Hello Reader, This week, watch one of the best documentaries of the year by the filmmaker who inspired Seventh Row's thinking on creative nonfiction, Penny Lane: Confessions of a Good Samaritan. Virtual tickets are available WORLDWIDE until Monday at noon. The film is still seeking distribution, so this may be your only chance to see it for some time (or at all). About Penny LanePenny Lane has been a huge influence on how we at Seventh Row think about creative nonfiction filmmaking, and this is her latest! We've had her on Lockdown Film School and both of our books on documentaries (Subjective Realities, Documentary Masters) feature in-depth interviews with her. Download the first two chapters of Subjective realitiesIt wouldn't entirely be hyperbole to say that Penny Lane's films and her thoughts on creative nonfiction filmmaking (we even got the term from her) inspried our book Subjective realities. Our Lockdown Film School interview with her formed the first chapter of the book, which you can download free!
About Confessions of a Good SamaritanPenny's new film is brilliant...but it still doesn't have distribution! So you'll need to catch it at a festival...and those screenings usually aren't available worldwide. Confessions of a Good Samaritan is about her journey to becoming an anonymous kidney donor and its emotional repercussions. While educating us on the kidney donation process and why it's important, the film is, above all, a portrait of the filmmaker in crisis. It is equally a film about making a film about donating a kidney. Lane uses many different techniques to get us inside her stressed and complicated brain: inviting us onto her desktop, showing us interviews with herself, documenting the donation process with cameras, and even curating archival footage and interviews to reflect the state of mind of the 'character of Penny Lane' as she develops through the film
For the film's world premiere at HotDocs last year, I talked to Penny Lane about Confessions of a Good Samaritan on the Seventh Row Podcast as part of the Creative Nonfiction season. How to watch Confessions of a Good SamaritanThe Illuminate Film Festival has made the film available digitally WORLDWIDE until Monday morning (April 15). Please tell us where you arePlease tell us where you are so we can better tailor your recommendations! Click here if you're in Canada Click here if you're in the US Click here if you're in Australia Click here if you're in Ireland Click here if you're elsewhere. Did somebody forward this newsletter to you?
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Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Hello Reader, With Young Mothers, the Dardennes’ new film, premiering in Competition at Cannes next week, I’m finally publishing something I’ve been sitting on for nearly a decade. In 2016, I interviewed the Belgian Palme d'Or Winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) about The Unknown Girl. (The film stars Adèle Haenel, the co-lead of Portrait of a Lady on Fire.) We spoke in French — no translator, just my rusty comprehension and their willingness...
Hello Reader, Are you ready for Cannes? The 2025 Cannes Film Festival kicks off today, and while everyone's focused on the Palme d'Or contenders, I'm here to tell you there's a whole world of incredible cinema waiting to be discovered beyond the main competition. For example, Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman (1975) — the film crowned as the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight & Sound Poll — screened in one of the festival's unofficial sidebars: Directors' Fortnight. In fact, Akerman's...
Hello Reader, You are receiving this as a paying subscriber to The Globetrotting Watchlist (which includes Film Adventurer and Cinephile Members), a monthly newsletter that helps you expand your cinematic horizons through streaming recommendations for the best socially progressive under-the-radar films worldwide. Your support helps us pay our expenses to keep Seventh Row, a non-profit, ad-free and online. What's Inside the Globetrotting Newsletter This month, I'm recommending: A queer wedding...