I don't recall ever seeing an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as a child, but after watching this documentary I feel more inspired by the host.  At this time in America, this film is extremely relevant to society.  The documentary delves into Fred Rogers's life and what drove him to create a space where he could teach children about philosophical subject matter.  Director Morgan Neville (Best of Enemies: Buckly vs. Vidal, 20 Feet from Stardom, The Music of Strangers) paves the path of exploration for viewers to journey into the life and philosophies of Fred Rogers.

The film is interesting and brings up subjects that are still tough to understand today.  Neville brings out the best in Rogers and makes the audience wonder if he truly could have been the image that Neville paints him in.  The film covers most of Rogers's life, but pinpoints certain episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood to create a satisfying documentary.  At certain points, we get to see how Rogers tackled topics like love, death, and even the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.  

Enlightening interviews also create a more detailed journey through Rogers's life.  These interviews range from his children, to his wife, to acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma.  Rogers seems to have developed many close relationships throughout his life and Neville brings out the best in these relationships through personal interviews.  Not only is this documentary built with personality, but it is inspiring throughout its heartfelt moments.

The Bottom Line: Morgan Neville creates an inspiring and thoughtful portrait of an American hero exactly when theater audiences need to see it.

Score: 8/10

The ALS ice bucket challenge helped give people knowledge about the disease that is seemingly incurable.  The ice bucket challenge has helped the ALSA raise money over the past few years, but it was hard for people unaffected by the disease to connect with the struggle that the diagnosed go through.  Through this documentary and his organization, Steve Gleason has brought more attention to the disease.  The documentation of his diagnoses opened my eyes to a disease that I have hardly seen in real life.  As always I believe that if I can learn something from a documentary, it is a well-made film.  Based on the amount of information in this documentary, Gleason is more than a well-made film.  It is a masterpiece.

At the center of the whole story, Steve Gleason reveals his reason for fighting to live.  He brings us the ups and downs of life through his own diagnoses.  Watching his progression through the film, audiences get the sense that no problems in life can hold you down.  You have to fight for what you love and to maintain your livelihood.  This message couldn't be more relevant in modern times.  Gleason's sacrifices for his family remind us that we should never whine about the small things in life, but always strive to create meaning in our relationships.

With a message so powerful, you might tear up and laugh as you watch this film.  Gleason's story is rough, full of sadness and a progressively life-threatening disease.  If you have a faint heart, you will have trouble watching this film.  Yet, everyone should be able to leave the viewing with a sense of satisfaction and purpose.  We shouldn't shudder at the sight of another person's struggle.  Rather, we should gain encouragement to have purpose in life.  Gleason's purpose was to bring awareness to ALS, and he has succeeded in helping the cause.  

No matter what river flows through our lives, we can always float with our heads above the water.

The Bottom Line:  Gleason's vlogumentary brings a touching story of living with a purpose.

Score: 9.7/10 

​Image credit: By Collision Conf from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA - _DSC1059, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50226278

Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Departed, Titanic) once again shocks audiences, but this time in documentary form.  Last year, DiCaprio's portrayal of Hugh Glass in The Revenant was raw, harsh, and emotional.  This time around, DiCaprio is bringing audiences an image of apocalypse with Before the Flood.  His new documentary focuses on two big topics, ignorance and climate change.  As audiences tour the world's political corruption, they are also brought into the upbringing of DiCaprio.

Throughout the film, DiCaprio makes it clear that he is extremely focused on helping to create a change in the modern world.  He acts as though he has finally found a cause that he must fight for and reveal to his fans.  As he explains his childhood, he reminds us that we all have a purpose on this earth that is starting to bear the consequences of its mass population.  It seems as though DiCaprio's acting in The Revenant revealed the importance of reversing climate change.

Masterfully interviewing multiple sources, DiCaprio guides us through the corruption in the American political system when it comes to creating policies.  Political figures often misguide the population because of their funding sources.  After the last presidential election, it has become clear that there is corruption in our political system.  We have been led to believe that corruption does not exist in democracy, but we are finally seeing that there are still flaws in America's leading ideologies.  Clips of politicians constantly dodging the fact that climate change is real portrays the point of DiCaprio's journey.  It is time to stand up against these climate change deniers and fight to reverse the effects of climate change so that we can preserve our world for future generations.

The Bottom Line:  DiCaprio's powerful message strikes against common misconceptions relating to the survival of our world.

Score: 9.5/10

Image credit: ​By Siebbi - ipernity.com, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14740864

Winning 11 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize, Hamilton brought new life to Broadway.  Broadway has always been a popular entertainment venue, but it has been a long time since tickets sold as well as they still do for Hamilton.  What does Lin-Manuel Miranda's creation have that is different to offer?  There are so many musicals out there and they all differ in music and story.  However, Miranda's musical is completely different, using a hip-hop and rap to explain the story of one of America's founding fathers.  This is a musical that strives to be unique, and succeeds in doing so.  The documentary adds quite a bit of depth to the creation, giving audiences a background for the creation and some of the fictional aspects that go along with putting a historical figure at the forefront of a musical.

