Michael Berkowitz
LATEST ARTICLES BY Michael Berkowitz
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Culture
‘Shoplifters’: New Japanese feature film shows how people survive
December 12, 2018Although it seems to roll out modestly as a simple tale of marginal people, its conclusion will force you to rethink central tenets of how individuals relate.
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Politics
‘ACORN and the Firestorm’: Uprooted
May 18, 2018ACORN and the Firestorm provides an invaluable service by demonstrating the effectiveness of community organizing.
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Culture
‘The Chinese Exclusion Act’: PBS documentary shows commonalities with current immigration struggles
May 4, 2018Current immigration debates revive echoes of the race-based system which defined U.S. immigration policy for well over half a century.
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Culture
“When God Sleeps”: An Iranian musician critiques his society
April 2, 2018Till Schaudner’s new documentary When God Sleeps is a robust, thoughtful account of punk rocker Shahin Najafi’s struggle to have his music and ideas heard despite death threats from the Iranian government.
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Culture
“Bombing Wall Street”: Yesterday and today
February 6, 2018The rise of Hoover, immigrant phobia, and the clash of capital and labor in the 1910s and 20s presaged our current conflicts.
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Culture
Two new films, “Dunkirk” and “The Darkest Hour”: Who won the war?
January 19, 2018In the run up to the Academy Awards, two highly touted, vastly different popular films refocus attention on World War II.
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Culture
“Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart”: Portrait in black and red
January 11, 2018Director Tracy Heather Strain’s new documentary is a portrait of a woman ahead of her time.
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Culture
“The Shape of Water”: Shapes of things to come
January 8, 2018Guillermo del Toro’s beautifully crafted new film is a smart, funny, passionate sendup of Cold War hysteria and current right-wing white supremacy.
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