No Other Land, and the limits of observational documentaries (part one)
A preview of new Paid Subscription posts on Thursdays (occasionally Fridays). Paid Subscription posts begin next week, June 12.
Scroll down for Now Showing in Madison, June 5–13, 2025
Video Killed the Moving Picture Star
As promised, here is a sneak preview of what I’m hoping to achieve with the Paid Subscription posts starting next week, Thursday, June 12. The problem is, of course, that now I have completed what I hoped to do, I’m coming to the painful realization that I can’t possibly keep up this workload (writing and video editing) every week. But this is a good first draft, and it gave me an opportunity to start developing my on-screen skills. Now I just have to figure out how not to close my eyes when I’m thinking about what to say next. Actually, I have purchased a simple teleprompter and I’m teaching myself how to use it (tech wise and performance wise).
In the coming weeks I’ll be moving away from purely informational videos (what, where, when) towards discussion and analysis of films. One idea is to pick one film and make four short videos during a month, discussing different aspects of the film (starting with broad topics like screenplay structure and plot points, then ending up with the analysis of a single shot.)
And sometimes I’ll have short interviews with local film writers and members of the film community. Grant Phipps, editor of film coverage at Tone Madison, expressed interest in participating when I asked him earlier this week. One obvious topic to discuss will be the upcoming UW-Cinematheque summer schedule, perhaps focusing on a few of our favorites or titles we’re looking forward to seeing.
In any case, the future videos will likely start to get shorter. I’m an old man with an attention span, so six minutes felt right as I was making it. But there would never be a local news segment that long on local film culture, or any topic except for sports. Then when I think about the kids today and their Tik Tok, oy vey! But I’m looking forward to finding the sweet spot of manageable workload, competent performance, digestible duration, and interesting content. Let me know what you think so far in the comments (except about my appearance, where my eyes are looking, and having too many vocalized pauses, I’m just too fragile for that right now).
No Other Land and the limitations of observational documentaries (part one)
No Other Land | Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor | Palestine, Norway | 2024 | 92 minutes
Okay, you have seen the video above and looked at the film listings below. Both of those things took much longer than I expected them to take. So, I’m afraid I’m just going to have to start a discussion of this important film and the the important topic of its reliance on observational documentary structure and techniques.
This entry will set up some of the terms for my discussion, with the analysis coming in future entries. Sorry, I ran out of time to get to the heart of the matter! But as thought more about the film and about observational films in general, I quickly realized I wanted to spend more time on this next week.
In a nutshell, in No Other Land observational documentary techniques provide a very powerful narrative and a persuasive argument about the injustices being suffered by the Palestinian West Bank residents who appear in front of the camera during the production of the film between 2019 and 2023. It is hard to argue with the reality that plays out in front of the camera, repeatedly, as Israeli soldiers and workmen bulldoze Palestinian houses and schools, and plug a water well with concrete in their efforts to displace the residents of Masafer Yatta. The question I want to ask, despite it initially sounding callous is: are the images themselves, the recordings of these incidents, enough? Or do we need to insist on more when analyzing social and political conflicts (including violent ones) in documentary practice?
Observational documentary practices (broadly, Direct Cinema and cinema verité and their descendants) have gone in and out of vogue since the development of lightweight cameras and synchronous sound equipment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. There are reasons why some filmmakers, theorists, and critics began to distrust these practices, and attempted to replace them (or at least use them with a more critical perspective). But observational documentary is making a strong comeback (or perhaps I should say it has already achieved a strong comeback) due to the perceived power of video recording technology in cellphones. The Direct Cinema folks went out into the world with a mission to record life as it is lived, and had the technology they thought that they needed to do it. Now, everyone has the ability to record life as it is lived, regardless of the mission. For any given news event, almost anywhere in the world, there’s more than a good chance that someone pulled a camera out of their pocket and recorded the incident or the moments immediately after it.
