Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
Documentary by Halina Dryschka
Year: 2019; Origin: Germany
Runtime: 93 mins; Color
Language: English, German, and Swedish
Subtitles: English
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
Release date: April 17, 2020

Vasily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian are credited with pioneering the European abstract art movement and their highly influential early 20th century works have long been integrated into our pop culture. But in recent years, it’s come to light that another artist — a woman, in fact — actually began creating abstract paintings before Kandinsky. That person was Hilma af Klint, the subject of a new documentary from Zeitgeist Films.

Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, which opens virtually this weekend, explores the life and works of this truly pioneering Swedish artist, who took her first foray into abstract painting in 1906, several years before Kandinsky. She even died the same year as Kandinsky and Mondrian (1944). So why has this visionary never been credited until recently?

Through interviews with current artists, art and science historians and curators, and af Klint’s surviving relatives, along with up-close looks at and readings from journals entries, sketches, and paintings, director Halina Dryschka seeks to introduce the world to this little-known artist who broke gender boundaries of the time, created a new art style, and died in obscurity.

King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen is a fantastic new documentary written and directed by Steve Mitchell that covers the life and career of maverick filmmaker Larry Cohen and it opened in NYC this week. Larry Cohen began his career writing TV noir and westerns in the late 1950s and early 1960s before building up a filmography in the 1970s, writing, directing, and producing such genre classics as Black Caesar (1973), It’s Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), and The Stuff (1985). While Cohen hasn’t directed a feature film since 1996, he has written some popular genre films such as Phone Booth (2002) and Cellular (2004). His IMDb page features over 80 writing credits with over 20 in the director’s chair. I recently got to speak with Mr. Mitchell, who co-wrote the 1980s horror film Chopping Mall, about his new documentary, his goals for the project, and his relationship with the film’s subject.

King Cohen
The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen
Written and Directed by Steve Mitchell
Featuring Larry Cohen, Martin Scorsese, J.J Abrams, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Landis, Fred Williamson
Dark Star Pictures
Release date: August 3, 2018 (NYC premiere)

Who is Larry Cohen? If you don’t recognize his name, I promise you’ll recognize his films. The now 77-year old has been working in the industry since the late 1950s and evolved from writing noir and western television to become a prolific genre filmmaker. His most prominent works include Black Caesar (1973), It’s Alive (1974), God Told Me To (1976), Q (1982), The Stuff (1985), and Phone Booth (2002). In all he has over 80 writing credits and 20+ directorial efforts. But more than his films was his renegade and rogue filmmaking style. A writer who became a director and producer, Larry Cohen was the consummate hustler and true triple threat. His life and career are now the subject of a phenomenal documentary, King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen, written and directed by Steve Mitchell and put out by Dark Star Pictures.

Finders Keepers
Amazon Instant Video
Directed by Bryan Carberry and Clay Tweel
Starring Shannon Whisnant and John Wood
The Orchard
Running Time: 82 minutes
Release Date: October 2, 2015

I used to hear the saying “finders keepers” quite much when I was a kid. It was usually followed by “losers weepers.” You know the deal; a friend of yours finds something really cool lying around and gets excited about it as if were a glorious treasure, that is until you see it and realize that it actually belongs to you and you have been looking for it for what seems like the longest time. You tell your friend this, ask them if you can have it back, but unfortunately…

“Finders keepers, losers weepers!” The little creep’s mocking tone doesn’t help matters one bit. You hear that less as you mature into adulthood because that just isn’t the kind of thing grown-ups say to each other. At least you would think that. A new documentary aptly titled Finders Keepers begs to differ with an unusual but quintessentially American tale of two men, a barbecue grill, and the severed limb said grill happened to contain that they battled over in full view of the nation and its media that always becomes instantly enthralled by such insanity.

Code Black
Director: Ryan McGarry
Writers: Joshua Altman, Ryan McGarry
Cast: Danny Cheng, Andrew Eads, Jamie Eng, Luis Enriquez, Dave Pomeranz, William Mallon
Hammer Film Productions
Rated PG | 93 Minutes
Release Date: June 2014 (Select cities)

In Code Black, physician Ryan McGarry gives us unprecedented access to America’s busiest emergency department. Amidst real life-and-death situations, McGarry follows a dedicated team of young doctors-in-training in C-Booth, Los Angeles County Hospital’s legendary trauma bay.

The birthplace of emergency medicine, L.A. County Hospital’s “C-Booth” – the critical booth – is a 20-square-foot resuscitation area where more people have died (and lived) than in any other square footage in the United States. Directed by McGarry, the feature-length documentary is a first-person reflection of his own experiences inside America’s busiest emergency department.