Author Archives: basiltsiokos

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.

February 17, 2017 · 12:01 PM

Film Comment Selects 2017: Documentary Overview

The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents its annual Film Comment Selects series starting tonight, Friday, February 17. The 17th edition, which runs through Thursday, February 23, presents an eclectic mix of new and retrospective work, including four documentary or hybrid features:

More recent work includes Terrence Malick’s VOYAGE OF TIME (pictured), presented in a shorter, music-focused, ultra-widescreen IMAX version; Wang Bing’s BITTER MONEY, a portrait of migrant Chinese garment workers; and Michał Marczak’s hybrid ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, following Polish twentysomethings in their nocturnal adventures. The series also presents a screening of Louis Malle’s 1985 GOD’S COUNTRY, in which the filmmaker visits a farming community in the midst of economic crisis.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations

February 16, 2017 · 3:02 PM

On VOD: THE MAN WHOSE MIND EXPLODED

Now on VOD via iTunes:
THE MAN WHOSE MIND EXPLODED

Director:
Toby Amies

Premiere:
Sheffield 2013

Select Festivals:
East End, BFI Flare, Brighton, Cambridge, Cork, Revelation

About:
The filmmaker befriends an eccentric gay man who has lost the ability to retain his memory.

Drako Zarharzar is an affable, rotund gay man with a ridiculous, Daliesque moustache, tattoos, and piercings, who is prone to public nudity and always surprised by the filmmaker showing up to interview him, given his memory issues. He has crammed his apartment with all sorts of pornography, creating a floor-to-ceiling mural of penises, remembers some memories at times, and likes to play with his nipples – he has cut holes in his shirt to give him easy access. While Amies’ film is framed by Drako’s apartment being cleaned out after his death, its focus is the relationship between the filmmaker and his subject over the preceding four years. This includes an awkward meeting with Drako’s sister and the recounting of the accident that eventually cost him his memory – but mostly it’s about their friendship, and the challenges his memory posed to making connections with people. Drako is an intriguing subject, but the film, though at times poignant and generally suprisingly upbeat, fails to make the most of his uniqueness, instead emphasizing the same points over and over again. While this may perhaps be intended as an echo of the repetitive experiences Drako goes through due to his anterograde amnesia, it grows somewhat tiresome before too long.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases

February 16, 2017 · 2:12 PM

Special Screenings: LOS SURES

Coming to the Bronx Documentary Center tonight, Thursday, February 16, and this Saturday and Sunday, February 18-19:
LOS SURES

Director:
Diego Echeverria

Premiere:
New York Film Festival 1984

Select Festivals:
New York Film Festival 2014

About:
A portrait of South Williamsburg, Brooklyn’s Latino community in the early 1980s.

Filmed over a month in the Summer of 1983, Echeverria’s hourlong doc captures the financially disadvantaged but vibrant community that called the Southside home decades before gentrification recast it as the hub of New York City’s hipsters. While the film opens with some brief narration, this quickly gives way to observational and interview footage of five residents, presented in discrete chapters. Though these subjects relate the challenges of living in poverty, they seem chosen for their resilience, turning to legal – and for some extra-legal – means to try to make ends meet. What comes through clearly is a sense of a close-knit community in which neighbors help relocate families displaced by apartment fires, but which is beginning to feel the deleterious impact of the drug epidemic. While modest, Echeverria’s film is an affecting snapshot of a bygone time.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations

February 16, 2017 · 1:31 PM

On VOD: SONITA

On VOD this week:
SONITA

Director:
Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

Premiere:
IDFA 2015

Select Festivals:
Sundance, Nantucket, Cleveland, True/False, Montclair, Sydney, AFI Docs, Human Rights Watch

About:
An Afghani teenager dreams of success in hip-hop.

I profiled the doc before Sundance here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance

February 16, 2017 · 12:01 PM

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival 2017 Overview

The 14th Big Sky Documentary Film Festival begins tomorrow, Friday, February 17, and runs through Sunday, February 26. Nerly 60 new and recent feature documentaries will screen, in addition to an extensive selection of retrospective programming celebrating the work of Daniel Junge and EyeSteelFilm. Films are presented in more than a dozen thematic strands, some of which noted below. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations

February 15, 2017 · 3:02 PM

On VOD: FIRE AT SEA

On VOD this week:
FIRE AT SEA

Director:
Gianfranco Rosi

Premiere:
Berlin 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Toronto, Telluride, New York, DocAviv, Sydney, Melbourne, It’s All True, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, New Zealand, Reykjavik

Notable Recognition:
The doc has been nominated for the Academy Awards.

About:
An intimate portrait of Lampedusa, an island at the heart of Europe’s migration crisis.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases

February 15, 2017 · 1:31 PM

On VOD: MARINONI: THE FIRE IN THE FRAME

Coming to VOD via iTunes today, Tuesday, February 14:
MARINONI: THE FIRE IN THE FRAME

Director:
Tony Girardin

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2014

Select Festivals:
Global Visions

About:
A portrait of a curmudgeonly racing bike manufacturer.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases

February 15, 2017 · 12:01 PM

Documentary Fortnight 2017 Overview

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 16, kicks off the 16th edition of Documentary Fortnight, MoMA’s annual showcase of nonfiction, with Rahul Jain’s Sundance award-winner MACHINES, an observational portrait of Indian factory workers. More than a dozen other recent features will screen before the event wraps on Sunday, February 26, in addition to retrospective work and shorts.

Among the world premieres are Lynne Sachs’ TIP OF MY TONGUE, which gathers a group of friends to reflect on the past fifty years; Lee Breuer’s THE BOOK OF CLARENCE, on one of the founders of the music group The Blind Boys of Alabama; Abigail Child’s ACTS & INTERMISSIONS, an experimental portrait of Emma Goldman; and Sam Wainwright Douglas’s THROUGH THE REPELLENT FENCE: A LAND ART FILM (pictured), about an art installation on the US/Mexico border.

Manuel Abramovich’s SOLAR, about the complicated story behind a messianic Argentine bestseller; and Paul Kaiser, Marc Downie, Ken Jacobs, and Flo Jacobs’ ULYSSES IN THE SUBWAY (pictured), which transforms the sounds of a NYC subway ride into a 3D rendering, both make their North American debuts. NYC premieres include Shahrbanoo Sadat’s hybrid WOLF AND SHEEP, on an Afghan shepherd community; and Jiu-liang Wang’s Sundance alum PLASTIC CHINA, a look at lives intersecting in a Chinese recycling factory.