New to VOD this week:
TO KID OR NOT TO KID
Director:
Maxine Trump
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2018
Select Festivals:
Cleveland, BechdelFest, Woods Hole
About:
A personal look at women’s decision not to have kids.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
This post is a pointer to the fourth lineup announcement for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Additional selections in the Documentary Premieres and From the Collection sections have just been announced and may be found here.
Previous lineup announcements include the US and World Cinema Documentary and Dramatic Competitions, NEXT, Documentary Premieres, Premieres, Midnight, Spotlight, and Kids sections, as well as the Indie Episodic, Special Events, and Shorts lineups, and New Frontier.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations, Sundance
New to digital download via HBO this week:
WIG
Director:
Chris Moukarbel
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
Select Festivals:
NewFest OutCinema, Fringe! Queer
About:
On the past and present of the legendary Wigstock festival.
Beginning in 1984 and running for 20 years, Wigstock was an outdoor drag festival originally taking place in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village. Organized by drag queen Lady Bunny and several friends who were part of NYC’s nightlife scene, the event grew in popularity but faced pushback by the Giuliani administration, being forced to move to the Hudson River Piers until 2001. Though Bunny restarted the event in Tompkins Square after a year’s hiatus, its final incarnation was in 2005 – until she revived it once again in 2018. Director Chris Moukarbel chronicles Wigstock’s history against a backdrop of changing perceptions of queer culture and drag’s place in it, while also showcasing performers in the lead-up to last Summer’s event. Like 1995’s WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE before it, the film draws from a rich if rough archive of early East Village footage shot within the queens’ nightlife milieu, accompanied by the musings of Bunny and other iconic figures like Kevin Aviance, Flotilla DeBarge, and Linda Simpson, some of whom seem to take particular issue with the popularization, appropriation, and commodification of drag through avenues like RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. As a counterpoint, Moukarbel also focuses on Charlene Incarnate, an outspoken trans-identified draq performer who has gained a following and won the smaller Bushwig festival, and who participates in the 2018 Wigstock revival, among other representatives of the new generation of drag. The 2018 performances fill the final section of the doc, but, as a whole, the subversive history of Wigstock’s first incarnation is its most compelling element.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to DVD this week:
BARBARA RUBIN & THE EXPLODING NY UNDERGROUND
Director:
Chuck Smith
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Rotterdam, Thessaloniki Doc, Seattle, Jeonju
About:
A forgotten 1960s film pioneer receives her due.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to HBO tonight, Wednesday, December 18:
FINDING THE WAY HOME
Directors:
Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
World Premiere:
NYC (December 2019)
About:
The stories of several formerly institutionalized children who were given a second chance.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to digital download via HBO this week:
ICE ON FIRE
Director:
Leila Conners
World Premiere:
Cannes 2019
About:
A look at how the world can reverse climate change.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
photo by Ap/REX/Shutterstock
Director:
Matt Tyrnauer
World Premiere:
Sundance 2019
Select Festivals:
Zurich, Atlantic, New Zealand
About:
An exploration of the dark influence of Machiavellian attorney Roy Cohn on today’s polarized political landscape.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short Subject shortlists today. In addition, one documentary feature is included on the International Feature Film shortlist. Congratulations to all the filmmakers – especially the Sundance, DOC NYC, and Nantucket Film Festival alumni represented.
The official lists are below, with links to my previous coverage, where applicable. The final nominees will be announced on January 13.
Documentary Feature:
ADVOCATE
AMERICAN FACTORY
THE APOLLO
APOLLO 11
AQUARELA
THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
THE CAVE
THE EDGE OF DEMOCRACY
FOR SAMA
THE GREAT HACK
HONEYLAND
KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE
MAIDEN
MIDNIGHT FAMILY
ONE CHILD NATION
Documentary Short Subject:
After Maria
Fire in Paradise
Ghosts of Sugar Land
In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
The Nightcrawlers
St. Louis Superman
Stay Close
Walk Run Cha-Cha
International Feature Film
North Macedonia, HONEYLAND
Czech Republic, THE PAINTED BIRD
Estonia, TRUTH AND JUSTICE
France, LES MISERABLES
Hungary, THOSE WHO REMAINED
North Macedonia, HONEYLAND
Poland, CORPUS CHRISTI
Russia, BEANPOLE
Senegal, ATLANTICS
South Korea, PARASITE
Spain, PAIN AND GLORY
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to the JCC Manhattan tomorrow, Tuesday, December 17:
THE RABBI GOES WEST
Directors:
Gerald Peary and Amy Geller
World Premiere:
San Francisco Jewish 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Vancouver, Jewish fests in Boston, Birmingham, Jerusalem, and Miami
About:
A Brooklyn transplant to Montana attempts to evangelize his strand of Hasidic Judaism.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
A Hasidic rabbi relocates from Brooklyn, New York to Bozeman, Montana with the hopes of spreading Chabad – his brand of orthodox practice – throughout “Big Sky Country.” As his prominence grows in the state, he faces neo-Nazi threats and resistance from members of the established Jewish community in Montana. The delicate balance between traditional values and the libertarian ethos of the American West is explored through one man’s relationship with his faith.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to HBO tomorrow, Tuesday, December 17:
WELL GROOMED
Director:
Rebecca Stern
World Premiere:
SXSW 2019
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, San Francisco, Cleveland, Montclair, Sarasota, RiverRun, Bentonville, Maui, Woods Hole, Thin Line Doc, Newport Beach
About:
A portrait of competitive creative dog groomers.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 