Documentary Films and Programs

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      in Television

      ‘Natasha,’ a Film About a Murdered Russian Activist, Takes Its Own Risks

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      The widely condemned killing of Natalya Estemirova is the subject of a documentary that those involved say needed to take heed of the dangers of speaking out.For a decade, Natalya Estemirova documented brutal human rights abuses in Chechnya. Her work led to her becoming one of the most prominent and respected human rights defenders working in that small predominantly Muslim region of Russia.But on the morning of July 15, 2009, as she was leaving her apartment, she was abducted and murdered, crimes for which no one has been charged but are viewed by many as precipitated by her work.Years later, filmmakers and former colleagues trying to tell her story encountered their own set of risks as they endeavored to draw attention to her heroism and the conditions that provoked it.The resulting short 35-minute documentary, “Natasha,” as Natalya was known, premiered this month at the Tribeca Film Festival.Andrew Meier, one of the two producers and directors of the film, said he does not imagine it will be shown in Russia anytime soon.“Even revisiting Natasha’s work and Natasha’s murder is a taboo, to put it mildly,” he said in an interview. “It’s one of the big cases you just don’t talk about in Chechnya.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      In a New Documentary, the Deaf Actress Marlee Matlin Talks About Prejudice

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      In a new documentary, the actress talks about the prejudice and loneliness she faced after becoming the rare Hollywood star who is deaf.Actors in documentaries about their own lives rarely — perhaps never — speak with the kind of candor that Marlee Matlin brings to Shoshannah Stern’s new film “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” (in theaters). This kind of project all too often results in a cagey puff piece, lots of warmed-over memories accented by one mildly surprising revelation, which ensures the movie will make headlines.Not this film. From the start, Matlin speaks with an unvarnished frankness about the loneliness and prejudice she encountered when she burst into public consciousness in “Children of a Lesser God,” for which she won the best actress Oscar in 1987. For 35 years, she was the only deaf performer with an Academy Award — a record finally broken in 2022, when Troy Kotsur won for “CODA,” in which he co-starred with Matlin. Now, she says, she isn’t alone anymore.But the path to this point was littered with frustrations in a world that still treats deaf people as second-class citizens. Matlin talks about how solitary she often felt, set apart not just from the hearing world but at times from the deaf one, too. She speaks, with nuance but also pain, of her relationship with her “Children of a Lesser God” co-star William Hurt, who was 16 years older and, she says, abusive at times. (Hurt died in 2022. In 2009, he issued a public apology “for any pain I caused.”) She also addresses the clear anti-deaf bias that surfaces in the news media — demonstrated, pointedly, by archival clips of interviewers saying offensive things — and how it shaped her addiction struggles as well as the way she presented herself in the years following her Oscar win.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Is a Compelling Sports Series

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      Season 2 of this docuseries about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is an intense look at found families and all the healing and trouble that come with them.Season 2 of the documentary series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” on Netflix, is a bit less rah-rah than Season 1 — still full of tears, high kicks and sisterhood but also more attuned to the pain of it all, the sorrow and struggle of cobbling together one’s self-worth.One of this season’s leads is Jada, a five-year veteran of the team and among its best dancers and most thoughtful leaders. She lays out the season’s theme at the beginning: “Everyone’s going to say, ‘Well, they’re just cheerleaders,’” she says. “Well, we’re really good cheerleaders.”Her grin begins to spread. “Show us that you appreciate us,” she adds.Are the members of the team appreciated? Not with money, they’re not, and part of this season’s most invigorating arc is the cheerleaders’ quest for better pay. Season 1 brought additional fame and adulation to the team, and it also drew attention to the exploitation of the enterprise. As Kylie, another team veteran, explains: “The world was kind of telling us, ‘Girls, fight for more.’ And we’re like, ‘OK!’”As the women practice the grueling signature routine, we hear the opening strains of the AC/DC song “Thunderstruck,” over and over. But the true refrain of the season is the fretting about being in one’s own head. It’s the catchall term for all distress and self-recrimination, the explanation for any lack of confidence or lapse in perfection. Yes, performers can overthink things, especially in prolonged auditions, and rumination and anxiety are enemies to the wide smiles and sexy winks the Dallas cheerleaders’ routines require. The job is to make it look easy.But there’s an interesting tension. Your head is where the good ideas are, too — ideas like: “Hey, a lot of people are making a lot of money off my work; why doesn’t any of that go to me?” Or: “Even people who I believe have my best interests at heart can disappoint and hurt me.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      William Cran, ‘Frontline’ Documentarian, Is Dead at 79

