In 2015, while Lateef Calloway was working on developing a feature film and directing a stage play, he was fortunate to meet the descendants of Sojourner Truth, who live in Battle Creek, Michigan. Lateef’s life would change forever after those meetings. Sojourner Truth is Lateef’s life-long hero, as his mother raised him with stories about Sojourner’s…

I went to law school to become a business lawyer. In fact, the law was supposed to be my appetizer en route to me becoming a business tycoon—like Sam Walton and Oprah. But a course called “Child, Parent, State” got in the way. My instructor was phenomenal and the subject matter intrigued me. The course…

Don’t let the bubbly energy of its opening scene fool you, “Sweat” is a character-driven drama with its fair share of cold, dark turns. With a story set in the world of social media fitness influencers, writer/director Magnus von Horn reveals the sober loneliness that lies behind the scenes. The film centers on Sylwia Zajac (Magdalena…

A soulful, uplifting, but also heartbreaking look at race and poverty’s impact on troubled childhood, Alexandre Rockwell’s “Sweet Thing” is a welcome return to form for the accomplished indie filmmaker. Once a favorite of the arthouse scene in the ’90s, Rockwell has largely been away since 2013’s “Little Feet,” which, like this film, was a…

Once one of the wildest of the wild men of cinema, director Abel Ferrara has settled down as he has gotten older. The man who loved to shock, outrage and even disgust us to our delight with films such as his proto-feminist revenge thriller “Ms. 45,” “The Driller Killer,” “Bad Lieutenant,” and “King of New…

The very best documentaries manage to succeed profoundly as both art and education, but most really “pick a side,” so to speak. Some are far more engaged in the art and story of it all, even if that means playing looser with the facts. Other documentaries clearly see themselves as an educational tool, first and…