Athlete A (Netflix, 2020) is the poignant story about the important journalistic investigation into abuse within the US women’s national gymnastics team. As is often the case with this type of story, there are several scandals that fit together. The abuse itself, from team physician Larry Nassar, and then the behavior of USA Gymnastics itself, which created, perpetuated and then attempted to cover up an absolutely toxic situation.
Agnès Varda (died 2019) was one of the most important filmmakers of her time, producing a series of short and feature-length documentaries and feature films that still hold value as seemingly indispensable life lessons. Takes Glasses and spectacles (Moby, 2000) Her beautiful, winding documentary about a photo collector and ultimately about herself as a photo collector. Twenty-five years ago I made Beautiful Daguerreotype types (1975), about the disappearing generation of shopkeepers on her Parisian street: Rue Daguerre. It can be seen at IDFA this year.
De Volkskrant He has a new documentary Gerlach By Aliona van der Horst in the upcoming Idfa, a poignant film about an elderly farmer in the middle of the Randstad. A beautiful moment to return to Love is potatoes (NPO Plus, 2017), a poignant portrait of the director’s mother’s childhood in the Russian countryside.
