In what has become a rewarding Christmas tradition, the last couple of weeks have been spent, in between shopping, cooking, arguing, eating, boozing and crying jags, catching up on some of the non-fiction releases from the past year. In recent times, the increase in quality documentary filmmaking — more about an increase in availability and profile, perhaps, but a borderline Cambrian explosion nonetheless — has been an incredible bounty, but also a bit of a daunting prospect.

Continue reading The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2018 at The Playlist.

With the extended national conversation of police brutality and corruption comes a documentary examining the very inner-workings of a prominent department by the officers themselves. “Crime + Punishment” is a hard-hitting documentary, set to appear on Hulu this coming August.

The documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival garnering the Special Jury Prize for Social Impact and was nominated for Grand Jury Prize. Directed by Stephen Maing (“High Tech, Low Life“), the documentary centers around a group of black and Latino officers of the NYPD, as they expose the system of quotas within their own department.

Continue reading ‘Crime + Punishment’ Trailer: Hulu Original Doc Examines Policing Quotas And The NYPD at The Playlist.

We’re not short on events and bulletins worth getting pissed over in 2018, but let’s not use that as an excuse to exclude further events and bulletins from pissing us off, too. Take documentary filmmaker Stephen Maing’s latest feature, “Crime + Punishment,” an up-close and confrontational exposé of bureaucratic corruption in the New York City Police Department; you probably don’t need reminding of America’s problem with law enforcement overstepping the bounds of their authority, but Maing reminds you anyways because frankly, you can never have too many reminders that police in the U.S.

Continue reading ‘Crime + Punishment’: An Upsetting & Enraging Portrait Of The NYPD [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.