The 58th edition of the BFI London Film Festival opens tonight, Wednesday, October 8, and continues through Sunday, October 19, presenting just under 250 films, of which nearly 50 represent new and retrospective documentary features, including a Gala presentation of Laura Poitras’ CITIZENFOUR. Here are some highlights:
The festival’s Documentary Competition includes a dozen higher profile titles which are making their London bow after appearances at Sundance, SXSW, Toronto, or elsewhere. A couple of newer titles here are Randall Wright’s HOCKNEY (pictured), a portrait of the artist’s life and work; and Lynette Wallworth’s TENDER, about a community’s efforts to provide non-profit funeral services for the disadvantaged.
Outside of the competition, London structures other programming around one-word themes, and nonfiction figures in most of them. Among other selections, Love includes Teodora Ana Mihai’s WAITING FOR AUGUST, about a Romanian teen who must care for her family in the absence of her mother; Debate features Annalet Steenkamp’s I, AFRIKANER (pictured), a portrait of white South African family set against racial and property controversies; Dare offers Alina Rudnitskaya’s BLOOD, on a traveling Russian blood transfusion sevice; and Thrill presents Eryk Rocha’s SUNDAY BALL, on Brazil’s love for soccer.
Additional thematic strands include Cult, which looks at the work of Israel’s exploitation film studio Cannon Films in Mark Hartley’s ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILM; Sonic profiles an American ethnomusicologist upon his return from living as part of a Central African pygmy tribe in Michael Obert’s SONG FROM THE FOREST; and Journey, which includes Andrew Lancaster’s biography of his great uncle, an aviator accused of murder, in THE LOST AVIATOR (pictured).
Finally, Experimenta puts the spotlight on essay films and experimental work, which here includes Emily Wardill’s look at the mind/body connection in WHEN YOU FALL INTO A TRANCE; and a restoration of Marceline Loridan and Joris Ivens’ 1976 GLANCE ON A REVOLUTION: FOOLISH OLD MAN WHO REMOVED THE MOUNTAINS (pictured), an on-the-ground exploration of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
what (not) to doc 