Wrapping up this year’s World Cinema Documentary Competition: Swedish/UK film SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN, Malik Bendjelloul’s investigation into a musical mystery.
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2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD: BOMBAY BEACH
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 17: BOMBAY BEACH
Alma Har’el’s visually arresting doc on California’s barren Salton Sea and its residents premiered at Berlin last year, then went on to claim Best Documentary at Tribeca and a Special Jury Award at Sheffield. It received a limited theatrical release in the Fall.
I wrote about the film out of Tribeca here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: PUTIN’S KISS
Nearing the end of the World Cinema Documentary Competition brings us to the fourth of four films in the section that also screened at IDFA: PUTIN’S KISS, Danish director Lise Birk Pedersen’s cautionary look at youth, idealism, nationalism, and politics in Russia.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: PAYBACK
Heading into the homestretch with the World Cinema Documentary Competition: PAYBACK, from Canada’s Jennifer Baichwal, adapts Margart Atwood’s bestseller by taking a multi-tiered approach to exploring the concept of debt.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE LAW IN THESE PARTS
The World Cinema Documentary Competition heads to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, care of Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz: THE LAW IN THESE PARTS explores the unique system of military law that has been developed to adjudicate an occupied population.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
On DVD: LIFE 2.0
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 17: LIFE 2.0
Jason Spingarn-Koff’s documentary on Second Life premiered at Sundance in 2010, and went on to screen at SXSW, Boston, San Francisco, CPH:DOX, and New Orleans, among others. Oprah’s OWN Documentary Club hosted the broadcast premiere last Summer after a limited theatrical run in the Spring.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
2012 Cinema Eye Honors Winners
Last night’s 5th annual Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing achievements in non-fiction film, saw multiple wins for my top film of 2011, THE INTERRUPTERS (top prize and Direction) and for TABLOID (Original Music Score and Graphic Design and Animation), with recognition also given to BUCK (Audience Choice), PINA (Production), SENNA (Editing), HELL AND BACK AGAIN (Cinematography), THE ARBOR (Debut Feature), THE TINIEST PLACE (Spotlight Award), plus special recognition to the PARADISE LOST trilogy (Hell Yeah Prize) and TITICUT FOLLIES (Legacy Award), among others.
Note: NYC audiences have a chance to see Frederick Wiseman’s TITICUT FOLLIES in a theatre next week as Stranger than Fiction screens the film on Tuesday, January 17 as a pre-Winter season special at the IFC Center, complete with a post-screening Q&A with the legendary Wiseman himself.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE
Canada brings us the next film in the World Cinema Documentary Competition: INDIE GAME: THE MOVIE, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky’s look at the creative process and personal sacrifice behind independent video game design.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE IMPOSTER
Beginning the second half of this spotlight on the World Cinema Documentary Competition: THE IMPOSTER, British director Bart Layton’s riveting and almost unbelievable story of identity, opportunity, and exploitation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2012 Sundance Docs in Focus: GYPSY DAVY
This film-by-film look at the World Cinema Documentary competition reaches the halfway point with: GYPSY DAVY, from Israel/USA/Spain, Rachel Leah Jones’ search for understanding her absent father.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
