Performing Arts | February 10, 2021

Recommended 2020 films to see online

A short list of fine documentaries and feature films

by Nell Porter-Brown

In a still from "The Painter and the Thief," the male thief watches the female artist at work. — A still from The Painter and the Thief
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Greater Boston’s art-house cinemas: a status report

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Because many viewers missed out on 2020 films, the Brattle Theatre’s Ned Hinkle and Coolidge Corner Theater’s Beth Gilligan shared some recommendations:

• Ghost Tropic: A Muslim cleaning woman sleeps through her subway stop and must get home on foot. (Belgium)

• Fire Will Come: A released prisoner returns to his rural home to live with his hermit mother. (Spain)

• Vitalina Varela: A Cape Verdean woman travels to Lisbon to rejoin her husband, learns he has died, and follows traces of his secret life. (Portugal)

• His House: An allegorical horror film about a couple from South Sudan who relocate in an English town. (U.K.)

• Black Bear: A filmmaker and a couple sharing a remote Adirondack cottage are drawn into a convoluted, compelling artful experiment. (U.S.A.)

Documentaries:

• Sing Me A Song: Thomas Balmés’s follow-up to Happiness centers on a Bhutanese monk who has grown into an adult hooked on digital media. (France)

• The Painter and the Thief: A Czech artist in Oslo tracks down the man who stole her paintings—an often raw meditation on vulnerability, self-destruction, and forgiveness. (Norway)

• Collective: Romanian investigative journalists uncover public fraud and corruption. (Romania)

• A Thousand Cuts: Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on the press includes targeting Filipina journalist Maria Ressa. (U.S.A.)

• Coded Bias: A look at the bias, intrusiveness, and misinformation connected to increasingly popular facial-recognition programs. (U.S.A.)

For alternatives to Netflix, try: Criterion, Kanopy, Hoopla, Acorn, BBC America, and PBS.

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