Sundance 2013 welcomes back another pair of alumni filmmakers with the next US Documentary Competition title: Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine’s LIFE ACCORDING TO SAM, about one driven family’s mission to combat the rare disease threatening their young son.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: LIFE ACCORDING TO SAM
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: INEQUALITY FOR ALL
Next up in the 2013 Sundance US Documentary Competition: Jacob Kornbluth’s INEQUALITY FOR ALL, in which former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains the reasons for the widening gap between America’s 1% and the rest of us.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: GOD LOVES UGANDA
Continuing my spotlight on the second half of the 2013 Sundance US Documentary Competition: GOD LOVES UGANDA, Roger Ross Williams’ exploration of American evangelicals’ coordinated ideological campaign in Uganda.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2012 Top Ten Docs
Indiewire has posted the top ten lists of various film industry respondents, including mine. You can see the full list here.
Largely because non-fiction tends to be an afterthought in these types of end-of-the-year roundups, and because I frankly haven’t had a chance to see a lot of the acclaimed fiction films, my list is all documentaries. If I did include fiction films, I would have certainly listed BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD and AMOUR – but beyond that, I’d have to play a fair amount of catch up. As it is, however, there were several fantastic documentaries that I could have added to my list, so it’s probably best to keep it contained.
Here are pointers to what I’ve written about my top ten docs of 2012 on what (not) to doc in the past. They are unranked, and in alphabetical order:
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: GIDEON’S ARMY
Dawn Porter’s profile of three committed but often overwhelmed public defenders is the next film in my overview of Sundance’s US Documentary Competition: GIDEON’S ARMY
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: DIRTY WARS
My look at the 2013 Sundance US Documentary Competition reaches the halfway point: Richard Rowley’s DIRTY WARS follows investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill as he uncovers the existence of America’s secret wars.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: CUTIE AND THE BOXER
My rundown of the 2013 Sundance US Documentary Competition continues with Zachary Heinzerling’s directorial debut: CUTIE AND THE BOXER, the decades-long story of the personal and professional struggles of a married pair of Japanese artists in NYC.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
In the Works: THIS IS CONGO
An inside look at the complex forces behind the Democratic Republic of Congo’s ongoing conflicts.
The history of the DRC has been synonymous with conflict. The country is among the poorest – its wealth of natural resources benefitting not its people, but shady middlemen, corrupt politicians, multinational electronics corporations, and, ultimately, end users in the developed world. The vast majority of Congolese instead suffer through perpetual war, with their women raped and their children forced into combat. Director Daniel McCabe tells the stories of several Congolese on various sides of the conflicts, demonstrating the connections between instability and violence in the region and the market in illegally mined natural resources. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: CITIZEN KOCH
Today’s look at Sundance 2013’s US Documentary Competition wraps up with returning filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin: CITIZEN KOCH, a bracing analysis of the political consequences of corporate personhood.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: BLOOD BROTHER
The next US Documentary Competition title in my profile of the upcoming Sundance doc slate: BLOOD BROTHER, Steve Hoover’s portrait of his best friend, who has dedicated his life to an Indian orphanage for HIV positive children.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
