LOVE FRAUD | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Alex Takats
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing investigate a notorious serial fraudster through the women he’s seduced, robbed, and abandoned.
Festival Section:
Special Events
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Author Archives: basiltsiokos
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: LOVE FRAUD
Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing investigate a notorious serial fraudster through the women he’s seduced, robbed, and abandoned.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD: THE FREEDOM TO MARRY
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 21:
THE FREEDOM TO MARRY
Director:
Eddie Rosenstein
Premiere:
Frameline 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hawaii, Savannah, Big Sky Doc, Sebastopol Doc, Jewish fests in SF, Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia, LGBT fests in Houston, Austin, Durham, Atlanta, Melbourne, Seoul
About:
A behind-the-scenes look at the fight to legalize same-sex unions in America.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: LEAP OF FAITH: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ON THE EXORCIST
LEAP OF FAITH: WILLIAM FRIEDKIN ON THE EXORCIST | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Alexandre O Philippe dissects the 1973 horror classic through an extensive conversation with its director.
Festival Section:
Special Events
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: LANCE
LANCE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Nick Higgins
Marina Zenovich details the rise and fall of Lance Armstrong.
Festival Section:
Special Events
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: HILLARY
HILLARY | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Nanette Burstein presents a revealing portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Festival Section:
Special Events
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD: TRE MAISON DASAN
Coming to DVD today, Monday, January 20:
TRE MAISON DASAN
Director:
Denali Tiller
Premiere:
San Francisco 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Cleveland, IFF Boston, Montclair, AFI Docs, Rhode Island, Heartland, Raindance, Cucalorus, Big Sky Doc, Thessaloniki Doc, NewportFilm
About:
A profile of three young boys whose parents are in prison.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: COLLECTIVE
COLLECTIVE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Alexander Nanau uncovers disturbing corruption in Romanian state agencies following a fatal nightclub fire in Bucharest.
Festival Section:
Spotlight
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On TV: MY FRIEND FELA
Coming to PBS’s AfroPoP today, Monday, January 20:
MY FRIEND FELA
Director:
Joel Zito Araújo
World Premiere:
Rotterdam 2019
Select Festivals:
London, Encounters, Cork, Jihlava, Johannesburg, Mill Valley, It’s All True
About:
Nigerian music icon Fela Kuti’s pan-African significance is explored by his biographer and friend.
Seeking to look beyond the typical, exclusively music-focused look at Fela Kuti that has emerged in the years since his death, Cuban director Joel Zito Araújo, working with Carlos Moore, explores Kuti’s wide-ranging influences, locating them within a larger pan-African consciousness and revolutionary spirit that touches on such figures as Malcolm X, Maya Angelous, Sandra Izsadore, and Patrice Lumumba. With Moore as a guide, and Kuti as a soundtrack, the film chronicles the musician’s career, clashes with the government, struggles with paranoia, and eventual death from AIDS-related illness in 1997. It’s an ambitious take, but, unfortunately, also a somewhat cluttered one, with Kuti getting lost at various times, and controversial aspects of his life too often glossed over. The result is an intriguing portrait, but not a particularly satisfying or successful one.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
2020 Sundance Docs in Focus: MAŁNI – TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE
MAŁNI – TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE | Courtesy of Sundance Institute
MAŁNI – TOWARDS THE OCEAN, TOWARDS THE SHORE
Sky Hopinka presents a poetic reflection on indigenous language, myths, and the spirit world.
Festival Section:
New Frontier
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On TV: ACCEPT THE CALL
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens today, Monday, January 20:
ACCEPT THE CALL
Director:
Eunice Lau
World Premiere:
Human Rights Watch NYC 2019
Select Festivals:
Woodstock, Singapore
About:
A Somali refugee reckons with his son’s arrest on terrorism charges.
Yusuf Abdurahman began a new life in Minnesota after leaving Somalia more than 25 years ago. In 2014, his teenage son Zacharia, who was born in the US, attempted to travel to Syria to support ISIS. Eventually, he plead guilty and was sentenced to a decade in federal prison. His father, struggling to understand what led his son to support a terrorist group, speaks with Zacharia via the phone in a series of candid, difficult conversations. In the process, Yusuf shares his experiences as a refugee and person of color in the US, while his son describes how his friends and he were recruited and radicalized through propaganda videos and books, as well as through personal contact, providing a much-needed sense of belonging, purpose, and importance. While such stories are sadly familiar, Lau’s intimate focus on a single father/son relationship is a smart choice, providing much-needed insight about such cases of radicalization while just as importantly humanizing a group to quickly dismissed and vilified in present-day American culture.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
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