Remaining Native
Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is finally gaining awareness of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Emmy-nominated Haudenosaunee director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native.
Bethmann’s film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team and distinguish himself in his sport, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Remaining Native chronicles everything from Stevens’ achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.
The Spies Among Us
The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormenters. The Spies Among Us cuts through rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, The Spies Among Us should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.
The Age of Disclosure
The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise. Director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.
While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a can’t miss, and materials for the film play up the ‘90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they’re supposed to represent.
Are We Good?
Marc Maron might be the most influential comedian of our generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of standup comedy.