Coming to DVD Tuesday, January 25 and to OVID.tv Friday, January 28:
GORBACHEV. HEAVEN
Director:
Vitaly Mansky
World Premiere:
IDFA 2020
Select Festivals:
Visions du Réel, Docaviv, Dokufest, Tallinn Black Nights, Sofia, Hong Kong, BelDocs, Docs Against Gravity
About:
Gorbachev, the architect of glasnost and perestroika, but condemned by his own people, lives out the last days of his life in an empty house in the suburbs near Moscow.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to MUBI Tuesday, January 25:
THERE WILL BE NO MORE NIGHT
Director:
Eléonore Weber
World Premiere:
Indielisboa 2020
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Camden, Cinema du Reel, Jihlava, DOXA
About:
Footage from the frontlines of the French and American armies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, are explored with pilot Pierre V as he examines – and admits – his emotions. This cinematic experiment unveils the darker secrets of that which can be seen through the unique lens of the military viewfinder.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD via The Criterion Collection Tuesday, January 25:
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
Director:
Kirsten Johnson
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, True/False, CPH:DOX, Doc10
About:
The filmmaker approaches her father’s mortality with inventiveness and dark humor.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD Tuesday, January 25:
BECOMING HELEN KELLER
Director:
Michael Pressman
World Premiere:
American Masters PBS broadcast (October 2021)
About:
An exploration of the complex life and legacy of the author, advocate, and human rights pioneer, Helen Keller, who used her celebrity and wit to champion rights for women, people with disabilities, and people living in poverty.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD Tuesday, January 25:
WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR
Director:
Kier-La Janisse
World Premiere:
SXSW 2021
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, Fantasia, Melbourne, Fantastic Fest, Nashville, Vancouver, Sitges
About:
An expansive history of folk horror, from the 1960s to today.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Instant Life
Destitute without electricity and running water, Yolanda Signorelli Von Braunhut has lost control of her late husband Harold’s iconic Amazing Live Sea Monkeys novelty. Yet she alone knows their secret formula, and from her crumbling estate on the Potomac, Yolanda wages legal and existential battles to fully win them back.
Directors/Producers:
Mark Becker, Aaron Schock
Festival Section:
Indie Episodic
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Three Minutes – A Lengthening
Three minutes of footage are the only moving images known of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk in Poland before the Holocaust. An examination of that film — in color, random, full of life — reveals historical and personal dimensions.
Director:
Bianca Stigter
Producer:
Floor Onrust
Festival Section:
Spotlight
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Meet Me In The Bathroom
An immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s. Set against the backdrop of 9/11, the film tells the story of how a new generation kickstarted a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world. Inspired by the book by Lizzy Goodman.
Director:
Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
Producers:
Vivienne Perry, Sam Bridger, Marisa Clifford, Thomas Benski, Danny Gabai, Suroosh Alvi
Festival Section:
Midnight
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s POV on Monday, January 24:
NOT GOING QUIETLY
Director:
Nicholas Bruckman
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
SXSW, Oxford, Cleveland, Annapolis, Provincetown, San Francisco Jewish
About:
When a young father chances to meet a powerful senator on an airplane, their exchange goes viral, sparking one of the most unlikely political movements in a generation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to MUBI this Saturday, January 22:
WHIRLYBIRD
Director:
Matt Yoka
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, Full Frame, Calgary, Rocky Mountain Women’s, Sun Valley
About:
The story of a marriage’s fraying against the backdrop of cutthroat news reporting in 1990s Los Angeles.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
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