Some filmmakers are known for their documentary works. Others for their narrative films. Still others—the better filmmakers (for me), generally—do not fit comfortably into either category. Or any category whatsoever. Poet / artist / filmmaker Lynne Sachs is one of […]

The post A Conversation with  Lynne Sachs (EVERY CONTACT LEAVES A TRACE) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

Everybody to Kenmure Street (which I recently reviewed), from director Felipe Bustos Sierra (Nae Pasaran), just premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary highlights a 2021 protest in Glasgow, Scotland, over a dawn raid to kidnap two immigrant […]

The post A Conversation with Felipe Bustos Sierra (EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem is the best film I saw at Sundance this year. It is also, in a sense, a miracle. In 1972, the legendary documentary filmmaker William Greaves—director of the avant-garde masterpiece Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968), […]

The post A Conversation with David Greaves, Liani Greaves, Anne de Mare & Lynn True (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

Nathan Silver’s Carol & Joy is a 38-minute documentary portrait of Academy Award-nominated actress Carol Kane and her 98-year-old mother Joy, a music teacher who still gives lessons and plays piano in their Upper West Side apartment. Shot on 16mm by cinematographers […]

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In October 2021, Soviet-born American filmmaker Julia Loktev arrived in Moscow with her iPhone to document Russian independent journalists being declared “foreign agents” by Putin’s regime. At the start of filming she had no idea it would become a five-and-a-half-hour […]

The post A Conversation with Julia Loktev (MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART 1–LAST AIR IN MOSCOW) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

In 2017, after three years under the control of the Islamic State (ISIS), the people of Mosul, Iraq fought to reclaim their city. The nine-month battle to liberate Mosul was marked by catastrophic violence, especially in the historic Old City. […]

The post A Conversation with Zaradasht Ahmed (THE LIONS BY THE RIVER TIGRIS) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

During Argentina’s Dirty War between 1976 and 1983, up to 30,000 people disappeared. Many were dissidents and activists publicly opposing the military dictatorship, Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (National Reorganization Process), though others were citizens suspected of being “terrorists” for having […]

The post A Conversation with Marialuisa Ernst (A PLACE OF ABSENCE) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

It may be incongruous to characterize a film about war and destruction as “gentle,” or a film of loss and ethnic cleaning as “tender,” but Emily Mkrtichian’s debut feature There Was, There Was Not is a film that continuously breaks […]

The post A Conversation with Emily Mkrtichian (THERE WAS, THERE WAS NOT) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.

(Check out Brandon Wilson’s Room to Move movie review, it’s coming soon from GoodCompany. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.) How we feel about non-fiction filmmaking says a lot about what we really think about cinema. […]

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Director Suzannah Herbert’s most recent documentary, Natchez, just played the 2025 Tribeca Festival (where I reviewed it) and it won not only the best documentary feature prize but also special jury awards for cinematography. The movie delivers an intriguing portrait […]

The post A Conversation with Darcy McKinnon & Suzannah Herbert (NATCHEZ) appeared first on Hammer to Nail.