Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to the Maysles Cinema today, Wednesday, May 22: DOIN’ IT IN THE PARK: PICK-UP BASKETBALL, NYC

Kevin Couliau and Bobbito Garcia’s tribute to outdoor court basketball made its world premiere at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. It went on to screen at Urbanworld, Philadelphia Awesome Festival, New Jersey, and Toronto’s Regent Park, picking up awards at several. After its week run at the Maysles, the film will expand to other venues in NYC and around the country via Tugg.

Expressing a deep love not only for basketball but for the specific culture of New York City’s playgrounds, Garcia and Couliau’s film takes an expansive look at the lasting influence street ball has had on players and the game itself. In many ways, the doc is a guided tour of the city’s park courts and, most effectively, its legendary players – not only men who made it to the NBA, but old school street players like Pee Wee Kirkland and Kid Sundance Davis. Interviews from these men and others convey a clear sense of the positive impact of their experiences on the court, in addition to often very funny anecdotes about the unwritten set of rules unique to each park, and limited but effective archival footage of court play, complete with amazing period fashion. This sense of living history manages to elevate the film from its very unfocused, meandering survey structure – its weakest aspect. Still, despite this looseness, fans of the game will find plenty to like, and even non-fans should respond to this look at street-level cultural history.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 17: VALENTINO’S GHOST

Michael Singh’s examination of cinematic portrayals of Arabs and Muslims made its debut at Venice last year. The doc went on to screen at IDFA, Doha, It’s All True, and DocumentaMadrid. It opens at NYC’s Quad Cinema and the Laemmle Pasadena Playhouse 7 Theatre.

I included the doc in my IDFA roundup here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, May 17: BIDDER 70

Beth and George Gage’s portrait of the consequences of civil disobedience had its world premiere at the 2012 Mountainfilm in Telluride, winning an award. It went on to screen at numerous festivals, including Cleveland, Human Rights Watch, Washington DC Environmental, Mill Valley, and Traverse City, picking up an award at the latter as well.

During the end of the Bush administration, a shady federal auction threatened thousands of acres of Utah wilderness with destructive drilling in the name of fossil fuels. Concerned about the lack of transparency to the process, college student Tim DeChristopher attended, and, on the spur of the moment, decided to begin bidding for the land, winning 22,000 acres at the cost of nearly $2 million – with no intention of drilling or ability to pay. He did this as a conscious act of civil disobedience, disrupting a process he believed to be unjust, and willing to face the consequences. The Gages’ film quickly relates this already well-publicized background and then moves on to follow DeChristopher as he becomes the catalyst for a grassroots climate justice movement, and as he waits for his day in court after numerous postponements. While the former serves as a hopeful development, scenes of scrappy protest sign painting and demonstrations by DeChristopher’s Peaceful Uprising activist group often feel like filler and take on a cheesy edge with some poor music choices. More compelling are the pre-trial developments about the illegality of the auction and comments from his attorney about potential defense strategy, but these are given shortshrift. Still, sharing DeChristopher’s story is really the point of his act of disruption – as his defense attorney reminds us, the point of civil disobedience is to force others to examine their own conscience and to inspire change, even at the cost of one’s own personal liberty – and, to that extent, the Gages’ film delivers.