I thought I’d let you know about two unusual documentaries. “Four Daughters” (Kanopy and Netflix) an extremely powerful and disturbing film that centers around the four daughters of a single mother in Tunisian. Two of the daughters in their early teens were radicalized by Isis, leaving their already dysfunctional family in emotional chaos. The filmmaker, Kaouther Ben Hania both directs and plays the mother at times (but most of the time the mother plays herself). Two acclaimed actresses play the daughters who left, and the real daughters play themselves. One male actor plays all the male characters. It’s sort of a docudrama but really more of a documentary (one reviewer called it “non-fiction cinema”) because so much of the film is based on interviews of the mother and the two remaining daughters.
“Kim’s Video” (Kanopy, Amazon, Apple) Once streaming took over, video rental stores closed one by one. Korean entrepreneur Kim’s N.Y.C video rental empire was not spared. “Mondo Kim’s” in the East Village limped on a bit longer because of its counterculture appeal (it included many experimental films and independent ones that could not be found anywhere else). But by 2009 it had pretty much closed. In 2014 it was officially dead. Kim decides to donate the collection. But the real story begins when Kim makes an odd choice, selecting the small Sicilian town of Salemi to be the recipient, and rejecting a list of applicants that includes many prestigious film centers such as NYU. What happens next left me slack jawed at times, yelling “whaat?!” frequently. The film can be frustrating at times: because the Mafia is involved, it’s mostly conjecture as to what the motivations are and what is happening exactly. Other questions loom as well. But in general, I strongly recommend watching it. If you don’t want to pay for it, you have three days to see it on Kanopy. It’s also available on Amazon and Apple, but it will cost about $4.00. (side note: so beyond annoying how Amazon ,especially, nickel and dimes at every opportunity.)
New York Cynic 