6 New Documentaries Our Critics Are Talking About This Week

Critic’s pick

Revisiting a life through photographs.

‘A Photographic Memory’

Rachel Elizabeth Seed’s mother, Sheila Turner Seed, died when she was 42 and Rachel was 18 months old. In this documentary, she seeks to connect with her mother through her photography.

From our review:

It’s a film that captures the unsettling sensation of reaching middle age, knowing the length of the road ahead is uncertain but certainly shorter than it’s ever been, and not being able to see past the age your parent was upon death.

In theaters. Read the full review.

Critic’s pick

Reviving the story of an apartheid photographer.

‘Ernest Cole: Lost and Found’

The South African apartheid photographer Ernest Cole died in 1990 in Manhattan after he was exiled — this documentary, directed by Raoul Peck, reviews some of the photos featured in his 1967 photo book “House of Bondage.”

From our review:

Peck makes use of keen observations excerpted from Cole’s writings and moves fluidly between stills (compassionate toward their subjects, damning of the subjugators) as well as quietly captivating photos he took of street life in Harlem and rural life during a road trip to the South in the 1960s and ’70s. The result is an elegantly wrought documentary that pulls off the trick of leaving viewers sated yet also craving more.

In theaters. Read the full review.

Critic’s pick

Observing the making of a Jewish identity.

‘Sabbath Queen’

Directed by Sandi DuBowski, this film follows the story of Amichai Lau-Lavie, an Israel-born gay man who was ordained as a rabbi in 2016.

From our review:

How he went from the Radical Faeries’ joyous, transgressive vision of queerness — which led to creating his drag alter ego, Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross — to embracing Conservative Judaism is the subject of Sandi DuBowski’s fascinating look at the act of questioning yourself and your family, your surroundings and your decisions.