Docalogue

03/01/2025

This month's Docalogue is about King Coal, Elaine McMillion Sheldon's meditation on the complex history and future of the coal industry and the communities it has shaped. Head on over to https://docalogue.com/king-coal/ and check out what Casey Williams and Siobhan Angus have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

“Burying King Coal” Casey A. Williams (Rice University) There is a moment towards the middle of King Coal when a high school football team streams out of a locker room, each player rubb…

02/12/2024

This month's Docalogue is about The Night Visitors, Michael Gitlin's mesmerizing film about the surreal beauty and ecological relevance of moths. Head on over to https://docalogue.com/the-night-visitors/ to read what Thomas Pringle and Laura McMahon have to say about the film. Then stick around and tell us what you think!

“Industrial Melanism and the Mass Filament” Thomas Pringle (University of Southern California) Originally published in 1935, Roger Caillois’ essay about the behaviors driving insects to…

04/11/2024

This month’s Docalogue is about Nisha Pahuja’s affecting documentary, To Kill a Tiger (2023). Head on over to https://docalogue.com/to-kill-a-tiger/ to read what Ankita Deb and Suzanne Bouclin have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

“To Witness” Ankita Deb (Stanford University) To Kill a Tiger (Nisha Pahuja, 2022) begins with a long disclaimer regarding the film’s choice to depict a survivor of sexual violence. It …

01/10/2024

This month's docalogue is about Irene Lusztig's Richland (2023). Head on over to https://docalogue.com/richland/ and check out what Hannah Goodwin and Hannah Holtzman have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

“Toxic Land” Hannah Goodwin (Mount Holyoke College) Irene Lusztig’s Richland appears, at first, to be simply a close investigation of one town’s troubled relationship to a past of minin…

03/09/2024

This month's Docalogue is about Defectors, Hyun kyung Kim's exploration of the lasting impact of the Korean War on both her family and the nation. Head on over to https://docalogue.com/defectors/ and read what Kyoung-Suk Sung and Steve Choe have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

“Survival and Resilience” Kyoung-Suk Sung (Max Planck Institute for Human Development) Why is Korea consistently portrayed both domestically and internationally in close connection with…

01/08/2024

With Covid spikes, global IT failures, and (if I'm being honest) a total preoccupation with the Paris Olympics, we've decided to just let July's Docalogue ride for another month. But, that's ok, because I realize I forgot to hype it last month! So, if you haven't already done so, head on over to https://docalogue.com/four-daughters/ and check out some great pieces on Four Daughters from Nora Stone and Florence Martin!

04/06/2024

June's Docalogue is about Samsara (2023), Lois Patiño’s latest film, an immersive experiment of traversing into the bardos – the transitional states between the moments of death and rebirth described in the Tibetan Buddhist text, Bardo Thödol. Check out what Mandy Rose and Anup Grewal have to say about the film at https://docalogue.com/samsara/ - then tell us what you think!

01/05/2024

This month's Docalogue is about this year's Oscar winner for Best Documentary, 20 Days in Mariupol (Mstyslav Chernov, 2023), a devastating portrait of the Ukranian city as it is besieged by Russian forces. Head on over to https://docalogue.com/20-days-in-mariupol/ and check out what Anastasia Kostina and Anne Eakin Moss have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

“Cinema Forms Memories” Anastasia Kostina (Yale University) On March 10, 2024, Ukraine received its first Oscar in history for the documentary film 20 Days in Mariupol, the story of the…

02/04/2024

This month's Docalogue is about A German Party (Simon Brückner, 2022), which brings us inside AfD, the right-wing political party Alternative for Deutschland. Head on over to https://docalogue.com/a-german-party/ and check out what Marcy Goldberg and Jens Eder have to say about the film. Then tell us what you think!

01/03/2024

This month’s Docalogue is about While We Watched, an urgent look at the state of contemporary news media in India. Check out what Ritika Kaushik and Anuja Jain have to say about the film at https://docalogue.com/while-we-watched/. Then stick around and tell us what you think!

“Suniye, Dekhiye, Samajhiye! (Listen closely, Watch carefully, Understand!)” Ritika Kaushik (Goethe University Frankfort) When we first meet the Indian journalist and broadcaster Ravish…

12/02/2024

We are so pleased to announce the publication of the 5th(!) book in our Docalogue book series, "Summer of Soul: A Docalogue" featuring amazing chapters by Catherine Russell, Lauren McLeod Cramer, Landon Palmer, Anthony Kinik, and Michele Prettyman! Check it out - we'd love to hear your thoughts! https://www.routledge.com/Summer-of-Soul--Or-When-the-Revolution-Could-Not-Be-Televised-A-Docalogue/Baron-Fuhs/p/book/9781032502533

01/02/2024

This month's Docalogue is about The Pigeon Tunnel, Erroll Morris' tête-à-tête with David Cornwell, aka John Le Carré. Check out what David Resha and Charles Musser have to say about the film at https://docalogue.com/the-pigeon-tunnel/ - then stick around and tell us what you think!

“Dupes and String Pullers” David Resha (Oxford College of Emory University) About an hour into Errol Morris’s The Pigeon Tunnel, author David Cornwell tells a story about a boyhood visi…