After Death is a provocative, well-edited, fair and balanced documentary about the afterlife. Co-directors Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke provide the audience with different perspectives on the issue as they interview a wide range of subjects including Ajmal Zemmar, a neuroscientist, Raymond Moody, a psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Sabom, a cardiologist, and survivors who has near-death experiences. Through the crisp editing, they intertwine reenactments of the survivors' vivid recollections which makes the film both exhilarating and cinematic. If they were to merely show one talking head after another, it would've risked becoming somewhat dry and academic. Dr. Mary Neal's account of how she nearly died during a kayaking accident in 1999, what she experienced and how it affected her perspective on death is very moving, insightful and fascinating. Regardless of whether you're religious, agnostic, spiritual or atheist, you'll have plenty of food for thought throughout this illuminating documentary. The only minor albeit forgivable flaw is that the music score feels too intrusive and overbearing at times, so the filmmakers don't trust the audience's emotions enough. At a running time of 1 hour and 50 minutes, After Death finds just the right balance between entertaining the audience and provoking the audience intellectually as well as emotionally. It opens nationwide via Angel Studios.



 

      Carterland is an insightful, engaging and slickly edited, but hagiographic and unbalanced documentary biopic about President Jimmy Carter. Co-directors Jim and Will Pattiz, a.k.a. The Pattiz Brothers, trace Jimmy Carter's political career from the moment that he won the election in 1976 to become President of the United States until the end of term in 1981. There's a lot of mention of the positive things that he did like how he led the movement against climate change and even installed solar panels on The White House's roof. He negotiated and signed the Panama Canal Treaties as well as The Camp David Accords which was signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. When inflation plagued the country throughout his presidency, he did what any economist would advise to do in response to it: he raised interest rates which, in turn, cost him many votes and led to him losing his re-election. Carterland persuasively argues that Carter deserves the credit for the healthy economy during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The talking-head interviews with politicians like Walter Mondale, Carter's Vice President, and Jimmy Carter's grandson, Jason, are illuminating. However, this isn't a thorough biopic on Jimmy Carter because it mostly focuses on his work during his presidency, so it's limited in scope and neglects to open Jimmy Carter's curtain, so-to-speak, to see what he's like backstage. A brief interview with him at the tail end of the film is too little, too late. At a running time of 2 hours and 2 minutes, Carterland opens at a Village East by Angelika.



 

      Deep Rising is a visually stunning, but repetitive and unfocused documentary that barely scratches the surface. It's fundamentally about the importance of preserving ocean wildlife and the threat that deep-sea mining poses for the marine ecosystem. Unfortunately, director Matthieu Rytz clunkily combines two documentaries together with very mixed results. On the one hand, Deep Rising has breathtaking images of marine life in the deep sea that highlights their beauty which speaks louder than words. That documentary's most captivating moments are during those parts which are narrated by Jason Momoa. Beyond that, it's just a bland infomercial about The Metals Company, a start-up company that mines the ocean floor for metals that then are used for energy technologies. Rytz follows The Metals Company as it goes on the road to becoming a publicly traded company on the stock exchange, but he keeps the documentary too limited in scope with not nearly enough variety of perspectives, thoughtful analysis and illuminating insights. The cuts to the deep sea marine wildlife get redundant after a while as the audience gets hit over the head repeatedly about how majestic the ecosystem is and how vital it is to preserve it. At a running time of 1 hour and 33 minutes, Deep Rising opens at Village East by Angelika via Abramorama.



 

      Four Daughters is a genuinely heartfelt, unflinching and captivating documentary about a Tunisian mother, Olfa Hamrouni, whose eldest daughters, Ghofrane and Rahma, disappeared one day. Director Kaouther Ben Hania combines talking-head interviews with Olfa and her two remaining daughters, Eya and Tayssir, while using actresses, Ichrak Matar and Nour Karoui, to portray Ghofrane and Rahma. Through the interviews, reenactments and archival footage, you get a sense of what Olfa's family was like before Ghofran and Rahma became radicalized and went missing. Olfa, Eya and Tayssir are very brave for showing their vulnerability in front of the camera and sharing their feelings to the audience. It seems almost like a form of therapy for them as they examine their traumatic memories---after all, the best way to learn and to grow from trauma is to confront it. Director Kaouther Ben Hania also puts the families' experience within the context of Tunisian history, so you'll learn a lot about how women have been treated there, how radicalization can happen to ordinary people, and how it can also tear families apart. Most surprisingly, though, she finds some moments of humor which counterbalances the heavy subject matter. To watch the siblings laughing and expressing their joy together is very heartwarming. Thank you, Kaouther Ben Hania for bringing out the humanity of your documentary subjects. It's great to see people allowing themselves to be humanized in a society and world that's very dehumanizing. Hopefully anyone who, like Olfa and her daughters, is processing trauma can find a glimmer of hope through this film and also through the wise words of poet Pablo Neruda who wrote, "They can cut all of the flowers, but they can't stop the spring from coming." At a running time of 1 hour and 47 minutes, Four Daughters opens at IFC Center via Kino Lorber.