In the documentary, Miranda acts as a tour guide showing us his upbringing and background.  As an actor, Miranda got involved more and more on Broadway.  As a modern poet, Miranda found himself at a slam poetry presentation at the White House.  In the presence of President Obama, Miranda performed the first song in the modern musical.  The song was followed by audience amazement, and the idea for a founding father musical was born.  The documentary vastly discusses the process of creating Hamilton, giving light to the behind-the-scenes story.

Hamilton's America also discusses the connections between Miranda and Hamilton himself.  Both of them have immigrant backgrounds and felt a disconnect from the general populations.  Yet, both ended up being creators that appear to the public as prodigies.  Where Hamilton helped to construct the American economy, Miranda has constructed a new musical format.  These mirroring figures were/are crucial to the development of America's culture and the documentary gives us the full weight of each of their products.  While Hamilton passed away a long time ago, Miranda still has a lot of work to come in his already inventive career path.  I cannot wait for what is still to come!

The Bottom Line:  Anyone interested in Hamilton and Miranda will learn something that they did not know about them in this documentary.

Score: 7.6/10

What really happened?  How did this University of Washington student get arrested and then set free for a crime that has no evidence of her involvement?  Amanda Knox answers most of the questions for the Italian court case with facts that never cease to astonish throughout the whole film.  The film has a stark tone for the case that created so many mixed emotions among the public.  Different sides of the story are constantly revealed as justifications for the case outcomes are created by many different parties.  With a story this complex, it is amazing to see it masterfully handled by the direction of Brian McGinn and Rod Blackhurst.  The two directors attract the audience's eyes with clear visuals in a fuzzy situation.

Crime documentaries need multiple perspectives in order to grant the full story to the audience.  Amanda Knox makes sure that all sides of the story are told.  This is hard to do in the short 1 hour and 32 minute runtime of the film.  Still, we get to hear how the original court case was blown out of proportion by the media through the retelling by a journalist.  We get to hear how the original court case was justified by a public prosecutor named Giuliani Mignini.  And of course, we hear from Amanda Knox and her boyfriend at the time of the crime.  All of these perspectives mesh together to give the audience a full view of the crime case.  I can gladly say that I learned a lot from this documentary.

The writers choose to tell the story in a well-done chronological order.  It is hard to retell a story that lasted about a decade.  Yet, I never felt overly rushed through the documentary.  A part of the credit must go to the beautiful shots throughout the film.  Found footage combines with new clear imagery to maintain a fresh view for the film.  The color palette maintains the dark tone that often comes up in modern crime documentaries.  Yet, flashy headlines scatter across the screen to make sure that our eyes are always on-target.  These types of innovations create a quick-paced film that feels short, but well-rounded.  

The Bottom Line:  Amanda Knox covers a lot of quantity in its story, yet maintains its quality through superb visuals and multiple perspectives. 

Score: 9.6/10

Image credit: ​By Scott335 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17217794

This Netflix doc hits its mark with an interesting character leading and innovating the EDM world.  I've never been a big fan of EDM, but this doc made me want to check out the history of the genre more.  I have a good friend who constantly goes to EDM concerts or raves and I've never gone with him, but no I have the urge to see the spectacle.  Steve Aoki comes from a background relatable to punk rockers and their upbringing.  Interestingly, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead parallels these two stories together to show how new music genres are often created.  I also learned a lot from the film about Aoki's father, who was apparently the founder of Benihana.  Those are clearly hard shoes for Steve to follow, but it's nice to see his development of pride throughout the feature film.

Aside from the story, the mise-en-scene and cinematography are both top-notch in the film.  Slow motion shots take us into the mind of Aoki, contemplating what his life is all about.  Most of the time, the tone of the film comes off as reflective, fitting Aoki's thought process perfectly.  Montages also occur occasionally to give us the daredevil attitude that he inherited from his father.  EDM is all about getting the crowd moving to the beat of the DJ.  The film at times made me want to dance and enjoy the art, but emotional moments hit hard at times as well.  Towards the end of the flick, the death of a DJ hits Aoki and the viewer hard.  We grow through the success and struggles of Aoki's career, putting ourselves in his footsteps.  His career may not be a proud moment for his father, but it certainly shows us a hard-working and successful person who deserves all of the credit that he has gotten.

The Bottom Line:  I'll Sleep When I'm Dead solidly places its audience in the shoes of one of the most hard-working and introspective musical artists to ever walk the earth.

Score: 9.6/10  

IN A WORLD... WHERE VOICE ACTORS GO UNNOTICED... JOHN DIMAGGIO (Futurama, Wreck-It Ralph) CREATES A FILM TO SHOW ANIMATION-LOVERS THE TRUTH.  Before watching this film I had an appreciation for voice actors, but now that appreciation has been doubled.  The hard work behind animation that goes unrealized is finally revealed in I Know That Voice.  The title catches our attention because we often struggle to figure out whose voice we are hearing.  We know we've heard it, but we cannot grasp exactly who it is or where else we've heard it.  I Know That Voice breaks the barrier of animation by introducing us to the voices behind each character.

