Folks in the UK have really been connecting to my film Roy’s World: Barry Gifford’s Chicago! I was really blown away to read this new review, “A Beautiful City Symphony,” on The Film Stage, written by Logan Kenny, who saw the film in Glasgow. Here’s a quote:

It’s a documentary less interested in the historical beats as much as it is the people affected by them. Gifford’s work is used as a conduit to discuss the prominence of racism, crime, and poverty throughout Chicago’s history, in a way that always feels invigorating and not didactic … So much of the film seems to be about the ability of art and design to transcend its original intentions, becoming special and preserved in the hearts and souls of millions of different citizens. It’s a film not about the nature of creation, but about the wonderful aftermath that the work brings, and the deep satisfaction of knowing that you’re a part of that continuation in any small way. It’s beautiful and more in spirit with the work of its subject than any potential talking heads documentary could have ever been.

And just before the film’s “virtual screening” as part of the Cheltenham International Film Festival (beginning this Friday, June 12), I had the pleasure of speaking with Jennie Kermode at Eye for Film.