Jeanne Powell

Of the many fine documentaries featured in the 2018 Mill Valley Film Festival, Time for Ilhan stands out for its sheer excitement and joy as we watch an essentially shy refugee embark on an amazing journey from wife and mother to an elected official in the city of Minneapolis. Ilhan...

Jeanne Powell reviews The Whistleblower of My Lai, an outstanding documentary from the 2018 Mill Valley Film Festival. Connie Field is the director of this remarkable fusion of opera and documentary about the massacre of 500 Vietnamese civilians by American troops in 1968, and the courage of one young helicopter...

Recently at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco, celebrated film director Spike Lee made an appearance. Favorable word of mouth and substantial press reviews of his latest film, Blackkklansman guaranteed a good turnout for his interview and subsequent showing of the film, already released nationwide. The Castro Theatre is...

The Old Man & the Gun is a sweet film, based on the true story of serial bank robber Forrest Tucker. David Grann’s article about Tucker appeared in The New Yorker in 2003 and is the inspiration for the movie. Grann describes Tucker as "one of the most notorious...

Filmmaker Michael Moore fears the consequences of a loss of faith in our country, and says it could be the death knell of democracy.

The San Francisco Symphony will launch its bold new 2018-2019 season with an opening night gala on September 5th, featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman. Proceeds from that gala will benefit the Symphony’s many artistic, education and community programs. The first week of September also will include the “All San Francisco...

Attending the San Francisco Film Festival is always an enjoyable experience, but the opportunity to discover talented new directors and writers is a separate delight and education. How child survivors cope with the trauma of family violence is as relevant today as ever, and makes for a wrenching but...

The repertoire of Tuck and Patti deftly illustrates the purpose of this venue — bring people together across the Americas to celebrate music, love and life.

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFilm) continues to impress as it celebrates 56 years of presenting innovative documentaries and extraordinary films over a two-week period. As part of this annual celebration of film, Charlize Theron was honored at the Castro Theater before the showing of her new film, Tully....

Religious courts in Asia Minor historically banned women from adjudicating domestic and family matters – both the Shari’a courts of Islam and the Rabbinic courts of Judaism. Attorney Kholoud Al-Faqih challenges that history. The Judge is an absorbing documentary about an amazing attorney in Palestine, who became the first woman...