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      Producing or directing, he made more than 50 films over 50 years, including a series on the English language and an exploration of J. Edgar Hoover’s secret life.William Cran, an Emmy-winning master of the television documentary whose expansive body of work, primarily for the BBC and the PBS program “Frontline,” delved into complex subjects like the history of the English language and the private life of the F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover, died on June 4 in London. He was 79.His wife, Vicki Barker-Cran, said cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease. He died in a hospital.Mr. Cran produced more than 50 documentaries over 50 years and directed many of them.He began his career with the BBC, but he mostly worked as an independent producer, toggling between jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.He was most closely associated with “Frontline,” for which he produced 20 documentaries on a wide range of subjects — some historical, like the four-part series “From Jesus to Christ” (1998) and “The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover” (1993), and some focused on current events, like “Who’s Afraid of Rupert Murdoch” (1995).Some of Mr. Cran’s documentaries were historical, like the four-part series “From Jesus to Christ” (1998).PBSHe won a slew of honors, including four Emmys, four duPont-Columbia University awards, two Peabodys and an Overseas Press Club Award.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay on Her Mother Jayne Mansfield

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      Mariska Hargitay was at home, and she was sprinting up the stairs, bounding between the corners of her very full life. I had to hustle to keep pace.She checked in with her oldest son — tall, polite, home from his first year at Princeton — and supervised the setup of an engagement party she was hosting for her goddaughter. Gardeners buzzed about the terraces of her Manhattan penthouse. She apologized, superfluously, for the noise.Her latest obsession, a family heirloom grand piano that had recently entered her apartment via crane, dominated the living room, with a custom “M” bench, courtesy of her husband, the actor Peter Hermann (“Younger”). “That’s my next thing — I’m going to learn to play soon,” Hargitay vowed.Another dash and we were on the floor below, a warren of cozy offices, painted in jewel tones, with overstuffed couches and muscular art by Annie Leibovitz. Tucked on a bookshelf were some of Hargitay’s awards. She has earned Emmys for playing Olivia Benson, the beloved “Law & Order: SVU” hardass, and for producing the 2017 documentary “I Am Evidence,” about the backlog of rape kits.This is where Hargitay had conceived, edited and even shot some of her newest and perhaps most life-altering project, the documentary “My Mom Jayne.” It’s at once an unflinching portrait of her mother, the 1950s star and pinup Jayne Mansfield, who died when Mariska was 3; a homage to her father, the bodybuilder and actor Mickey Hargitay; and an investigation into her own clouded and secretive origins. Directing the film, which will air June 27 on HBO, and proclaiming her story has unlocked something profound for Hargitay, 61.“I am so clear now about the truth,” she said. “This big haze came off — a veil of fear. And now I just feel so much at peace. It’s like a miracle to me to feel this way. I never thought I could.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      ‘America’s Sweethearts’ Reveals 400 Percent Raise for Cowboys Cheerleaders

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      The second season of the docuseries “America’s Sweethearts” reveals the squad’s successful effort to push for greater financial stability.In what amounts to the biggest reveal of the second season of the Netflix docuseries “America’s Sweethearts,” the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will receive a pay raise of roughly 400 percent for the 2025 season.It is a huge increase in a profession known for its low wages, and one that a former cheerleader for the team, Jada McLean, described in an interview with The New York Times as “a drastic change” that could give the cheerleaders more financial security.The pay bump is announced in Episode 7 of the show’s second season, which began streaming on Wednesday. It caps a yearslong effort for higher pay that drew a great deal of attention in 2018 when the former cheerleader Erica Wilkins sued the team for unfair pay. She claimed in her lawsuit that she received roughly $7 per hour with no overtime pay and a flat rate of $200 per game, which, in total, ended up being less than the annual pay for the team’s mascot, Rowdy. Her case was settled out of court in 2019 and, since then, hourly wages for the squad remained low.Missing from the announcement of the raise in the show were any specifics of what the cheerleaders were making previously, or how much they would be paid under their new deal.But in a rare instance of a Cowboys cheerleader, past or present, discussing her compensation, Ms. McLean told The Times that in 2024, her fifth year with the squad, she had made $15 an hour and $500 for each appearance, and that compensation varies based on experience. With the increased wages, she said veteran cheerleaders could now be making more than $75 an hour. The new contract also changes the structure around pay for game day and other appearances, though Ms. McLean said it still does not provide health insurance.In an emailed statement, the franchise would not confirm the new wages or if the new rates apply to rookies on the team as well.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Sally’ Review: Rocket Woman