Although there was a range of cameras and technology used in No Other Land, it is hard to conceive of its brand of activism without cellular phone cameras. When I ask if the images themselves are enough, I’m not proposing a kind of relativism that suggests that there is no truth. I think that the truth recorded in No Other Land is vivid and persuasive. But does it lack a kind of analysis needed to understand the larger conflict? By this I’m not suggesting that additional context would clear the Israeli government and military from wrong-doing. I actually think that there is a stronger argument to be made than the one made with the observational images in No Other Land, an argument that would indict extremism (religious and political) on both sides of the conflict.
Examples are not arguments. Examples are not analysis. If I give you a list of examples related to a topic, I have neither made an argument or an analysis. To use an acronym that everyone hates but is useful here: a persuasive paragraph should have a “complete m.e.a.l.: main point, example, analysis, and link back to the main point. While documentary visual argumentation is different than written argumentation, my point is that examples need the guidance of a structure to transform them into an argument. Images by themselves do not do the heavy lifting.
Too much of social media practice assumes that images can do the work by themselves. Thus you get examples like Michael Flynn, Jr., who protested Pride Month by posting a clip from Parks and Recreation, where Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) throws what appears to be a rainbow flag into a dumpster. But that clip, by itself, does not protest Pride Month, as Nick Offerman delicately explained to Flynn in his response. Flynn had his example, but he failed to provide the analysis and the link back to his main point (because the link was not there).
The filmmakers of No Other Land do provide a structure, a narrative framework and a degree of analysis (through the on-screen contemplation of two of the subject/filmmakers). But is their “main point” too narrowly defined? Does their analysis link the examples back to a larger argument that goes beyond what the images already tell us? And, to get back to my main point, are observational documentary structures and techniques capable of providing a larger understanding of the conflict?
That’s what I’m going to explore in the next few Paid Subscription entries. It will not be a consumer reports review to tell you to see or not see No Other Land. You should see it and engage with it the way that I hope to do in the next few entries.
By the way, the planned screening of No Other Land this Sunday, June 8, at the “Anti-War Café,” Christ Presbyterian Church, has been postponed indefinitely until public performance rights are available again.
Now Playing In Madison: June 5 to June 13, 2025
Starting June 5 (today!) I will prepare the movie listings on Wednesdays after chain theaters update their websites for the weekend, and post them to the paid subscribers on Thursday or Friday. The free subscribers will still receive a list on Mondays based on the best available information.
Wisconsin Union Directorate Film
THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES, 6/9
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
SOUNDTRACK OF A COUP D’ETAT, 6/11, 7:00p
Free screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary, presented as part of the Madison Jazz Festival.
AMC Theatres, Flix Brewhouse, Marcus Theatres
Please check the theater’s website when making plans for any particular screening. I have not seen the films unless stated otherwise, and my brief notes under film titles are not reviews of the films themselves.
AMC: AMC Fitchburg 18 Theatre Flix: Flix Brewhouse Theatre Palace: Marcus Palace Cinema Point: Marcus Point Cinema
AMERICAN MIRACLE - OUR NATION IS NO ACCIDENT, THE at Point, Palace.
BALLERINA (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
BRING HER BACK (2025) at Point, Palace.
DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
Check listings for Subtitled and Dubbed versions.
DANGEROUS ANIMALS (2025) at AMC, Point, Palace.
DESPICABLE ME (2010) at Flix.
Flix Faves series
DESPICABLE ME 4 at Point, Palace.
Part of the Kids Dream Summer Series of matinees
DOGMA: RESURRECTED! A 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
FACE OF JESUS, THE (2025) at Point.
FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES (2025) at Flix, Point, Palace.
FRIENDSHIP (2025) at Flix, Point.
GATSBY, THE GREAT (2013) at Flix.
Flix Faves series
HARI HARA VEERA MALLU: PART 1 at Point.
Indian Telugu-language swashbuckler action film.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON at AMC, Point, Palace.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND YOU at Point, Palace.
IRON GIANT, THE at Flix.
JANE AUSTEN WRECKED MY LIFE (2025) at Point.
KARATE KID: LEGENDS (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
LAST RODEO, THE (2025) at Palace.
