The already vast amount of streaming
content keeps growing. Some is on established specialty TV channels like
HBO.I’m grateful to it for showing the
wondrous 2018 Quebec feature Une Colonie (A Colony), from first-time director
Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, which has garnered numerous awards including best
film at the 2019 Canadian Screen Awards. I remember watching “Perry Mason” as a
kid with Raymond Burr in the title role.Check out HBO’s new 8-episode version with Matthew Rhys as “Perry” and
Canadian Tatiana Maslany as “Sister Alice”.Also just arrived on HBO is David France’s searing Welcome to Chechnya (https://www.welcometochechnya.com/)
about LGBTQ persecution, particularly deadly in this ravaged Russian province ruthlessly
ruled by Putin’s chosen strongman.Amid
harrowing scenes France observes the courageous work of activists in rescuing
endangered individuals and getting them out of Russia (Canada is a noted country
of refuge).This is guerilla-style
filmmaking at its finest. Here’s…
I’ve raved about the German series Babylon Berlin on Netflix.Thanks to Hugh Finsten for pointing me to
other terrific German series on Crave: Deutschland
83 and Deutschland 86. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody alerted
me to free screenings available on the Tubi platform (https://tubitv.com/home).There are 18 films by German master Werner
Herzog. (I caught up on the anarchic Even
Dwarfs Started Small from 1971 and the absurdist 1977 feature Stroszek.).Included is Aguirre: The Wrath of God, among my 2018 book’s 20 greatest films
of all time. Influence (Canada/South
Africa 2020, available on CBC Gem and documentary channel) B+ Directed by Richard Poplak and Diana
Neille, this probing exposé of the dangers of public relations manipulation was
one of the HotDocs selections picked up for broadcast by CBC in May. The
villain of the piece is Timothy Bell, head honcho of the firm Bell
Pottinger.Clients on the right included
Margaret Thatcher and Chile’s Pinochet.But the firm also worked for post-So…