Festival:
The 15th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Dates:
February 16-25
About:
Montana’s largest film event includes more than 50 features as well as shorts and extensive retrospective programming. Continue reading
Author Archives: basiltsiokos
Big Sky Documentary 2018 Overview
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
On VOD: HUMAN FLOW
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Friday, February 16:
HUMAN FLOW
Director:
Ai Weiwei
Premiere:
Venice 2017
Select Festivals:
Telluride, Hamptons, Mill Valley, Haifa, Atlantic
About:
An overarching view of the global refugee crisis.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Documentary Fortnight 2018 Overview
Festival:
The 17th Documentary Fortnight
Dates:
February 15-26
About:
Nearly two dozen new or recent features, in addition to retrospective programming, make up MoMA’s annual nonfiction showcase. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
On DVD/VOD: REBELS ON POINTE
New to DVD and VOD this week:
REBELS ON POINTE
Director:
Bobbi Jo Hart
Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, DocEdge, Raindance, Calgary, Vancouver, Ashland, Hot Springs Doc, Cuculorus, Napa Valley, AmDocs, Frameline, Outfest, Inside Out, QDocs, LGBT fests in Amsterdam, Miami, Denver, Austin, Atlanta, and Rochester
About:
An intimate look at a long-running all-male drag ballet troupe.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: THE GUYS NEXT DOOR
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 13:
THE GUYS NEXT DOOR
Directors:
Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk
Premiere:
Sarasota 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, IFFBoston, Maryland, Provincetown, Woods Hole, Rhode Island, Big Sky Doc, RiverRun, MIX Milano, SF Jewish, Washington Jewish
About:
A profile of a gay couple and the woman who helped them have their own family.
I previously wrote about the doc for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Rachel is a married woman in her 40s, with a husband and three children. She is also the surrogate mother for her married gay friends Erik and Sandro. With refreshing candor and humor, Geller and Humenuk’s film explores the unique challenges of this unusual extended family through the course of three years. Erik and Sandro move away from New York City and adjust to small-town life; Sandro travels to his Italian homeland; and Rachel delivers the couple’s second daughter.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: DEALT
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 13:
DEALT
Director:
Luke Korem
Premiere:
SXSW 2017
Select Festivals:
Dallas, Sarasota, IFF Boston, deadCENTER, Shanghai, New Zealand, Bergen
About:
A portrait of an acclaimed card magician who also happens to be blind.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Berlin 2018: Documentary Overview
Festival:
The 68th Berlinale
Dates:
February 15-25
About:
More than 80 new and recent documentaries are included in a lineup of nearly 250 features in Germany’s A-list event. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Special Screening: ITZHAK
Coming to NYC’s JCC Manhattan tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13:
ITZHAK
Director:
Alison Chernick
Premiere:
Hamptons 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Palm Springs, Jewish fests in Miami, Palm Beach, Atlanta, and Phoenix
About:
A deeply intimate portrait of acclaimed violin master, Itzhak Perlman.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Widely considered the greatest living violinist, Itzhak Perlman takes us on a journey through his music and life. Filmmaker Alison Chernick gains privileged access to Perlman with his family, friends, and colleagues. Wheelchair-bound from childhood polio, he recounts stories of overcoming obstacles with his talent and humor. We follow him in eclectic settings, from performing with Billy Joel to visiting his native land, Israel. The film offers a poignant portrait of an artist seeking to bridge the past and the present and, through his students, the future.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Special Screening: CONTROL ROOM
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13:
CONTROL ROOM
Director:
Jehane Noujaim
Premiere:
Sundance 2004
Select Festivals:
Berlin, Hot Docs, Thessaloniki Doc, Full Frame, One World, Reykjavik, Cairo, Philadelphia
About:
A behind the scenes look at media coverage in the Arab world during the early days of the Iraq War.
Timed by STF to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the war’s onset, this presentation of Noujaim’s provocative film is a reminder of the naiveté of the American public in the early years of the conflict and of the uncharted territory of wartime journalism in the digital age. Taking a largely observational approach, Noujaim and her team train their cameras on press coverage of the war as centralized by the US government in CentCom, their media hub in Qatar, focusing on the disjunction between the official US version of events and the reports by Al Jazeera. Dismissed by Donald Rumsfeld as anti-American propaganda, the wide-reaching and influential Al Jazeera refuses to unquestioningly parrot military sources and further enrages top brass by showing the darker, bloodier consequences of the US attacks on Iraq. Representing the US viewpoint is CentCom’s press officer, Lieutenant Josh Rushing, but even he acknowledges unconscious bias when contrasting his reaction to images of wounded and killed Iraqis vs similar shots of American soldiers. Several Al Jazeera representatives reflect on the role of their network, demonstrating skepticism about the media coverage of the war and America’s potential role in further radicalizing the Arab world. Viewed in hindsight, Noujaim’s profile proves telling and remains a compelling reminder of the pivotal role of the press to not only present the news, but to rigorously question its sources.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
On TV/DVD: THE BOMBING OF WALL STREET
Coming to PBS’s American Experience and to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 13:
THE BOMBING OF WALL STREET
Director:
Susan Bellows
Premiere:
American Experience (February 2018)
About:
An exploration of a still unsolved terrorist plot that targeted Wall Street in 1920.
At lunchtime on September 16, 1920, in front of Wall Street’s JP Morgan bank headquarters, a horse-drawn carriage laden with explosives claimed the lives of 38 and injured more than a hundred others in the area. While the act of terror remained unsolved, authorities believed it to be the work of anti-capitalist forces, including anarchists and communists, and renewed efforts to target those viewed as radicals, notably immigrant workers and labor organizers. Leading the charge against this early war on terror and nascent red scare was the US Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation, whose Radical Division (later known as the General Intelligence Division) was under the command of ambitious young attorney J Edgar Hoover. Bellows works backwards from the bombing to trace its origins in an America that had begun to be defined by great economic and political divisions and unrest, resulting in government crackdowns and abuses of power, and further radicalization of those who would question the status quo. Like the better entries of the venerable PBS series, this project simultaneously offers insight into history while underscoring all-too-timely similarities to the present day.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
