progressive
  12/2/2020
  

  "A Life on Our Planet" Provides Environmental Hope

  by Walter G. Moss

  Although the recent Netflix documentary on the global environment describes a grim present, it explains a path forward that is simple (if the political will can be found). 

• 
• SOURCE: Irish Times
  11/30/2020
  

  ‘Bodies Left for Weeks. People Eaten by Dogs’: A New Documentary on the Irish Famine

  “The British abandoned people to starvation,” says Prof Kevin Whelan of the University of Notre Dame. “At the highest level of government there was a sense that this ultimately wasn’t their problem”. A new Irish television documentary is narrated by Liam Neeson.

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy

  If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/11/2020
  

  Was Reagan a Precursor to Trump? A New Documentary Says Yes

  Reagan biographer Lou Cannon and historian Rick Perlstein contend the series misconstrues Reagan's politics by portraying him as a dog-whistling race baiter (Cannon says it's flat wrong, Perlstein says it's more complicated than that). 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Making America Great Again, Round 1

  "The series provides a steady succession of parallels between Reagan and Donald J. Trump, none labeled as such but all difficult to miss."

• 
• SOURCE: CBS News
  11/8/2020
  

  Ken Burns on America, Selling His First Film, PBS's Long Deadlines and More

  "I have had the privilege of spending my entire life making films about the U.S., capital U, capital S. But I've also had the privilege of making films about 'us,' the two-letter, lowercase, plural pronoun, that has a kind of intimacy and warmth to it."

• 
• SOURCE: PBS
  10/20/2020
  

  Frontline: Whose Vote Counts?

  Jelani Cobb investigates the Wisconsin primary election as a lens onto the ongoing struggle to protect voting rights. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/26/2020
  

  Re-Watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

  by Gillian Brockell

  Ken Burns's Civil War documentary series sparked tremendous interest in history, but the series has a big Shelby Foote problem. 

• 
• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  9/16/2020
  

  From MLK to Whistleblowers, the FBI’s Trouble with Dissidents

  The films MLK/FBI and Enemies of the State offer contrasting looks at government oppression.

• 
• SOURCE: The Metropole (Urban History Association)
  9/10/2020
  

  A Neoliberal Love Story, From Public Housing To Golf: A Review Of East Lake Meadows: A Public Housing Story

  by Courtney Rawlings

  Courtney Rawlings argues that a recent documentary on public housing has a blind spot for the politics that make decent housing precarious or even unavailable to millions.

• 
• SOURCE: Broadway World
  8/31/2020
  

  PBS Will Air "Driving While Black" Documentary on October 13

  PBS will air a historical documentary examining the issue of mobility and freedom to travel as aspects of American racism.

• 
• 8/2/2020
  

  Who’s Our Roy Cohn?

  by Andrew Feffer

  Two documentaries on the notorious lawyer and fixer portray Roy Cohn as a figure of evil, but don't examine the social and political context of power in New York City. 

• 
• SOURCE: Reel Chicago
  5/25/2020
  

  A City At War: Chicago During WW II

  The documentary, narrated by legendary journalist Bill Kurtis, is a comprehensive telling of nearly everything that happened in Chicagoland during World War II. 

• 
• SOURCE: Axios
  5/25/2020
  

  Ken Burns: Coronavirus Pandemic Is Crisis "On The Level" Of Civil War And Great Depression (Podcast)

  On this podcast, the filmmaker and historian Geoffrey Ward discuss American leadership during moments of crisis.

• 
• SOURCE: BET
  5/19/2020
  

  A New Documentary On Opera Singer Marian Anderson Is Coming To PBS

  A new PBS documentary will commemorate singer Marian Anderson's voice and her activism.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/5/2020
  

  The Truth About Stalin’s Prison Camps

  Vera Golubeva spent more than six years in one of Joseph Stalin’s gulag camps. Her crime? “To this day, I still don’t know,” she says.