LIFE OF CHUCK, THE at Point, Palace.
Opens Thursday, June 12. There’s certainly a lot of buzz about this adaptation of a Stephen King short story, directed by Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game; Doctor Sleep), starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill. Not listed yet at AMC Fitchburg, but I have to believe it will be playing there at some point.
LILO & STITCH (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, THE (2002) at Flix.
Flix Faves series.
MATERIALISTS at Point, Palace.
Opens Thursday, June 12. Canadian writer-director Celine Song’s follow up to the Oscar-nominated Past Lives (2023). Stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, and released by A24 (which means a lot to some people).
METROPOLITAN OPERA: IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, THE at Point.
MINECRAFT MOVIE, A (2025) at Palace.
MILEY CYRUS: SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL at Palace.
Only Thursday, June 12, as far as I can tell, and only Palace, not Point. Quoting publicity material: “Something Beautiful is a one-of-a-kind pop opera fueled by fantasy, featuring thirteen original new songs from the visual album Something Beautiful by Miley Cyrus.” Also from the publicity material, “Produced by Miley Cyrus, Panos Cosmatos (Mandy, Beyond The Black Rainbow).” Hmmm…..
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (2025) at Flix, Point, Palace.
NATIONAL THEATRE: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Point.
PEPPA MEETS THE BABY CINEMA EXPERIENCE at Point, Palace.
PHOENICIAN SCHEME, THE (2025) at AMC, Flix, Point, Palace.
The newest Wes Anderson film, and the film most likely to be reviewed by me on Monday. We’ll see.
SINNERS (2025) at Flix, Point, Palace.
THUG LIFE (2025) at AMC.
Indian Tamil-language gangster crime drama.
THUNDERBOLTS* (2025) at Flix, Point, Palace.
TURNSTILE: NEVER ENOUGH (2025) at AMC, Point.
WICKED MOVIE + WICKED: FOR GOOD TRAILER DEBUT at Palace.
Remember when Star Wars fans would go to specific films in order to see the new Star Wars trailer. It looks like Wicked wants to bring that back, but making/encouraging you to see Wicked again to see the trailer.
IMAX EDUCATION SERIES, AMC
June 11 - Deep Sky
June 18 - To The Arctic 3D
Looking Ahead
Chazen Museum
SHEETLA | Anamika Singh | 2025 | 24 minutes
In conjunction with "Corpus, an exhibition by Anamika Singh", come view Singh’s related film Sheetla (24 minutes, 2025) in the Chazen Auditorium on June 14 and 25. The film follows the Hindi language daily journal Jan Morcha and its role in reporting the highly contested desecration of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Faizabad in 1992. Singh titled the film in honor of her grand uncle, Sheetla Singh, a prominent editor, journalist and union leader in north India.
Arts + Literature Laboratory
THE NETTLE DRESS, 6/22, 7:00pm
Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand from foraged stinging nettles, all picked on the South Downs near Brighton. Free screening of the documentary by Dylan Howitt, presented by Midwest Linen Revival as part of their Field to Frock events.
A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY, filmmaker Rachel Seed in person, 6/23, 7:00PM
A Photographic Memory is an intimate, genre-bending portrait of filmmaker Rachel Seed’s trailblazing mother, Sheila Turner Seed – a vibrant and pioneering journalist, photographer, and filmmaker, who died suddenly and tragically when Rachel was just 18 months old. Free screening presented by FlakPhoto. Rachel Seed will attend the screening and participate in a Q&A session.
UW-Cinematheque
Cinematheque programming will resume on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays June 25 through August 1. A more detailed preview is forthcoming.
THE ELEPHANT MAN 6/25, 7:00pm
One of several David Lynch films at the Ctek this summer.
A MAN AND A WOMAN 6/26, 7:00pm
THE CAT 6/27, 7:00pm
Silver Screen series at AMC Fitchburg
The "Silver Screen" series will feature once-a-month afternoon showings of classic films.
June 19 - Meet Me In St. Louis
July 17 - Romance On the High Seas
Aug. 21 - The Women