My latest Indiewire curation for Hulu documentaries draws inspiration from various 2012 Tribeca Film Festival documentaries to suggest other films with similar topics and themes that you can watch now for free!
For more information about the selections, see my Indiewire article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
The director of I WAS A TEENAGE FEMINIST turns her attention to America’s obsession with virginity.
Recognizing the contradictory messages constantly presented to girls and women about sex – told to “protect” their virginity, but at the same time barraged by popular culture and advertising that glamorizes and celebrates women as sexual objects, director Therese Shechter’s film hopes to provide a candid exploration of female sexuality and the ways society have tried to control it. Focusing on virginity, ever synonymous with a woman’s virtue, Shechter explores her own sexual history and that of other women to debunk the myths around the concept of chasteness and to shed light on how and why it has attained and maintained such significance in a culture that otherwise seems sex-mad. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema as part of “Street Views,” a series about people and their environments, next Tuesday, April 24: PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY
Peter Bo Rappmund’s evocative film following water’s path premiered at Vancouver in 2010. It went on to screen at select festivals, including MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight, and enjoyed a brief run in NYC via Anthology Film Archives last Summer.
I wrote about the film upon that occasion here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 24: OF DOLLS & MURDER
First-time documentary feature director Susan Marks has been screening her film about crime scene dollhouses on the festival circuit since last year, including appearances at Revelation Perth and Camden, as well as upcoming screenings at Minneapolis-St Paul.
Marks’ film, wryly narrated by John Waters (the best possible choice since Vincent Price isn’t available), revisits the infamous “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths” and the story of their creator, Frances Glessner Lee (1878-1962), a millionaire heiress who distinguished herself as one of the founders of forensic pathology. The Nutshell Studies, miniature, scale-model dollhouse dioramas of often grisly crime scenes, were created by Glessner Lee in the 1930s and ’40s to help train investigators on what to look for and what not to miss at crime scenes. The film explores a number of the dioramas, meticulously based on real cases, as they are analyzed by modern-day forensics specialists for clues to what led to the homicides depicted. Marks handles her morbidly fascinating subject with an expert touch, balancing the sordid true crime elements with the more detached, clinical details that viewers have become accustomed to in the era of TV’s CSI, while the presence of the strange dollhouses evoke both a sense of childhood and the kindred scale-model doc MARWENCOL.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Cinema Village, LA’s Laemmle’s Music Hall and to VOD this Friday, April 20: FIGHTVILLE
The directors of GUNNER PALACE, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein, premiered their Mixed Martial Arts profile at SXSW last year. It has gone on to screen at Hot Docs, Woodstock, Doc NYC, IDFA, and Abu Dhabi, among others, and was acquired by Showtime for cable broadcast. In addition to a theatrical run, the doc will be available on VOD via iTunes, XBox, and Vudu, as well as cable providers Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner.
I wrote about the film out of SXSW here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Opening this Thursday and running through May 3, the San Francisco International Film Festival celebrates its 55th year with over 100 feature length films, including more than 30 documentaries. The longest-running film festival in the US, the SFIFF has always been especially notable for its well curated international program, and for an enthusiastic audience that fills its theatres for over two weeks. While I haven’t been able to attend the festival in years, it holds a special significance for me as the first major festival I interned for right after college.
The combination of a great city, its senior status, fantastic programming, and a smart staff has made the festival one of the most loved and respected of US festivals. The film industry was shocked by the sudden passing of the San Francisco Film Society’s new executive director Bingham Ray during Sundance just three months ago, less than six months after the death of the accomplished previous executive director, Graham Leggat. While it’s difficult to comprehend the impact this kind of back-to-back loss has had on the organization, it’s a testament to the work both men did for the SFFS an the film industry as a whole, and to their deep love of cinema, that the staff has pulled together such an impressive slate despite the trying circumstances. I’ve already seen about half of the docs in the lineup, some of which I’ll note below together with titles I’ve not yet seen but hope to at some point. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 17: GARBO: THE SPY
Edmon Roch’s doc on the titular WWII double agent has had an extensive festival run since its premiere in 2009, including slots at Rome, IDFA, San Francisco, and Karlovy Vary. First Run Features released the film in the US last Winter.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The Tribeca Film Festival begins in less than a week, running April 18-29 in New York City. After a decade with David Kwok at its programming helm, his departure after last year’s event has led to some staff changes, notably the elevation of longtime senior programmer Genna Terranova to the position of Director of Programming, the arrival of former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight head Frédéric Boyer as Artistic Director, and the greater involvement of Tribeca Enterprises’ Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Gilmore, in programming. It will be interesting to see how audiences and critics respond to this year’s slate, which is not noticeably different in any radical way. In terms of documentary programming, the festival continues to show a commitment to spotlighting US and world non-fiction, including 39 feature-length docs throughout the various sections of the event. While I’ve had a chance to see quite a few of these titles in advance, I’m looking forward to watching the remainder during the next couple of weeks, especially the following highlights: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 17 and already available on VOD on iTunes, Amazon, and Vudu: CLEANFLIX
Directors Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi’s “sanitized” film exposé premiered at Toronto in 2009. Its festival circuit included Big Sky, Goteborg, Cinequest, Florida, Traverse City, and Nashville.
Recognizing a potentially lucrative niche market in conservative, and often religious, family households, Utah DVD retailers began excising objectionable content from R-rated films and advertising their product as “clean” versions appropriate for the largely Latter Day Saint audience which otherwise would have to pass on many titles. As the practice grew in popularity, it also attracted the attention of several Hollywood directors who didn’t appreciate what they viewed as censorship, leading to litigation. James and Ligairi relate the battle waged between artistic intent and the marketing of morality, following “film sanitizers” as they make a case for the rights of DVD retailers to do what they will with copies of films that they legitimately bought, and for film consumers to be able to enjoy more family-friendly versions of popular films, similar to those shown by airlines and on TV. The filmmakers effectively offer direct comparisons of original and “clean” versions of the same films, noting the curious focus on sex and language, but often not violence, and the ethical loopholes that the retailers attempt to use to stay in business. While James and Ligairi may at times take too-easy shots at some characters, using an over-the-top approach where subtlety may have been more effective in underscoring moral shortcomings, the film as a whole offers a series of provocative questions about the limits of art, culture, commerce, and ownership – if it doesn’t answer them all, that’s because the issues are still being debated.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 17: THE FLAW
David Sington’s financial crisis doc made its premiere at Sheffield in 2010. It came stateside last year, screening in competition at Sundance.
My pre-Sundance profile of the film may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
