Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín
Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín conduct a creative archaeological exploration of their late grandmother’s home and possessions.
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Author Archives: basiltsiokos
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: 306 HOLLYWOOD
Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín conduct a creative archaeological exploration of their late grandmother’s home and possessions.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Slamdance 2018: Documentary Overview
Festival:
The 24th Slamdance Film Festival
Dates:
January 19-25
About:
Just under 30 features screen at this scrappy event taking place during Sundance, including 10 documentaries. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jim Judkis
Morgan Neville explores the impact of the beloved children’s television show host on generations of viewers.
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD/VOD: 100 MEN
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16:
100 MEN
Director:
Paul Oremland
Premiere:
Frameline 2017
Select Festivals:
New Zealand, Outfest, NewFest, LGBT fests in Lisbon, Sydney, and Palm Springs
About:
A personal reflection on how society’s relationship to homosexuality has changed during the filmmaker’s life.
Oremland recounts all the men he has slept with in his life, speaking to those he is able to track down, and in the process considers how these experiences demonstrate changes to the expression of gayness and to society’s acceptance. Following mostly a chronological review, accompanied by the filmmaker’s memories of the incidents – from clandestine, anonymous encounters to more longterm, significant relationships – Oremland also weaves in developments in his career, making film and television projects with gay themes. The focus, however, thankfully remains broader, allowing this to move beyond the insular and diaristic to a more universal consideration of the experiences of gay men between the 1970s and the present, from the sexual freedom of gay liberation to the emergence of AIDS, monogamy to open relationships, exploration of drugs and fetishes, the impact of technology like Grindr on the gay scene, and the opening up of military and marriage to the gay community.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: STUDIO 54
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Matt Tyrnauer revisits the meteoric rise and crushing fall of the legendary NYC nightclub.
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On TV/DVD: THE SECRET OF TUXEDO PARK
Coming to PBS’s American Experience and to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16:
THE SECRET OF TUXEDO PARK
Director:
Rob Rapley
Premiere:
American Experience (January 2018)
About:
The little-known story of the Wall Street tycoon-turned-scientific benefactor who helped win WWII.
Tuxedo Park, an unassuming village 40 miles north of New York City, served as the site of a cutting edge laboratory during the 1930s and ’40s, overseen by Alfred Loomis. After making his fortune on Wall Street, and cagily avoiding the crash of 1929, the wealthy gentleman scientist opened his mansion, known as Tower House, to pioneering thinkers in science and engineering from home and abroad, defying the isolationism of the time. As war erupted in Europe, and convinced that America inevitably would be drawn into the conflict, Loomis began developing game-changing technology to combat the Axis’ seemingly unstoppable war machine. Working in secret, Loomis and his team would perfect short wave radar technology in his Rad Lab, as revealed in Rapley’s informative, if conventional, biographical profile. While the dramatic introduction of atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki would steal radar’s thunder – and the notoriously press-adverse Loomis was content to remain unheralded – the technology he developed was said to have won the war, while the atomic bomb merely ended it.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On TV: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, January 15:
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Director:
Raoul Peck
Premiere:
Toronto 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, New Orleans, New York Film Festival, the Hamptons, Chicago, Virginia, AFI Fest, Philadelphia
Notable Recognition:
The doc was nominated for the Academy Awards.
About:
James Baldwin’s unfinished book on three key civil rights leaders prompts an all-too timely reflection on the state of race relations in America.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: ROBIN WILLIAMS: COME INSIDE MY MIND
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Mark Sennet
Marina Zenovich reveals the highs and lows of the late comedian/actor.
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Documentary Premieres
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On TV: TROPHY
Coming to CNN this Sunday, January 14:
TROPHY
Directors:
Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
SXSW,CPH:DOX, Full Frame, Dallas, Encounters, Jerusalem, Melbourne, Moscow, Sun Valley, Montclair
About:
An exploration of the complex intersections between wildlife conservation and big game hunting.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
2018 Sundance Docs in Focus: RBG
Courtesy of Sundance Institute and CNN Films
Betsy West and Julie Cohen profile the legendary, outspoken US Supreme Court Justice.
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Documentary Premieres
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
what (not) to doc 