The Balkan Cowboy

Premiering at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14-21), The Balkan Cowboy is a magical doc feature debut from acclaimed visual artist Dragana Jurišić, an “exile not an expatriate” long based in Ireland. Returning to the site of her homeland that vanished “like Atlantis in the realm of imaginary places and people,” as she narrates in VO, Jurišić captures the fracturing of Yugoslavia through the story of Harry Jackson, a cult director of Westerns, family friend and childhood hero (despite her iconoclastic idol repeatedly noting that she had “such an ugly name for such a pretty girl.” Though she goes on to explain that her distinctly Serbian moniker was bestowed by her dad just to piss off his Croatian nationalist father, and that rather than change it she decided it was wiser to change the country).

To read the rest and subscribe for free visit Beyond Nonfiction on Substack.

Yugo Goes to America

I’ve now taken my Sisyphean battle against streamer slop to Substack as well, posting pieces on an inspiration-strikes timeline! For my inaugural exclusive I’ve decided to review one of the most bonkers docs I've seen so far this year. The road-tripping Yugo Goes to America, in which a trio of buddies from Belgrade make their way across the US in a Soviet-era Yugo (widely deemed the worst car ever built), next plays the Sarajevo Film Festival. Note to US fests and distributors: Please import. (Note to readers: Please read for free and subscribe.)

Revolutionaries Never Die — Mohanad Yaqubi [Locarno ’26 Review]

Mohanad Yaqubi’s Revolutionaries Never Die is the Palestinian filmmaker and archivist’s cinematic “answer” to the pioneering Lebanese journalist and filmmaker Jocelyne Saab’s invitation to collaborate, a request sent via email in 2018. Unfortunately, Yaqubi was unable to respond before Saab passed away several months later, leaving behind a storied career spanning documentary and fiction (and docu-fiction) filmmaking, as well as photography and video art.

To read the rest visit In Review Online.

The Golden Spurtle

Much like the dish at the heart of the World Porridge Making Championships, Constantine Costi’s The Golden Spurtle is more than the sum of its simple ingredients.

Read my capsule review of the delicious Wes Anderson-esque doc in the Summer 2026 issue of Documentary magazine.

The Welcome Table

The latest creative endeavor in award-winning filmmaker Josh Fox’s (Gasland, How to Let Go of the World, The Edge of Nature) decades-long mission to spur climate action, The Welcome Table follows the connected tale of environmental destruction across six continents (and one very long art installation), centering the stories of those who call the frontlines home, from Paradise, CA to the paradise lost of the Peruvian Amazon. In turn, these climate refugees are brought together at a thousand-foot table along a New Orleans levee (at least those not denied Visas) to share their experiences, take inspiration from one another, and of course, enjoy some musical interludes as Fox is a fervent believer in “protests that sing.” (Among the acclaimed New Orleans musicians featured is the jazz artist John Boutté of “Treme Song” fame, who serves as both EP and primary offscreen narrator alongside the director-writer-environmental activist who likewise performs.)

To read the rest of my review visit Hammer to Nail.

“Do You Love Me” Reassembles Lebanon’s Cultural Memory

Lana Daher’s debut feature, Do You Love Me (2026), is a kaleidoscopic exploration of Lebanon’s cultural memory. The Beirut-based multidisciplinary artist drew from 70 years of found footage and archival material to assemble this visceral 76-minute portrait of Lebanese history, which premiered at Venice Days and is now playing at Metrograph in New York. Daher stitches together clips from her country’s independent cinema, newsreels, and home movies, causing the past and the present to collide and recontextualize each other anew.

To read my interview with the exceptional director visit Filmmaker magazine.

‘Do You Love Me’ Review: Lana Daher’s All-Archival Cinematic Love Letter to Lebanon

“In Lebanon, contemporary history is not taught in schools,” reads the opening text of Lana Daher’s Do You Love Me. The documentary is a stunning visual and sonic excursion through Lebanon’s history comprised of material obtained from over 20,000 sources — a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that the country has no national archive. As images start to fly by too fast to read their accompanying (and not always subtitled) Arabic and French text, we’re cautioned that the narrative doesn’t follow a strict chronology as “disorientation is part of the journey...welcome to Lebanon.” Indeed.

To read the rest visit Slant Magazine.