Coming to Showtime tonight, Friday, February 3:
TRUMPED: INSIDE THE GREATEST POLITICAL UPSET OF ALL TIME
Directors:
Banks Tarver, Ted Bourne, and Mary Robertson
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
An incisive look back at the unlikely, tragic ascendancy of Donald J Trump.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, February 3:
THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS
Director:
Barbara Kopple
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
A candid portrait of a YouTube star as she finds her true self.
I previously profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to VOD this week:
ELEPHANT’S DREAM
Director:
Kristof Bilsen
Premiere:
DOK Leipzig 2014
Select Festivals:
IDFA, DocPoint, Hot Docs, Docville, Docs Against Gravity, DOK.fest Munich, Dokufest, Camden, Margaret Mead, Cork, Cinema Verité, Big Sky Doc, Taiwan Doc, Traverse City
About:
A portrait of modern-day Congo through its broken-down institutions.
Bilsen expertly crafts a quiet but poetic sense of place in this observational profile of three state-run institutions in Kinshasa and the people that work there. Henriette works at the crumbling post office, but she never seems to have any customers, and hasn’t received her full wages in ages. Middle-aged Simon guards the rail station, but, given the lack of trains, he mostly just whiles away the time with his coworker, a protege who is getting too big for his britches. Kasono and his fellow firefighters train, but when faced with a real fire they lack proper equipment and even water pressure to make much of a difference. These individuals serve as a microcosm of Congo, persevering within their positions and hoping that the economic situation will improve someday to make them feel productive once again.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, February 3:
A GOOD AMERICAN
Director:
Frederich Moser
Premiere:
CPH:DOX 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Palm Springs, Rotterdam, Portland, Sedona, Diagonale, Movies That Matter, Cleveland, RiverRun, DOXA, Docs Against Gravity, Biografilm, Dokufest
About:
The little-known story of how the NSA abandoned an effective intelligence-gathering system before the 9/11 attacks.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
The explosion of information in the digital age left government agencies like the NSA struggling with bureaucracy and technology to keep up with the changing times. Responding to the challenge, NSA technical director Bill Binney and a small team of codebreakers develop ThinThread, an astonishingly effective data collecting and sorting program that also protects privacy. Despite its success, ThinThread is discontinued just weeks before September 11, 2001. After Binney and fellow intelligence officials challenge this decision, they find their world upended.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
THE RETURN
Directors:
Kelly Duane De La Vega and Katie Galloway
Premiere:
Tribeca 2016
Select Festivals:
San Francisco
About:
A consideration of how newly-released prisoners reintegrate into society.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming back to theatres tomorrow, Friday, February 3 (after an initial qualifying run in early December):
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 has been 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
New to VOD this week:
SURVIVING SKOKIE
Directors:
Eli Adler, Blair Gershkow
Premiere:
Mill Valley 2015
Select Festivals:
Denver, Jewish fests in Atlanta, Charlotte, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Warsaw
About:
A personal reflection of Holocaust survivors standing up to American neo-Nazis.
In the aftermath of World War II, Jack Adler, like many other Polish Jewish immigrants, settled in Skokie IL, and tried to put their horrific experiences of the Holocaust behind them, rarely, if ever, talking about the past. Decades later, in 1977, Frank Collin, the leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Party of America, decided to stage a march through this predominantly Jewish community, ultimately working with the ACLU to defend their First Amendment rights in a case heard by the US Supreme Court. As detailed in this doc, co-directed by Adler’s son, the Skokie Affair served as an impetus to many survivors to band together and speak out against the American Nazi party – and against Collin, himself a self-hating son of a Jewish survivor – and to share their stories of survival. While worthwhile for its message, particularly in the new America’s xenophobic climate, Adler and Gershkow’s project is marred by a too conventional approach heavy on narration and talking heads and also includes an only tangentially-related section following the Adlers’ 2012 visit back to Poland which feels decidedly tacked on to expand the project to barely feature-length.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Wednesday, February 1:
MOTHER WITH A GUN
Director:
Jeff Daniels
Premiere:
Antenna Doc 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Atlanta Jewish
About:
A portrait of the Jewish Defense League, through the lens of its current, unlikely leader.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC, saying:
Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, the Jewish Defense League advocates any means necessary to stop antisemitism. Once considered the most active terrorist organization in the United States for its use of armed response and preventative violence, the JDL is currently led by Shelley Rubin. With candor, Daniels’ film charts Rubin’s path to extremism, relaying how an archetypal good Jewish girl defied family and community expectations for love and purpose – at a deep personal cost.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to ESPN tomorrow, Thursday, February 2:
THIS WAS THE XFL
Director:
Charlie Ebersol
Premiere:
DOC NYC 2016
About:
An entertaining reappraisal of the much-hyped but disastrous alternate to the NFL.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
The kind of sports story even non-sports fans will love, Charlie Ebersol’s doc chronicles the ill-fated history of the XFL, the no-holds-barred brainchild of NBC’s Dick Ebersol and WWE’s Vince McMahon. Launched to fanfare in 2001, the extreme football league lasted only a single season, making up rules – and breaking them – as it went along. Ebersol’s son Charlie directs this wild look back at what went wrong with the XFL and its role in redefining broadcast sports.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Wednesday, February 1:
FROM THIS DAY FORWARD
Director:
Sharon Shattuck
Premiere:
Full Frame 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, AFI Docs, Hot Docs, Framline, Outfest, Camden, Traverse City, Frameline, Outfest, LGBT fests in Seattle, North Carolina, Milwaukee, and Austin
About:
A portrait of the filmmaker’s father, who transitioned from male to female.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
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