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      The remarkable life of the first American woman in space is profiled in this diverting but tame documentary.“Sally,” a welcome but unadventurous documentary about the astronaut Sally Ride (who died in 2012), wraps a risk-taking personality inside a risk-averse package.What’s lacking is style, not substance, as the movie bustles with diverting details. Lengthy interviews with Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, are candid and sometimes piquant, but they’re too often delivered inside a visual dead space. Other talking heads — including Sally’s family and fellow astronauts — are handled similarly, the conventionality of Cristina Costantini’s filmmaking disappointingly at odds with the singularity of her subject.Even so, a portrait soon takes shape of an extraordinary woman whose drive and intelligence were aided by a personality that, according to one colleague, was “strictly business.” One of the first women to be accepted into NASA in 1978 — and the first American woman to fly in space — she faced rampant sexism and an organization laughably unprepared for women in its ranks. (Would 100 tampons be sufficient for a week in space?, a male engineer wondered.) Journalists focused relentlessly on her gender, with one asking whether she would weep if she encountered a problem on a flight. As the film makes clear, Sally was not the weeping type.That was a blessing, as she was also deeply private about her personal life. Perhaps noting the torment suffered by her friend Billie Jean King when her relationship with a woman was made public, Sally committed to secrecy. In the end, blasting through Earth’s atmosphere was easier than breaching public opinion.“It hurt me, but I’m not sure it hurt Sally,” a former girlfriend tells us, with refreshing frankness. In one brief exchange, Sally’s mother, Joyce Ride, describes her as “closed mouthed” about her feelings. When Costantini asks why that might be, an unamused Joyce replies “It’s none of your business.” Her daughter would have been proud.SallyNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. Watch on Hulu and Disney+. More

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      ‘Prime Minister’ Examines a New Zealand Leader and a Global Issue

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      The film is a memoir of sorts for Jacinda Ardern, who governed at a time of multiple disasters. But it was misinformation that proved hardest to cope with.When she became prime minister of New Zealand in 2017, Jacinda Ardern was the world’s youngest female head of state, at 37. From the start, she was playing on hard mode. After giving birth to a daughter not quite eight months later, she led her country through a series of generational catastrophes — shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, a deadly volcanic eruption, the Covid-19 pandemic — all while pushing a hefty set of progressive reforms through the legislature and getting re-elected, too.The new documentary “Prime Minister” (in theaters) mostly covers this tumultuous period, showing how Ardern, the Labour Party leader at the time, navigated her choices while also giving space to her misgivings. But it’s not a biopic or a puff piece. It’s more of a memoir: a bigger story told through the events of one person’s life. That tale goes far beyond Ardern, even beyond New Zealand.The directors Lindsay Utz and Michelle Walshe drew on a variety of sources. There’s footage from 2024, with Ardern teaching as a fellow at Harvard and working on her new book, “A Different Kind of Power.” But that’s just the framing device. The bulk of “Prime Minister” leans on video that her husband, Clarke Gayford, shot during Ardern’s time in office, including intimate glimpses of her home life and private thoughts, as well as audio interviews that haven’t been previously released.The result can be uncommonly frank. Ardern talks about reluctant governing and impostor syndrome. Her political journey, she says, has been a battle between two parts of herself, “the one that says that you can’t and the one that says that you have to.” She speaks her mind but is also in tune with her emotions. You can hear her voice crack when she contemplates the grieving families of the people slain in the Christchurch massacre, or considers the implications of pandemic lockdown policies on children who depend on school for food and women who will face domestic violence in isolation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More