The fourth and final new section of this year’s DOC NYC revisits nonfiction from the past: Docs Redux
DOC NYC Docs Redux
THE CHAIR (1962)
Filmmakers: Drew Associates
This classic follows the attorney Louis Nizer as he attempts to save prisoner Paul Crump from the electric chair.
Expected to attend: Jill Drew
DAVID (1961) (pictured above)
Filmmakers: DA Pennebaker & William Ray
Rare 35mm screening of Drew Associates’ portrait of a jazz trumpeter struggling through drug rehab.
Expected to attend: DA Pennebaker, Jill Drew
HIGH SCHOOL (1968)
Director: Frederick Wiseman
Wiseman’s classic look at an urban Philadelphia high school, capturing interactions between students, teachers, parents and administrators.
Expected to attend: Frederick Wiseman
HOOP DREAMS (1994)
Director: Steve James
Twentieth anniversary restoration. Two Chicago teens are followed over their four years of high school as they aspire to use their basketball skills to create better futures for their families.
Expected to attend: Steve James
KINGS OF PASTRY (2009)
Director: Chris Hegedus & DA Pennebaker
Sixteen French pastry chefs put their reputations at stake in a prestigious competition.
Expected to attend: DA Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus
METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER (2004)
Director: Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky
Tenth anniversary. The members of the heavy metal band go through group therapy to save not only the band, but themselves.
Expected to attend: Joe Berlinger
SALESMAN (1968)
Director: Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
This breakthrough documentary follows door-to-door Bible salesmen as they ply their trade from Boston to Chicago to Miami.
Expected to attend: Albert Maysles
Why You Should Attend:
A number of films from this new program tie into DOC NYC’s inaugural Visionaries Tribute taking place on Friday, November 14: Among the honorees are DA Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, and Albert Maysles, while an award is named in recognition of the legacy of Robert and Anne Drew of Drew Associates.
Beyond the Drews, Drew Associates included Richard Leacock, DA Pennebaker, Gregory Shuker, James Lipscomb, Hope Ryden, Mike Jackson, Tom Bywaters, and Albert and David Maysles. Pioneers in applying modern technology to their filmmaking practice, including developing more lightweight cameras and the successful implementation of synch sound, their relationship with Time-Life enabled the popularization of Direct Cinema through the television broadcasts of their productions PRIMARY, EDDIE (ON THE POLE), and YANQUI, NO! Their 1962 film, THE CHAIR, took home an award at Cannes.
Pennebaker has been making films since 1953. After his work with Drew Associates, he drew critical and popular acclaim with his 1967 Bob Dylan tour film, DONT LOOK BACK, and with his 1968 chronicle of a seminal rock music festival, MONTEREY POP, among several other titles. He met Chris Hegedus in 1976, who became his collaborator beginning with films like ENERGY WAR and TOWN BLOODY HALL. The couple have shared production credits ever since and married in 1982.
Pioneers in Direct Cinema, the Maysles brothers, Albert and David, made films together from the 1960s until the latter’s death in 1987. Working with Charlotte Zwerin, they made such classic nonfiction as SALESMAN and GIMME SHELTER, and later, with Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer, the incomparable GREY GARDENS. Recognized by the Library of Congress, SALESMAN was preserved for the National Film Registry in 1992.
Frederick Wiseman began his filmmaking career in 1963 as the producer of Shirley Clarke’s THE COOL WORLD before making his directorial debut with TITICUT FOLLIES in 1967. Known for his studies of institutions, the director has turned his camera on prisons, hospitals, schools, museums, dance companies, boxing gyms, and even a strip club, among several other subjects. HIGH SCHOOL, his second film, entered the National Film Registry in 1991, and spawned a sequel in 1994.
Steve James premiered his epic at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Later that year, the film went on to screen at both Toronto and the New York Film Festival, but was famously not nominated for an Academy Award because of a skewed voting system, generating significant criticism and call for a revision to the nomination process. It was recognized by numerous film critic circles, the Directors Guild of America, the Independent Spirit Awards, and even the MTV Movie Awards, and landed on many best-of-the-decade lists. In addition to HOOP DREAMS, James is represented at DOC NYC this year with his film about Roger Ebert, LIFE ITSELF, as part of the Short List section.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have been regular collaborators on such acclaimed and influential films as the Sundance audience award-winning BROTHER’S KEEPER and the PARADISE LOST trilogy – the third of which was nominated for an Oscar. They debuted their portrait of a band in crisis at Sundance in 2004. It picked up the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary the following year.
More Info:
To purchase tickets, click on the individual titles above, and follow links for ticketing; or check out the new options for Passes.
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