By Larry Hott
I’m a long-time documentary filmmaker and I’m also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also known as the Oscars. I’ve been reviewing films for the Academy Awards for more than 30 years and this year I noticed that several documentaries are about threats to democracy in countries other than the United States.
In a year celebrating our Declaration of Independence it’s helpful to see how the ideals expressed in that document and our Constitution are reflected and challenged in other places. I’m going to talk about four films that relate to that idea.
The films I’ll be discussing include:
- Democracy Noir, directed by Connie Field
- Apocalypse in the Tropics, directed by Petra Costa
- Soul of a Nation, directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz
- Norita, directed by Jayson McNamara and Andrea Tortonese
