Out gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma has followed his award -winning documentary ‘A Jihad For Love’ with an even more daring look at what it takes to renew his faith when he goes to Mecca for his sacred pilgrimage called a Hajj. Every Muslim is expected to do this at least once in their lifetime, … Continue reading
When most people think of a scandalously divorced woman who became a British Duchess, their minds turn to Wallis Simpson the American socialite who was the reason that the King of England abdicated in 1936. However, there was another cause celebre 30 years later when the heiress and divorcee Margaret Whigham and third wife … Continue reading
As part of my continuing process of brushing up on American Cultural Icons I viewed Katherina Otto-Bernstein’s 2006 documentary on ROBERT WILSON, who is arguably the pre-eminent avant-garde theater director/artist in the world. I shouldn’t have been quite so ignorant of Mr. Wilson as although he is American, most of his work has been in Europe where there is … Continue reading
Filmmaker Jamila Wignot’s new documentary of modern dance auteur, the tortured genius Alvin Ailey makes for such hypnotic viewing. With a combination of audio interviews with the man himself and some breathtaking archival footage of his early performances, she gives an intimate portrait of one of the greatest interpreters of the universality of the … Continue reading
The great British soul queen Amy Winehouse burned so bright with her extraordinary voice belting out her songs fuelled with so much of her personal anguish and love in an era when most other music was blandly manufactured, and it’s still difficult to take on board that she eventually burned herself out. In Asif Kapadia’s … Continue reading