anadena-28348

Memory is a funny thing, it ebbs and flows with one's mood and circumstances and so does perspective. In Max Rose, we meet a recent widower (played by Jerry Lewis), who finds reason to believe that his wife of 65 years, Eva (Claire Bloom) was in love with another man. He declares at her funeral that the marriage "was a lie." Max, who is already a cantankerous old man, becomes even more recalcitrant after his loss and engaging in a revisionist journey wherein he lets his own demons pollute his mind. Lewis, in his first feature role in more than 20 years, does well in presenting the depression and anger that Max suffers, and it is perhaps the most redeeming quality of the film because something else is still missing. Read more of my review here: https://indieethos.com/2016/09/23/max- rose/

Our earth is a delicate, sensitive, living, breathing organism that needs the care and attention we have not given it. Taking it for granted and wishing to control nature have been the markers of modern life. However, ancestral knowledge always recognized the importance of maintenance of that ecosystem that supports our life. In Seed: The Untold Story, Directors Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz take us back to rethink that important relationship of communing with the earth that feeds us. "Seeds are living embryos. They have a lifespan," says a farmer in a voice over. There is a deep connection between these farmers and their seeds, which they see as living things that start a movement, blossoming into life and then sustenance. Read more of my review here: https://indieethos.com/2016/09/22/seed/

The new documentary is an artistic rumination on aging that presents interwoven stories of different low-income Mexican women who are in their golden years. Although the stories told by each of these women vary, what they all have in common is they are facing their later years as prostitutes. The documentary offers an unflinching and intimate examination of everyday life for these women who seldom have a voice and are often judged harshly.

It is the first feature by photographer Maya Goded, who has an uncanny ability to show images that resonate because of their empathy.