Review: Documentary reveals Zoey Tur as a news pioneer — and toxic male — before her transition
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Sheep Without a Shepherd review: Joan Chen breaks the rules
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Since it appears we’ll all have to watch the pandemic-bedeviled 2021 Tokyo Olympics from our homes even the fans in Tokyo why not mix in some Olympic cinema with your at-all-hours sports viewing, and specifically a tale from the last time Tokyo hosted, no less?
The offbeat, mixed-style documentary “The Witches of the Orient” from French filmmaker Julian Faraut recounts the remarkable success of Japan’s formidable women’s volleyball team, a late-’50s/early-’60s serving-blocking-spiking powerhouse that once racked up a jaw-dropping 258 straight victories, most notably gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. It was the first year the Olympics showcased volleyball.
As if they had been written yesterday, the revolutionary words of Helen Keller speak to the prevalent ills of crushing capitalism and the dehumanization it breeds. “Her Socialist Smile,” writer-director John Gianvito’s experimental biopic of one of the most influential women of the 20th century, revives them for modern examination.
While Keller’s voice, hard-fought and from her own chest, bookends this filmic essay, the piece largely consists of text in white lettering over black: long excerpts taken verbatim from speeches, interviews and letters. Narrator Carolyn Forché, with the academic monotone of a prerecorded guide in a museum exhibit, fills in the gaps and contextualizes Keller’s thoughts between the informative slides.