Skip to content

CategoryDocumentaries

Posted Documentaries

Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival: Baby God

Dr. Quincy Fortier was a fertility specialist based in Las Vegas in the mid 20th Century. He helped countless women battle infertility. Little did they know that the babies they had, thanks to Fortier’s “treatment”, were also biologically his. Years later, in an age of advanced DNA technology, his offspring find themselves on a harrowing journey of self-discovery.

Directed by Hannah Olson, Baby God is an engrossing and shocking documentary about deceit, manipulation and fractured identity. Dr. Fortier passed away in 2006 at the age of 93 and during his lifetime he got away with using his own sperm to fertilize his patients. It was only in his final years when his patients and their children started to catch on and he was brought to court numerous times. After his death, his actions continue to have ripple effects. The documentary investigates the culture in which Dr. Fortier was able to operate and how he was able to get away with this for so long. Unfortunately, there was no law against what he did and he was not the only doctor to have “worked” in this manner. Fortier genuinely thought he was helping these women.

In the film, we hear from his children, the offspring he raised with his wife, his two adopted daughters, and the half-siblings who discovered their origins in the most shocking of ways. We also hear from the women he treated as well as two of his Las Vegas colleagues. It’s easy to relegate Fortier’s actions to a mid-century naivete. But this documentary clearly demonstrates that Fortier was a deeply disturbed man. 

“Do you want to say your father was a monster? And what does that say about you?”

Baby God can be disjointed at times. I would have preferred a more structured approach rather than its more free-flowing slow build. There was so much to grasp in terms of information, context and meaning that we, the audience, require more guidance. It’s still a highly compelling film that will leave viewers in a state of shock and awe. A must see.

Baby God recently screened at the 2020 virtual Double Exposure Film Festival and is slated to be released on HBO.

Posted Documentaries

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words

“He was the first to do many things.”

Martin Margiela was a disruptor in the fashion world. An avant-garde designer, Margiela became known for shaking things up in an industry that was already prone to convention breaking and disruption. The Belgian-born Margiela knew he wanted to be a fashion designer by the age of 7. He studied in Antwerp, worked as an assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier and quickly developed his own brand. Margiela made a splash in the fashion scene during the early ’80s with highly conceptual designs and his mysterious persona. Margiela knew he wanted his name attached to his work but insisted on anonymity. He never made public appearances, did not show his face to anyone outside of his close circle of employees, collaborators and models, and declined all interviews. The anonymity was a type of self-preservation; a way to protect his creative flow. Margiela’s designed challenged fashion conventions, stirred up controversy and because he never attached his image to his brand, when he abruptly left the fashion industry in 2009, his business transformed into Maison Margiela and would continue on, forever cementing his legacy.

“His hands, his movements, the admiration he has for handcraft, and, most of all, the love he puts in all his creations make us feel his presence at any moment.”

Director Reiner Holzemer on Martin Margiela

Directed by Reiner Holzemer, Martin Margiela: In His Own Words unpacks the history and inspirations behind this legendary designer and offers viewers direct access to the man himself. We never see Margiela’s face, we only hear his voice and see his hands as they open boxes, puts together designs and reveal images and designs from his previous work. The documentary also features many interviews with other designers, former employees, models, critics and fashion experts. There is plenty of archival footage of Margiela’s groundbreaking fashion shows and lingering close-ups on his many designs.

Holzemer offers a compelling portrait of a creative genius who worked on his own terms and put everyone else out of fashion with his edgy and provocative designs. 

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words is available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, FandangoNow, Google Play, Xbox and Vudu.

Posted Documentaries

The Way I See It

“I look at myself as a historian with a camera.”

Pete Souza

Director Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble) delivers again with another political documentary wrought with emotion. Inspired by the best-selling book, The Way I See It tells the story of Pete Souza, former photographer for the Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama administrations.

On that fateful day in January 2017 when Donald Trump was sworn in as president and Obama left the White House, Souza sensed  that the country had lost something substantial. Having spent four years photographing Obama in moments both historic and intimate, Souza thought he was ready to retire. But he just couldn’t keep quiet as he saw the rapidly changing political climate. He started an Instagram account to share some of his photos and it quickly turned into his form of resistance.

