New to DVD this week: KUNG FU ELLIOT
Matthew Bauckman and Jaret Belliveau look at Canada’s would-be action hero premiered at Slamdance last year. It went on to screen at Sarasota, Hot Docs, Awesome Fest, Fantasia, and Fantastic Fest, among others.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Wednesday, April 22: EMPTYING THE SKIES
Douglas and Roger Kass’ chronicle of a fight against avian extinction made its debut at Sheffield in 2013. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Hamptons, Big Sky, Wild & Scenic, Washington DC’s Environmental, Atlantic, and the San Francisco Green fests, among others.
Based on a widely-disseminated New Yorker essay by novelist Jonathan Franzen, the Kass’ film exposes the dangerous consequences of the traditional southern Europe practice of hunting migratory songbirds as a delicacy, and the efforts of an intrepid group of activists who have made it their mission to stop the now-illegal activity. Recognizing that many songbird species are facing extinction, the members of CABS, the Committee Against Bird Slaughter, have taken it upon themselves to seek out and sabotage the work of would-be poachers in Cyprus, Italy, and France, risking their own safety as they rescue trapped birds and come up against angry hunters, who stand to profit on the black market in the absence of their meddling. Appropriately opening on Earth Day, the film serves as effective, and often dramatic, environmental advocacy.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 21: FROM NOTHING, SOMETHING
Tim Cawley’s exploration of creativity debuted at IFF Boston in 2012. Other fest screenings have included New Orleans, Cleveland, Montreal World, Heartland, Ashland, Cucalorus, Newport Beach, and Sound Unseen, among several others.
Cawley’s film takes a wide-ranging look at the creative process, attempting to understand different approaches, across a variety of disciplines, to tackle the titular problem of making something out nothing. His sixteen subjects – among them a chef, composer, fashion designer, choreographer, comedian, video game designer, scientist, musician, cartoonist, and architect – speak with refreshing candor about the pressures they face and how they overcome them to bring their ideas into reality. The result is an intriguing meditation not only on creativity, but on problem solving, and one that should offer ample inspiration to viewers no matter their specific domain of interest.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The oldest film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival, opens its 58th edition this Thursday, April 23, kicking things off with Alex Gibney’s latest, STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE, a critical re-evaluation of the late Apple visionary. The event closes two weeks later on Thursday, May 7, after screening nearly 100 features, among them more than 30 documentaries. The following offers some highlights from the latter: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to NYC’s Film Forum tomorrow, Wednesday, April 22: DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN: CAMBODIA’S LOST ROCK AND ROLL
John Pirozzi’s exploration of the music lost during the reign of the Khmer Rouge debuted in Cambodia early last year. Other festival screenings have included DOC NYC, Big Sky, Rotterdam, Reel Asian, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis/St Paul, among others.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
A fascinating exploration of history as reflected through a nation’s popular culture, John Pirozzi’s film excavates Cambodia’s lost era of American-inflected music. Just as traditional Cambodian songs took on a French colonial influence in the 1950s and ‘60s, the presence of US Armed Forces Radio during the Vietnam War inspired a fusion of funk, soul, and rock in the country’s postcolonial period. But when the Khmer Rouge came to power, they set out to destroy all traces of Western influence.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
North America’s largest documentary event, Hot Docs, returns this Thursday, April 23, and runs through Sunday, May 3. Toronto’s festival will unspool 210 documentaries during its 22nd edition, among them more than 160 new and recent nonfiction features. I’ve been attending the festival since 2009, and always look forward to checking out the latest work that Charlotte Cook and her programming team have curated. What follows is a section-by-section spotlight of the films I’m hoping to screen when I arrive for the second half of the fest: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, April 21: HANNA RANCH
Mitch Dickman’s meditation on the life and death of an eco-rancher bowed at Denver in 2013. Other appearances included the Durango and Crested Butte fests, as well as a number of educational and community screenings.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens today, Monday, April 20: THE GREAT INVISIBLE
Margaret Brown’s look at the human impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster debuted at SXSW last year, winning the documentary grand jury prize. It went on to DOC NYC, New Orleans, Hot Docs, London, Camden, Abu Dhabi, Zurich, Full Frame, and Philadelphia, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, April 17: THE HUMAN EXPERIMENT
Dana Nachman and Don Hardy’s investigation into the potential dangers we face from everyday chemical exposure debuted at Mill Valley in 2013. It went on to screen at IDFA, Big Sky, Cinequest, One World, Boulder, Cleveland, Nashville, Planete + Doc, and Washington DC’s Environmental fests, among others.
As suggested by its title, Nachman and Hardy’s film posits that all of us have been unwilling participants in a nasty scientific study over the past half century that essentially has consisted of releasing 80,000 chemicals into the American marketplace in pretty much every product you can think of, assuming these chemicals are safe, and sitting back while health problems increase, from breast cancer to infertility to autism. While the film takes on too much to be able to establish completely persuasive causality, where it is much more effective is in its consideration of the efforts of the chemical industry in lobbying against regulation and better safety testing. Though this lobby makes use of Big Tobacco’s playbook to deny blame or introduce skepticism – well covered in other recent docs like MERCHANTS OF DOUBT – Nachman and Hardy’s exploration offers compelling evidence that should make viewers take notice of the shortcomings of our present protections from potential harm.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 17: ANTARCTIC EDGE: 70° SOUTH
Dena Seidel’s look at the work of climate change researchers had its world premiere at the Princeton Environmental Film Festival last month. It will also screen at the upcoming International Wildlife and Minneapolis film fests.
The latest in a growing group of environmental docs set in polar environments, Seidel’s film follows a team of scientists as they investigate the impact of climate change in Antarctica, spending months at sea to study a wide range of subjects, all ultimately connected to increased carbon levels and the warming of the oceans. These include the dramatic loss of sea ice, and its impact on penguin habitat, with a resultant decline in their population; the effects on krill and other smaller organisms that serve as the primary food for larger animals; and the tracking of various species to determine changes in development, feeding ranges, and behavior. Researchers note the dangers posed by icebergs, tempestuous seas, and equipment failure, as well as the personal sacrifices they make to collect the data they hope will ensure the future. Though attempting to inject some personality via brief profiles of a few scientists, Seidel’s film, made through Rutgers University, remains primarily educational rather than artful as it illustrates the important work being done to make sense of the mess we’ve made of the environment.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 