Author Archives: basiltsiokos

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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.

On DVD: MONOBLOC

New to DVD this week:
MONOBLOC

Director:
Hauke Wendler

World Premiere:
DOK.fest Munich 2021

Select Festivals:
Milano Design, Braunschweig, Kasseler Dokfest

About:
A film about a plastic chair that can be found throughout the world.

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Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases

On DVD/VOD: THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE

Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, August 23:
THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE

Director:
Iryna Tsilyk

World Premiere:
Sundance 2020

Select Festivals:
Berlin, IDFA, Hot Docs, Doc Fortnight, Thessaloniki Doc, ZagrebDox, Docs Against Gravity, Biografilm, Docudays UA, Reykjavik, Zurich, Dokufest, Adelaide, Seattle

About:
A Ukrainian family processes life in a war zone by making films about their experience.

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

On TV & Streaming: KATRINA BABIES

Coming to HBO and HBO Max tomorrow, Wednesday, August 24:
KATRINA BABIES

Director:
Edward Buckles Jr

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2022

Select Festivals:
Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival

About:
A first-person account of the short-term and long-term devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, as told by young people who were between the ages of 3 and 19 when the levees broke.

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Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases

On VOD: GALLANT INDIES

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, August 23:
GALLANT INDIES

Director:
Philippe Béziat

World Premiere:
Bordeaux 2020

Select Festivals:
Sheffield, Hot Docs, FIPADOC, Doclisboa, Transilvania, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, Havana, Shanghai

About:
A young filmmaker works with an acclaimed choreographer to stage a baroque masterpiece at Opéra national de Paris, combining urban dance such as hip-hop, krump, break, and voguing with classical music to challenge the cultural expectations of this venerable, four-century-old institution.

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In Theatres: THREE MINUTES — A LENGTHENING

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo: Family Affair Films

Coming to theatres today, Friday, August 19:
THREE MINUTES — A LENGTHENING

Director:
Bianca Stigter

World Premiere:
Venice 2021

Select Festivals:
Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, DOC NYC, Philadelphia, Göteborg, Thessaloniki Doc, Provincetown, Sydney, Cleveland, Docs Against Gravity

About:
A home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland – the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust – is examined to unravel the stories hidden in the celluloid.

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

In Theatres: THE TERRITORY

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, August 19:
THE TERRITORY

Director:
Alex Pritz

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, It’s All True, Docs Against Gravity, Philadelphia Environmental, Jerusalem, Movies That Matter, Cleveland, Seattle, Sydney

About:
When a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, a young Indigenous leader and his mentor must fight back in defense of the land and the people living deep within the forest.

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

Streaming: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

Coming to OVID this Friday, August 19:
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

Director:
Peter Friedman

World Premiere:
OVID (August 2022)

About:
A feature-length cinema vérité portrait of Robert Carsen, one of the world’s greatest stage directors, at work, filmed over the course of a year as he reinvents Leonard Bernstein’s CANDIDE.

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Streaming: SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE

Coming to OVID this Friday, August 19:
SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE

Director:
Peter Friedman, Tom Joslin

World Premiere:
Sundance 1993

About:
A video diary of life with AIDS, told with guts and humor by longtime lovers Tom Joslin and Mark Massi, celebrates the power of love in the face of a devastating illness.

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

Streaming: THE GIRLFRIEND WHO DIDN’T EXIST

Courtesy of Netflix

Coming to Netflix’s UNTOLD series tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16:
THE GIRLFRIEND WHO DIDN’T EXIST

Director:
Ryan Duffy, Tony Vainuku

World Premiere:
Netflix (August 2022)

About:
From Notre Dame to the NFL, Manti Te’o’s future in football showed promise until a secret online relationship sent his life and career spiraling.

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On TV & Streaming: THE PRINCESS

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Kent Gavin

Coming to HBO and HBO Max tomorrow, Saturday, August 13:
THE PRINCESS

Director:
Ed Perkins

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
Biografilm

About:
Princess Diana’s story is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive, creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death, illuminating the profound impact she had, and demonstrating how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was, and still is, shaped by these events.

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