In an age when we are exposed to a constant stream of video content, we forget how powerful a still photograph can be. Souza’s photographs capture a mood, an emotion and offer insight and context. Fleeting moments frozen in time. With his Instagram, Souza delivers biting political commentary with posts that are perfectly timed to respond to whatever is happening in the news. He uses the past throw shade at the present.

The Way I See It may be the most important documentary you’ll see this year. It is heartbreaking and emotional in its nostalgia of an era that is quickly slipping away from our collective memory. Porter offers us not only a biography of a photographer but also of his most captivating subject: Barack Obama. While there is also attention paid to Souza’s work in the Reagan administration, this film is more pointedly political and will appeal more to viewers with liberal points of view rather than conservative ones. Souza’s story will awaken your empathy, no matter how dormant, and will empower you to get out and VOTE.

The Way I See It is available in select cinemas. Visit the Focus Features website for more information.

Posted 3 Comments on The Con Documentaries

The Con

Inspired by producer Patrick Lovell’s own personal experience with fraudulent mortgage lenders, The Con is a five-part docuseries that explores the intricacies of the 2008 financial crisis and how greed led the powers at be to steal from the poor to give to the rich. The financial crisis, the stock market crash and the subsequent days of the Great Recession didn’t just materialize out of thin air. It was the direct result of a banking and mortgage industry that was rife with corruption and allowed to spiral out of control. Predatory lending practices, deregulation, criminal bankers and banks that became too big to fail caused catastrophic economic damage. And it was the average Americans who bore the brunt of it. Homes foreclosed all over the country and some Americans, who were misled the financial institutions they trusted, were left in dire straits. 

Directed and written by Eric S. Vaughan, The Con unpacks all of these details and examines the integrated system of fraud and all of the key figures who made this happen. This docuseries is frighteningly revelatory and offers viewers a warning of the future: this can and will happen again if we don’t recognize that greed is in fact bad.

The docuseries interviews whistleblowers, journalists and financial experts to get at the truth of what really happen. I don’t pretend to understand all of the particulars, and you don’t need to in order to grasp the concepts. The Con offers case studies of real people who were adversely affected by these predatory practices. 

Visit the official website for more information and to watch the first episode.

Posted Documentaries

Fantasia Festival: Feels Good, Man

When cartoonist Matt Furie created Pepe the Frog, he had no clue that his seemingly benign humanoid frog character would take over the internet and evolve into a symbol of hate speech. Directed by Arthur Jones, the documentary Feels Good, Man chronicles the long journey that Furie’s creation took over the years and it offers revelations about fringe internet culture that are eye-opening and alarming.

Furie’s story is an extraordinary one. This mild-mannered artist is the opposite of who you might think would be behind an internet hate meme. He draws images of toys, creates children’s books which he reads to his daughter and drew Pepe the Frog as a vessel through which to make jokes about bodily functions. The problem with the image of Pepe is that it could easily be co-opted; anyone could draw him, his identity could easily be adapted to trending memes and Furie did not and could not take ownership of Pepe in a significant way in order to control how his creation was used online.

I won’t go into  all the specifics of how Pepe morphed from hand drawn comic book character to a symbol of radicalization. The documentary does such a good job revealing each and every stage of Pepe’s evolution that it’s what makes this film so engrossing. Pepe went from a “Feels Good, Man” meme, to a mascot for outsiders, to a trolling personality then is now a symbol for dangerous radicals, white supremacists and the alt-right. Jones’s film does an exemplary job demonstrating how Pepe became a key element in Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign. We also see Furie fighting back and disconnecting from the creation that became bigger than himself. The documentary features interviews with Furie, his family and friends, fellow cartoonists, psychologists and other experts.

Feels Good, Man is a riveting documentary that offers many insights into the dangers of internet culture. 

Feels Good, Man is part of the virtual 2020 Fantasia Festival.

JustWatch.com