Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, December 16:
ATTLA

Director:
Catharine Axley

World Premiere:
BendFilm 2019

Select Festivals:
Heartland, Banff, SF American Indian, Anchorage

About:
Champion dogsled racer George Attla passes on his knowledge to his grandnephew.

With a career spanning 1958-2011, indigenous Alaskan George Attla was a legendary dog musher, winning nearly 20 championships before retiring. Director Catharine Axley follows Attla in his twilight years, after the champion began a youth program in his rural home town, the village of Huslia, continuing the indigenous tradition of dog mushing. In addition to relating his underdog story – childhood tuberculosis led to a disconnect with his family, culture, and language, in addition to serious physical limitations – the film chronicles Attla’s mentorship of his 20-year-old grandnephew, Joe Bifelt. While this intergenerational training helps liven up the more standard biographical elements, the project could have benefited from expanding beyond its television length to become more compelling.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 13:
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.

Globally, children fall prey to disreputable or illegal orphanages or other institutions that promise desperate parents a better environment and educational opportunities but instead neglect, abuse, or traffic their sons and daughters for profit. Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill profile eight children, some with disabilities, who fortunately escaped this dark fate through the efforts of organizations that help to reunite families, find foster parents, and shut down criminal enterprises. Bringing viewers to far-flung lands including Moldova, Nepal, and Haiti, the doc offers heartbreaking stories of exploitation and greed, balanced with hopeful outcomes. The most eye-opening segment follows a Haitian pastor who has had his squalid orphanage closed by authorities, but goes on to open an equally overcrowded and filthy new children’s home. Taking a survey approach that unfortunately proves limiting, Alpert and O’Neill offer only brief sketches of the youth and their guardians, and unfortunately are unable to go into much detail, but the film still proves affecting.

New to DVD this week:
LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

Directors:
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019

Select Festivals:
Provincetown, AFI Docs, Atlantic

About:
A look back at the celebrated pop artist’s career.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to DVD and digital this week:
HOLLY NEAR: SINGING FOR OUR LIVES

Director:
Jim Brown

Premiere:
Mill Valley 2018

About:
The story of the singer-songwriter and how her music fueled decades of activism.

I previously wrote about the doc here.