Usually, I do not like documentaries that survey subjects as this one does.  However, I found myself constantly trying to imitate the voice actors as I was fully engaged in the subject.  The film briefly covers multiple topics, including musicality and many more.  We only get brief introductions to each of the topics, but there are so many that we get to see.  The film is a good length, keeping my interest through all of the topics.  I've said this before, but I will reiterate that a documentary is successful if it teaches the audience something new.  I definitely learned something new from this documentary with all of the different subjects involved.  Musicality was the most interesting to me and I recommend you pay close attention to the film at that part.    

Of course there are popular names in this film including Seth Green (Austin Powers), Hank Azaria (The Simpsons), Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series), and Mark Hamill (Star Wars).  Yet, there are a lot of names that I did not know were behind certain voices on screen.  These names have been hidden from us for so long.  It's nice that we finally get to give them credit for their works, which are often harder than the works of live-action actors.  It is important to me that as many people as possible watch this film and realize what goes on in the making of animation.  The film platform continues to rise and credit must be given to those who contribute to it.

The Bottom Line:  This eye-opening documentary gives us a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes effort involved in voicing our favorite animated characters.

Score: 8.5/10

Image credit: ​By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Matt GroeningUploaded by maybeMaybeMaybe, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22892704

Coming from the mind of David Byrne, this event featured ten different teams of color guards paired with a musician performing live at Barclays Center.  The performances introduce unfamiliar audiences with what color guard is, while bringing color guard fans to the center as well.  I went into this film knowing nothing about color guard and came out with some questions still, but there were also some answers.  Basically it seems to me like color guard is a mix of cheerleading, baton throwing, rifle-flipping, and dance team.  Yet, I still may be mistaken.

Putting this performance on the big screen seemed to be quite the feat.  The film was not shown live, but clearly edited over a long period of time.  The technological aspects of creating this performance was jaw-dropping and sometimes mind-jarring.  The performances fade in and out as we go backstage in-between the ten acts.  The musicians all had a sort of odd vibe as well ranging from David Byrne to Nelly Furtado to TUnE-yArDs.  They contributed to the acts with a sense of emotion that also had a wide range.  Some seemed to be singing about peace and love, while others were trying to hold back tears as they sang.

As with many live performances, the staging of the event was smooth and seemingly flawless.  The color guard teams were synchronized so seamlessly as if they were absolute professionals.  I was pulled into a completely foreign concept.  Until seeing the film, I thought the color guard was just those guys and gals who carried the flags at football games or other large events.  The devotion of these young artists pays off through the film.  Finally, color guard can gain the respect it deserves and the recognition for fine arts can be further achieved.

The Bottom Line:  Jaw-dropping and mind-jarring performances hold this film together as the audience is introduced to an unfamiliar stage act.

Score: 8.5/10

Image Credit: ​https://consequenceofsound.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/contemporary_color.jpg

This film is a true heart-wrencher.  That does not mean that it is overly emotional.  Rather, it is just so like-able and relatable to the struggle of life that everyone endures.  As a Youtube vlogger, Princess Shaw struggles to get attention for her original music.  That is, until she is discovered by Kutiman who is an Israeli musician that uses random Youtube videos to create music.  Throughout this film, there is a sense of connection between the two artists who struggle to get recognition for their hard work.  Director Ido Haar connects the two characters in such a fantastic portrayal of their parallel lives.  Furthermore, the soundtrack hits home with Princess Shaw's original songs.  Her music is used in order to show her subtle rise to what one could call "fame."  

After the film, Princess Shaw herself came on stage for a Q&A whilst being applauded for her movie.  She seemed like such a genuine person that I had to check out her Youtube channel.  To me, documentaries have to have this effect where the viewer strives to learn more after the movie.  That being said, Presenting Princess Shaw left me wanting to learn more so I applaud Ido Haar, Princess Shaw, and Kutiman for their efforts in the making of this film.

The Bottom Line:  This film is very heart-felt and a beautiful portrait of how one person can fit into the bigger picture of life.

Score: 7.5/10

This was the first SIFF film I got to see and boy was it an experience.  Before this film, I had heard of NOMA (the best restaurant in the world) while watching Anthony Bourdain's show on the travel channel.  The food looks delicious and the concepts look fresh.  The film dives into NOMA's transition to Tokyo after the owner decides to move the restaurant and crew out of Copenhagen and into Asia.  The film was quite interesting to watch as the audience gets to experience the whole crew at NOMA and their process of moving the restaurant.  I do not recommend watching this one with an empty stomach, but if you do you might become full after devouring its content.  The film sort of unravels as we get to see all of the personalities of the staff.  Clearly, the director worked just as hard at making this film as the NOMA crew worked onscreen.  There are different segments that are put together to portray everything NOMA is about.  I like the style and narrative for the most part, but I would have liked the film a bit more if it had more organization.  At times, the segments feel scattered and the movie comes off a bit jumbly.  Overall, this was a good first film for the fest though!

The Bottom Line:  Even if you just taste a bit of this film, your mouth might start to water as it yearns for more.

Score: 7.6/10

A BRIEF AFTERTHOUGHT:  Some reviews may be a bit shorter during the film fest because there are so many films that I am watching!