 

      Holy Frit is an illuminating and fascinating, but ultimately overlong and incomplete documentary about Tim Carey, an artist based in LA who's commissioned to make a 4,000 square foot window for the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection while working for Judson Studios, a stained-glass company. Director Justin S. Monroe follows Tim as he struggles to complete the project with the help of Narcissus Quagliata, a stained-glass artist who fuses glass together. You'll get to watch Tim and Narcissus working and to catch a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their obstacles, i.e. money problems, along the way as their deadline approaches. Their personalities clash; they seem like oil and water at first, yet they somehow compliment each other. Tim is naive enough to think that if the project fails, it won't be that big of a deal for his career, but Narcissus gives him a reality check when he bluntly informs him that if he fails, he'll be remembered for it. There's also a brief portion of the film that focuses on a lawsuit that won't be spoiled here. All of that is fascinating for the first hour and a half or so, but then the film goes on for yet another 30 minutes. Tighter editing would've made the documentary flow smoother and with less tedium. What's sorely missing, though, is background information about Tim and Narcissus that would've humanized them more instead of just focusing on one of their projects. They both seem passionate about art, determined and talented, so it's disappointing not to learn more about their life beyond their work on the project. Director Justin S. Monroe is lucky to have interesting subjects because they help to enliven the film. At just under 2 hours, Holy Frit opens at Village East by Angelika via Abramorama.



 

      Razing Liberty Square is a heartfelt and illuminating documentary about Liberty Square, a public housing complex, whose residents are at risk of being displaced from their homes because of real estate developers seeking to redevelop the area. Director Katja Esson provides the audience with a basic understanding why the real estate developers chose Liberty Square in particular, what would be lost if it were redeveloped, and how it would affect the residents, many of whom have been there for years. She interviews not only the residents, but also Aaron McKinney, a project manager for the developer Related Urban, Samantha Quarterman, the principal of Meyga Learning Center, and Valencia Gunder, an environmental/climate change activist. Why a climate change activist, you ask? Liberty City, where Liberty Square is located, is 12 feet above sea level making it an ideal location to live as global warming increases the sea levels. Some residents accept Section 8 vouchers while others are more hesitant. They have no guarantees that their rents won't increase to unaffordable rates which would put them at risk of being homeless. If only economists were to learn that it's not enough for a country's GDP to rise; it has to rise with the poor. Although Razing Liberty Square isn't as enraging, gripping nor unflinching as it could've been, it does put a human face to an important, microcosmic human rights issue. At a running time of 1 hour and 26 minutes, it opens at DCTV Firehouse Cinema in Manhattan.



 

      A Rising Fury is a spellbinding, well-edited and engrossing documentary about the Russia-Ukraine War and a love story between a Ukrainian soldier Pavlo Pavliv and his girlfriend, Svitlana Karabut. Co-directors Ruslan Batytskyi and Lesya Kalynska do a terrific job of provoking the audience emotionally and intellectually while keeping them engaged on a visceral level. They understand that a great documentary doesn't feel like a documentary, but rather as a narrative. You'll learn about how Pavlo and Svitlana met and fell in love during the Maidan Revolution while also learning what makes the Maidan Revolution so significant in Ukrainian history. A Rising Fury doesn't resort to talking heads to tell its story; it includes plenty of archival footage from the past 8 years that makes you feel like you're there with Pavlo and Svitlana. It's very well edited because the footage comes together in a way that's immersive and powerful without any scenes that feel very dry and expositional, and the pace moves at just the right speed. The unflinching glimpse into the evolving relationship between Pavlo and Svitlana makes the film both heartfelt, intimate and fascinating. At a running time of only 1 hour and 22 minutes, A Rising Fury opens at Cinema Village.

---

Boudica: Queen of War
Directed by Jesse V. Johnson