Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 6: THE SEVENTH FIRE

Jack Pettibone Riccobono’s candid look at Native American gang life debuted at Berlin last year. Its fest circuit has included New Orleans, Palm Springs, Documenta Madrid, Mar del Plata, Stockholm, Minneapolis-St Paul, Big Sky, Hawaii, Iran’s Cinema Vérité, Ashland, and Hot Springs Doc.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 6: BROTHERS OF THE BLACK LIST

Sean Gallagher’s look at a campus civil rights abuse debuted on the campus of SUNY Oneonta in early 2014. Screenings followed at DOC NYC, Dallas, DocuWest, and at several universities around the country.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the fall of 1992, despite efforts to recruit minority students, SUNY Oneonta set off a firestorm of controversy that led to the longest litigated civil-rights case in US history. After an attempted rape of an elderly woman off-campus, school administrators released a list of its black male students to the police. Sean Gallagher’s affecting film chronicles how this act of institutionalized racial profiling left an indelible mark on the university, its students, and the larger community.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 6: HOCKNEY

Randall Wright’s artist profile premiered at BFI London in 2014. Screenings followed at BAFICI, Doc Aviv, Minneapolis St Paul, Brighton, Vancouver, Palm Springs, and St Louis, among other festivals.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV this coming Monday, September 5: THE BIRTH OF SAKÉ

Erik Shirai’s exploration of the making of the distinctive Japanese beverage debuted at Tribeca last year. Additional screenings included Seattle, Dokufest Kosovo, San Sebastian, Milan, ZagrebDox, Philadelphia, Chicago, Antenna, Mar del Plata, Sidewalk, Palm Springs, Tallinn Black Nights, and Goteborg, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to VOD today, Thursday, September 1: CITY 40

Samira Goetschel’s clandestine profile of a secret Soviet-era city debuted at Hot Docs earlier this year. Other fest engagements have included Sheffield and Antenna. It now becomes available worldwide via Netflix.

Before 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ozersk didn’t exist – or at least it was never permitted to appear on maps. It wasn’t even known as Ozersk during the Soviet era, but instead as “City 40,” a fittingly bureaucratic and vaguely mysterious name that underscored its secretive purpose: housing the families of scientists, engineers, and workers who worked on the USSR’s classified nuclear program. Convinced they were doing their patriotic duty as Mother Russia’s “nuclear shield,” the residents traded their freedom – generally cutting off outside contact – for a seemingly idyllic existence of relative plenty and harmony. Where other Soviet cities reckoned with food shortages or lack of resources at times, City 40 kept its population well-fed, cared for, and entertained. However, as those who provide testimony in this portrait attest, the true cost of their residency also included cancer, rare medical conditions, premature death, and living within an irradiated and polluted environment. Goetschel, who was aided by locals in smuggling in film equipment, speaks to ordinary citizens as well as a local journalist, nuclear scientists, and a human rights attorney advocating for justice for those maltreated by the Russian state, providing a compelling inside look at a fascinating, once-invisible “closed city.”