Coming to NYC’s Cinema Village this Friday, April 13, to Los Angeles next Friday, April 20, and to San Francisco the Friday after that, April 27: HIT SO HARD
P David Ebersole’s recounting of the life and near-death of Hole’s Patty Schemel made its world premiere last year at SXSW. It went on to screen at New Directors/New Films, Seattle, Sheffield, Frameline, Outfest, Provincetown, and many others.
I included the film in my SXSW coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Already available on Snag Films and some outlets, and coming to additional VOD platforms this Sunday, April 15: ALL ME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WINFRED REMBERT
Vivian Ducat’s folk artist portrait premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival last Fall. Additional screenings included Hot Springs, Chicago, and Salem, with awards from the latter two.
I previous wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Launched in 2009, Disappearing Act is a European film festival in New York City that celebrates critically acclaimed films from all across Europe that have still nevertheless been unable to attract widespread audience awareness. A co-presentation of the Czech Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute, the event draws on support from nearly two dozen additional European agencies. Its fourth edition begins tomorrow, April 11, and runs through April 22. Screenings will be held at the IFC Center, the Bohemian National Hall, and the Alliance Francaise. With the exception of the opening night, all other screenings are free to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
Of the twenty-five features making up this year’s line-up, four are documentaries, while an additional two are hybrid narrative/docs. I’ve already seen and strongly recommend two of the former: CINEMA KOMUNISTO (pictured) and DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR.
The remaining docs are the Slovakian THE BORDER (pictured), directed by Jaroslav Vojtek, telling the story of the village of Slemence, divided by new borders in 1946 into a Slovak and a Ukranian side, literally separating families and the entire community; and the Hungarian NEGATIVE HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN CINEMA, directed by Gyula Nemes, which intriguingly seeks to rediscover unfinished or never-made films by the masters of Hungarian cinema.
The hybrids include Italian director Pietro Marcello’s award-winning THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF/LA BOCCA DEL LUPO (pictured), a truly sui generis piece celebrating Genoa and the unlikely love story of a murderer and a drug addict; and Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST, a similarly beguiling cinematic exploration of place, focused on the attempt to make a film against the backdrop of a summer music festival in a rural village community.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, April 10: INTO THE ABYSS
Werner Herzog premiered his death row study at Telluride and Toronto. After additional festival appearances, the film opened theatrically at the end of Fall.
I included the doc in my Toronto roundup here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The 19th New York African Film Festival kicks off this Wednesday, bringing New York audiences a concise cross-section of new and retrospective film from all over Africa. Reflecting a desire to serve a diverse potential audience, aside from a couple of satellite events, the festival takes place at multiple venues over three different periods of time: The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre between April 11-17, Harlem’s Maysles Cinema between May 4-6, and Brooklyn’s BAM Rose Cinemas between May 25-28.
Documentaries outnumber the fiction films at the festival, perhaps speaking to one of the goals of the event – educating the public about the African continent and its widely distinct peoples, upending the stereotypes many viewers might have of a monolithic, “primitive” culture. Correcting these reductive notions, the non-fiction on display at the event instead represents an expansive, vibrant multiplicity of backgrounds and concerns. By my count there are eighteen feature-length documentaries or documentary series – almost entirely new work, with a few retrospective programs highlighting South Africa’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema as part of the new “Street Views” series tomorrow, Tuesday, April 10: DECASIA
Bill Morrison’s meditation on creation and destruction made its premiere at Sundance in 2002. It went on to screen at additional notable festivals, including Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, and Edinburgh, before enjoying a limited theatrical release.
Harder to describe than it is to experience, Morrison’s experimental film assembles more than an hour’s worth of damaged, decaying black and white film footage into an absorbing collage. Viewers find themselves simultaneously caught between the tension of trying to decipher and at times narrativize the footage before them, but also reflect on its impermanence and impending loss. The archival images, beautiful and haunting but also sometimes disturbing, work their spell on the audience – from whirling dervishes to carnival rides, the effect is truly hypnotic. Utilizing only existing deteriorated celluloid and a pulsating score, Morrison explores the process of making through an almost paradoxical play with images that are literally being unmade before the viewer’s eyes.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
A multiple Emmy Award-winning filmmaking team reveals the story of what really happened during the 1971 Attica prison riot.
More than forty years ago, inmates at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York state took control of the prison in protest over inhumane living conditions and in response to the recent killing of a black radical activist prisoner in California’s San Quentin Prison. After tense negotiations faltered, Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered the state police to reclaim the prison, resulting in what has been called the bloodiest single-day encounter between Americans since the Civil War. While official records place the blame on the deaths of prisoners and hostages at the hands of the rioters, director David Marshall and producer Chris Christopher reveal four decades of a politically motivated cover up through eyewitness testimony and newly unearthed documentation. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, April 10: WE’RE NOT BROKE
Karin Hayes and Victoria Bruce premiered their economic exposé at Sundance earlier this year. The doc has gone on to be programmed at other notable festivals, with upcoming appearances at Dallas, the Independent Film Festival Boston, DocAviv, and STF heads Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen’s inaugural Montclair Film Festival.
I wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to to theatres in Los Angeles and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, April 6, and to NYC theatres next Friday, April 13: COMIC-CON: EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE
Morgan Spurlock’s affectionate behind-the-scenes look at the massive San Diego summer spectacle made its world premiere at Toronto last Fall. Since then, it’s played at select festivals gearing up to its release.
I included the doc in my Toronto coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Launched fifteen years ago (originally as the Double Take Documentary Film Festival), the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival annually brings over one hundred new and retrospective non-fiction films to Durham NC over the course of four days. Typically screening each film only once, forcing audiences to decide between as many as five simultaneous choices, organizers generate a real sense of urgency around every screening. While I’ve sadly only been once, the festival proved to be a well curated event with a notably erudite and diverse audience drawn from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle.
Running April 12-15, Full Frame 2012 includes more than fifty new documentary features in addition to shorts and retro programming that includes a four film tribute to Stanley Nelson and a ten film series around the theme of family, featuring notable titles like Doug Block’s 51 BIRCH STREET, Marco Williams’ IN SEARCH OF OUR FATHERS, Alan Berliner’s INTIMATE STRANGER, and Lucia Small’s MY FATHER, THE GENIUS. Among the lineup are a number of fantastic films I’ve written about previously that screened at other festivals like Toronto, IDFA, and Sundance, but my eye was drawn to a number of titles making their premieres here that, for the most part, I haven’t seen yet but would put on the top of my list if I were attending. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
