New to DVD this week:
DEAD MAN’S SWITCH: A CRYPTO MYSTERY
Director:
Sheona McDonald
World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2021
Select Festivals:
DOXA, Melbourne Doc, Calgary, Rocky Mountain Women’s
About:
A riveting cryptocurrency thriller unraveling the story of a Canadian blockchain wizard who mysteriously died on his honeymoon in India and the fate of his investors’ $200 million.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
AGAINST THE TIDE
Two friends, both Indigenous fishermen, are driven to desperation by a dying sea. Their friendship begins to fracture as they take very different paths to provide for their struggling families.
Director/Producer:
Sarvnik Kaur
Producer:
Koval Bhatia
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
New to VOD this week:
UPHEAVAL: THE JOURNEY OF MENACHEM BEGIN
Director:
Jonathan Gruber
World Premiere:
Heartland 2020
Select Festivals:
Jewish fests in Las Vegas, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, and Pittsburgh
About:
A portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning former Israeli Prime Minister.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL
As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war’s atrocities.
Director/Producer:
Mstyslav Chernov
Producers:
Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson-Rath, Derl McCrudden
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
5 SEASONS OF REVOLUTION
An aspiring video journalist in her 20s finds herself already facing self-reckoning. Born in Damascus, Syria, Lina starts to report on the events around her until she is compelled to become a war reporter and, later, the unexpected narrator of her own destiny.
Director:
Lina
Producers:
Diana El Jeiroudi
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
BEYOND UTOPIA
Hidden camera footage augments this perilous, high-stakes journey as we embed with families attempting to escape oppression, ultimate revealing a world most of us have never seen.
Director:
Madeleine Gavin
Producers:
Jana Edelbaum, Rachel Cohen, Sue Mi Terry
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to Discovery+ tomorrow, Thursday, January 5:
JANUARY 6TH
Director:
Jules Naudet, Gédéon Naudet
World Premiere:
Hamptons 2022
About:
An examination of the January 6 insurrection from the unique perspectives of the heroes, first responders, and survivors of the attack as they reveal their first-hand experience of the stand.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
VICTIM/SUSPECT
Investigative journalist Rae de Leon travels nationwide to uncover and examine a shocking pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.
Director/Producer:
Nancy Schwartzman
Producers:
Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Alice Henty, Amanda Pike, Rachel de Leon
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
New to DVD this week:
MARIAN ANDERSON: THE WHOLE WORLD IN HER HANDS
Director:
Rita Coburn
World Premiere:
American Masters broadcast (February 2022)
About:
A focus on the life, career, art, and legacy of the African American contralto and civil rights pioneer, in her own words.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
THE STROLL
The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
Directors:
Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker
Producer:
Matt Wolf
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details, including screening info, by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
what (not) to doc 