The New Orleans Film Festival begins its 26th edition tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14, and runs through Thursday, October 22. I’m excited to be returning to the festival after several years, and am looking forward to serving on the documentary features jury. The following highlights a small fraction of this year’s nearly 40 documentary features:
Competition titles include: Shamira Raphaëla’s DEAL WITH IT, about the filmmaker’s troubled father and brother; Jack Pettibone Riccobono’s THE SEVENTH FIRE, a profile of a Native American gang leader; Jennifer Redfearn’s TOCANDO LA LUZ, which follows the experience of three blind women in Havana; Poppy Stockell’s SCRUM, a portrait of a gay Aussie rugby team; David Shapiro’s MISSING PEOPLE (pictured), about a woman obsessed by her brother’s unsolved murder and by the work of a New Orleans outsider artist; Jide Tom Akinleminu’s PORTRAIT OF A LONE FARMER, a portrait of the filmmaker’s long absent father; and Irene Gutierrez’s HOTEL NUEVA ISLA, about a man living in an abandoned Havana resort.
Other nonfiction titles include: Sara Fishko’s look back at NYC’s jazz scene of the late 1950s and ’60s, THE JAZZ LOFT ACCORDING TO W EUGENE SMITH; Gene Fredericks’ portrait of an eccentric photographer, THE PHANTASMAGORICAL CLARENCE JOHN LAUGHLIN; Ian Midgley’s look at the collaboration between innovative agricultural thinkers, REVERSING THE MISSISSIPPI; Bartek Bartos and Piotr Bartos’ look at an atist’s response to Katrina, FLOATING ON FIRE; Julie Sokolow’s ASPIE SEEKS LOVE (pictured), about a man with Asperger’s who has posted personal ads for fifteen years.
what (not) to doc 