Author Archives: basiltsiokos

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About basiltsiokos

Basil Tsiokos is a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, focusing on nonfiction features. He was most recently with DOC NYC for nearly a decade, where he served as Director of Programming since 2014, and with the Nantucket Film Festival as its Film Program Director. Prior to those positions, Basil was the longtime Artistic and Executive Director of NewFest. He has been affiliated with Sundance since 2005 as a Programming Associate. Basil serves on the feature nominating committees for the International Documentary Association Awards and Cinema Eye Honors. He has written about documentaries daily since 2010 on what (not) to doc. Basil holds a Masters degree from New York University and two undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.

On VOD: JAHA’S PROMISE

New to VOD this week:
JAHA’S PROMISE

Directors:
Kate O’Callaghan and Patrick Farrelly

Premiere:
CPH:DOX 2017

Select Festivals:
Sheffield, Mill Valley, Human Rights Watch, Movies That Matter, Bergen

About:
A Gambian woman becomes an activist against female genital mutilation.

As a newborn in Gambia, Jaha Dukureh was subjected to FGM. She didn’t understand its impact on her body for several years, until she was forced by her father to move to NYC to marry a violent man three decades her senior. It was only after she escaped this abusive relationship, remarried in Atlanta, and had a daughter herself that Jaha began to reckon with FGM and become an activist, eventually returning to her homeland to organize a campaign to ban its practice. While O’Callaghan and Farrelly have found a strong, determined protagonist to confront a challenging issue, their storytelling approach is overly basic, with a surfeit of narration from Jaha that makes the project’s message feel spoonfed, weakening its overall impact.

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Berlin 2019: Documentary Overview

Festival:
The 69th Berlinale

Dates:
February 7-17

About:
Germany’s premier film festival showcases 85 new documentaries among its nearly 230 feature offerings. Continue reading

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On DVD/VOD: THE SUNDAY SESSIONS

New to DVD/VOD this week:
THE SUNDAY SESSIONS

Director:
Richard Yeagley

Premiere:
Various cities on National Coming Out Day (October 11, 2017)

About:
An intimate look at gay conversion therapy.

Filmed over two years, Yeagley’s project follows Nathan, a 20something Christian, who undergoes voluntary counseling sessions to overcome his homosexuality. Though long decried as harmful and ineffective, this gay conversion therapy is still promoted by close-minded religious leaders, often overseen by counselors who claim to have successfully renounced their gay desires. Here, that role is taken by Chris, who leads Nathan through discussions that manipulate the young man to delude himself again and again, never offering an option of true self-acceptance. Yeagley gains impressive access to these candid sessions, and refrains from editorializing, allowing the audience to draw its own conclusions. Despite this, and the strange and uncomfortable sense of voyeurism the project affords, the film as a whole is excessively slow, frustrating, and often uninvolving, with some technical deficiencies that prevent it from being wholly successful.

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On DVD: HOT TO TROT

New to DVD this week:
HOT TO TROT

Director:
Gail Freedman

Premiere:
Frameline 2017

Select Festivals:
NewFest, Documentary Edge, LGBT fests in Boston, Atlanta, and London

About:
A profile of same-sex competitive ballroom dancers.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

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On DVD: AFTER AUSCHWITZ

New to DVD this week:
AFTER AUSCHWITZ

Director:
Jon Kean

Premiere:
Chapman University (September 2016)

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Los Angeles Jewish, Warsaw Jewish

About:
Six Holocaust survivors share stories of life after the death camp.

I previously wrote about the film AFTER AUSCHWITZ.

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SXSW 2019: Additional Features Announced

SXSW has announced the remainder of its feature film line-up today, for a total of 131 projects. Following is the list of documentary features just revealed, broken down by section:

Festival Favorites:

THE HOTTEST AUGUST

APOLLO 11
Director: Todd Douglas Miller
A look at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon led by commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin.

AQUARELA
Director:Victor Kossakovsky
A deeply cinematic journey through the transformative beauty and raw power of water. Filmed at 96 frames per second, it’s a visceral wake-up call that humans are no match for the sheer force and will of Earth’s most precious element.

THE HOTTEST AUGUST
Director: Brett Story
A film about climate change, disguised as a portrait of collective anxiety.

THE INVENTOR: OUT FOR BLOOD IN SILICON VALLEY
Director: Alex Gibney
Elizabeth Holmes was once the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, heralded as the next Steve Jobs. Then, overnight, her $10-billion-dollar company dissolved. The rise and fall of Theranos is a window into the psychology of fraud.

KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE
Director: Rachel Lears
Four women run for Congress, overcoming personal adversity to battle powerful political machines across the country. One of their races will change the country forever.

MAIDEN
Director: Alex Holmes
In a moving portrait of resilience, Alex Holmes chronicles the unprecedented journey of 24-year-old Tracy Edwards and the first all-female sailing crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

PAHOKEE
Directors: Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan
In a small agricultural town in the Florida Everglades, hopes for the future are concentrated on the youth. Four teens face heartbreak and celebrate in the rituals of an extraordinary senior year.

RAISE HELL: THE LIFE & TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS
Director: Janice Engel
Six-feet of Texas trouble, Molly Ivins, a legendary journalist and a warrior for the Bill of Rights, fought Good Old Boy corruption with razor-sharp wit that left both sides of the aisle laughing and craving ink in her columns. Raise Hell y’all!

Documentary Spotlight:

SALVAGE

I AM RICHARD PRYOR
Director: Jesse James Miller
The life story of the legendary performer and iconic social satirist, who transcended race and social barriers by delivering his honest irreverent and biting humor to America’s stages and living rooms until his death at 65.

SALVAGE
Director: Amy C Elliott
The Yellowknife dump, and its massive, unrestricted salvage area, has long played a central role in this remote Canadian city’s civic and social life. Can a colorful group of thrifty locals save it from city bureaucrats determined to close it down?

STATE OF PRIDE
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Fifty years after the Stonewall uprising, Oscar winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman travel to three diverse communities – Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama – for an unflinching look at LGBTQ Pride.

24 Beats Per Second:

IRIS: A SPACE OPERA BY JUSTICE

IRIS: A SPACE OPERA BY JUSTICE
Directors: Andre Chemetoff, Armand Beraud
Iris is a film adaptation of Justice’s Woman World Wide live show from 2017-2018, which is widely regarded as the greatest live electronic concert created. Recorded in an empty and invisible space, Iris focuses on the impressive production and music.

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On DVD: JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION

New to DVD this week:
JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION

Director:
Julien Faraut

Premiere:
Berlin 2018

Select Festivals:
Cinema du Reel, Art of the Real, Seattle, deadCenter, Las Vegas, Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, Provincetown, Jerusalem, Jeonju

About:
The athlete’s 1984 French Open performance illustrates an essay on the linkage between tennis and cinema.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

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Special Screening: FIELD NIGGAS

Coming to NYC’s The American Experiment series at the Maysles Cinema tomorrow, Thursday, February 7:
FIELD NIGGAS

Director:
Khalik Allah

Premiere:
True/False 2015

Select Festivals:
Sarasota, Maryland, FID Marseille, Rooftop Films

About:
An immersive look at life on the streets of Harlem.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

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Film Comment Selects 2019: Documentary Overview

Festival:
The 19th Film Comment Selects

Dates:
February 6-10

About:
The editors of Film Comment curate an eclectic mix of new and retrospective films, including five recent works of nonfiction.

LOS REYES

The two North American doc premieres are two IDFA debuts: Yang Zhang’s UP THE MOUNTAIN, about life in a remote Chinese mountain village, centered around a master artist; and Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff’s LOS REYES, about two stray dogs living in a Chilean skatepark.

ABSENCE

The event also presents the US premieres of Ekta Mittal’s hybrid ABSENCE, on loss felt by women whose husbands and sons have left as part of economic migration; and of Victor Moreno’s THE HIDDEN CITY, a city symphony set in Madrid’s underground. Rounding out the nonfiction offerings is Beata Bubenec’s FLIGHT OF A BULLET, which follows combat in Ukraine in a single-take.

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On DVD/VOD: FATHER’S KINGDOM

FATHER’S KINGDOM

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, February 5:
FATHER’S KINGDOM

Director:
Lenny Feinberg

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2017

Select Festivals:
RiverRun, Cleveland, Big Sky Doc, Sarasota, Maryland, Sidewalk, March on Washington, Dances With Films, Salem, St Louis, San Francisco Black

About:
The untold story of a once-popular but long-forgotten religious and civil rights leader.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the early 1900s, an African-American man named Reverend MJ Divine began a religious movement that would reach over a million followers at its peak, crossing racial divisions and advocating for gender and economic equality. Despite his influence and achievements, Father Divine is little remembered today, dismissed by detractors as a con man and a fraud. The reason: Father Divine claimed to be God. Lenny Feinberg reveals his fascinating story, and that of his last few remaining followers, who are on a mission to keep Father Divine’s legacy alive.

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