photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Director:
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Premiere:
Sundance 2019
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Miami, Cleveland, Montclair, Wisconsin
About:
An intimate profile of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning literary icon.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, June 22:
PIPE DREAMS
Director:
Stacey Tenenbaum
World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2019
Select Festivals:
Austin, Sound Unseen
About:
Young pipe organists vie for the top prize in a major competition.
Taking place in Montreal every three years, the Canadian International Organ Competition draws the best pipe organists to compete for prizes and acclaim in this particular part of the music world. Filmmaker Stacey Tenenbaum focuses on the 2017 edition, profiling several young musicians as they prepare for and compete in Montreal. In adapting her feature project for a broadcast hour slot, Tenenbaum cut one of her original five subjects, but she likely should have gone even further. Of the remaining organists, Yuan Shen and Alcee Chriss III are the most compelling, with more developed storylines and interesting backgrounds than the other two virtuosi, Nick Cappozoli or Sebastian Heindl. Excising one of the latter would have helped reduce the sometimes choppy feel of the film, which, while breaking no new ground in the competition doc sub-genre, is notably and appropriately cinematic on both a visual and audio level.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Friday, June 19:
DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY
Director:
Elizabeth Carroll
World Premiere:
SXSW 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, San Francisco, Hawaii, Vermont, Tallinn Black Nights, Sedona
About:
A portrait of the nonagenarian British author, an expert in regional Mexican cuisine.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to virtual theatrical today, Friday, June 19:
CREATING A CHARACTER: THE MONI YAKIM LEGACY
Director:
Rauzar Alexander
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019
About:
A legendary Juilliard acting teacher gets his time in the spotlight.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
What do Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Patti LuPone, and Alex Sharp have in common? They are but a few of the extraordinary actors who have studied under Moni Yakim at Juilliard, America’s greatest performing arts school. With interviews with Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Kevin Kline, this compelling portrait of the master teacher – the sole remaining founder of the school’s legendary Drama Division – takes us inside the drama classes where Moni and his wife Mina pour their love and passion into preparing the next generation of actors for the spotlight.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to virtual theatrical today, Friday, June 19:
RUNNER
Director:
Bill Gallagher
World Premiere:
DocLands 2019
Select Festivals:
Margaret Mead, Big Sky Doc, Woods Hole, Heartland, Hot Springs Doc, Lone Star
About:
A profile in perseverance, following a Sudanese refugee with an Olympic dream.
As a teenager, Guor Mading Maker (formerly Marial) managed to escape the civil war in Sudan, which eventually claimed the lives of most of his siblings, becoming a refugee in the US. When he settled in Concord NH, he was encouraged to join his high school’s track team, and continued to run in college, ultimately qualifying for the 2012 Olympics. Unable to run for the still nascent South Sudan, and unwilling to betray his people by competing under the Sudanese flag, he instead was able to compete under the Olympic flag. When he returned to the Olympics four years later, he proudly represented South Sudan. Director Bill Gallagher benefits from an immensely likeable protagonist, but his film unfortunately suffers from structural issues that often undercut any surprise or drama. Still, Maker’s story is inspiring, and it has won over audiences at festivals over the past year.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to virtual theatrical today, Friday, June 19:
PICTURE OF HIS LIFE
Directors:
Yonatan Nir and Dani Menkin
World Premiere:
Docaviv 2019
Select Festivals:
Doc Edge, Gold Coast, Jewish and Israeli fests in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Virginia, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Austin, Los Angeles, and Chicago
About:
A portrait of a famed underwater photographer’s elusive quest.
Amos Nachoum is an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, particularly known for his stunning underwater work. One specific shot has long eluded him, however: capturing an image of a polar bear while swimming alongside it. Filmmakers Yonatan Nir and Dani Menkin follow the 65-year-old Nachoum as he takes a trek to the Canadian Arctic to try to finally realize his dream. The film notes the real dangers of his mission, while also filling in the Israeli photographer’s background, which includes a difficult relationship with his ailing father and lasting trauma from the Yom Kippur War. Nachoum is a relatively quiet protagonist, so this biographical information is useful, if not always as compelling or connected to the polar bear quest as it seems the filmmakers believe it to be. While the stakes never feel quite as large as they are portrayed here, the Arctic expedition is beautifully lensed and achieves a satisfying conclusion.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix today, Friday, June 19:
DISCLOSURE
Director:
Sam Feder
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Tribeca
About:
An exploration of the representation of transgender lives in film and television.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Apple TV+ tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
DADS
Director:
Bryce Dallas Howard
World Premiere:
Toronto 2019
About:
An exploration and celebration of fatherhood.
There are relatively few documentaries focused exclusively on fathers. While actress Bryce Dallas Howard’s feature directorial debut takes a decidedly lighter and heartwarming approach, by design, it’s far from being the celebrity vanity project that some cynical viewers might too quickly dismiss. While she certainly gets a lot of traction by featuring famous fathers – among them, her own dad, Ron Howard, as well the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Ken Jeong, Neil Patrick Harris, Will Smith, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, and Kenan Thompson, among others – offering heartfelt reflections on fatherhood, her charming film shines when it spotlights several ordinary dads as they contend with the mundane realities of raising kids without the privilege and wealth afforded to their famed counterparts. While not a groundbreaking not particularly deep project, it remains a perfectly likeable one.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
QUEEN OF LAPA
Directors:
Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat
World Premiere:
Maryland 2019
Select Festivals:
Göteborg, RiverRun, Antenna Doc, NewFest, San Francisco IndieFest, Sidewalk, Rhode Island, Oxford, Philadelphia Latino
About:
A portrait of a legendary Brazilian sex worker activist.
Nearing sixty at the time of filming, unforgettable trans cabaret performer and activist Luana Muniz has been a sex worker since age eleven. More than two decades ago, she created a hostel in the seedy Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro to provide a safe space for other trans sex workers in a society mired by transphobia and corruption. Filmmakers Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat train their camera on the outspoken, larger-than-life Luana, highlighting her no-nonsense relationships with her surrogate daughters, and capturing the atmosphere of the community they’ve created with a relaxed familiarity. The result is a refreshingly nonjudgemental immersion into Luana’s world, made all the more poignant when it’s revealed that the house mother has since passed away.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
MY DARLING VIVIAN
Director:
Matt Riddlehoover
World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (online)
About:
A portrait of Johnny Cash’s first wife, long misrepresented in the performer’s mythology.
Johnny Cash struggled to win over his demons of addiction with the selfless love and devotion of his true love, June Carter, following a difficult marriage to the mother of his four daughters – or so goes the Cash legend, as immortalized in the Oscar-winning biopic WALK THE LINE. Director Matt Riddlehoover’s respectful doc aims to serve as a corrective, rehabilitating the image and understanding of Vivian Liberto, Cash’s long-suffering first love and first wife. As signaled by its title, the film foregrounds the deep love between Liberto and Cash, revealed here not only through interviews with their children, but through a trove of letters showing just how besotted The Man in Black was over the Italian beauty he met in 1951 while still an Air Force cadet. At the same time, Riddlehoover details Liberto’s side of the story in the eventual demise of the relationship after he found fame – a mix of neglect compounded by Cash’s troubles with drugs and affair with June Carter, as well as the racist fallout of Liberto being mistaken for being African American by the media. In the ensuing years, Cash and Carter’s worldwide platform allowed them to revise history, which eventually led to Liberto being reframed as a harridan and often erased from the story entirely. While distractingly overscored, this thoughtful profile benefits from absolute candor from the Cash daughters and from a rich archive, helping to illuminate Vivian in all her fullness.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 