New to Ovid.tv this week:
PUTIN’S WITNESSES
Director:
Vitaly Mansky
World Premiere:
Karlovy Vary 2018
Select Festivals:
Toronto, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Camden, BFI London, Vancouver, Zurich, Gent, Leeds, Stockholm, Vilnius, Porto/Post/Doc, Docs Against Gravity, Seattle
About:
An examination of the early life of Vladimir Putin and the political machine that brought him to power.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and virtual cinemas tomorrow, Friday, August 6:
WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED
Director:
Mariam Ghani
World Premiere:
Berlin 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Sheffield, San Francisco, Kerala, Nashville, Rhode Island, Heartland, Hot Springs Doc, Philadelphia Asian American, St Louis, WatchDocs, San Diego Asian American, Cinema Verite, Goteborg, DocPoint Talinn, Ann Arbor
About:
A meditation on incomplete films made in Afghanistan during periods of instability between 1978-1992.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
In this artfully constructed project, a set of unfinished films commissioned by the state during communist-era Afghanistan revisits a nation that only existed in celluloid. Recovered reels, accompanied by the reflections of filmmakers, actors, and critics, reveal genre films whose stories of love, war, and history offer great insight into the heartbeat of a film industry that tried to persevere from one coup to another, and under the ever-watchful eye of government censors.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to Ovid.tv this week:
SUNRISE/SUNSET: DALAI LAMA XIV
Director:
Vitaly Mansky
World Premiere:
Moscow 2008
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, Warsaw, Festival Dei Popoli
About:
An intimate day in the life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD this Friday, August 6:
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
New to DVD this week:
FINAL ACCOUNT
Director:
Luke Holland
World Premiere:
Venice 2020
Select Festivals:
IDFA
About:
Interviews with the last living generation of Germans to have participated in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich – not the infamously chilling names in history books, but the everyday citizens who carried out the plans made by the architects of mass-scale genocide.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix today, Wednesday, August 4:
COCAINE COWBOYS: THE KINGS OF MIAMI
Director:
Billy Corben
World Premiere:
Netflix (August 2021)
About:
This docuseries followup to the director’s acclaimed 2006 doc focuses on two of the most prolific cocaine traffickers in the history of South Florida – high school dropout best friends turned drug kingpins Los Muchachos.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix today, Tuesday, August 3:
PRAY AWAY
Director:
Kristine Stolakis
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
Telluride, Hot Docs, Florida, Doc10, AFI Docs
About:
A powerful exposé on gay conversion programs, revealing the damage inflicted by shame and repression through intimate testimonies from current members and former leaders of the pray the gay away movement.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 3:
FIREBOYS
Director:
Jake Hochendoner, Drew Dickler
World Premiere:
VOD release (August 2021)
About:
Incarcerated young men seek a way out of prison by fighting California’a wildfires.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Wednesday, August 4:
HOMEROOM
Director:
Peter Nicks
World Premiere:
Sundance 2021
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, BlackStar, Hot Docs, True/False, Full Frame, San Francisco, IFF Boston, Ashland
About:
An intimate profile of an Oakland high school class in the tumultuous year of COVID and a widespread reckoning of racial injustice.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Festival:
The 74th Locarno Film Festival
Dates:
August 4-14
About:
This influential Swiss event returns after a reimagined edition last year, presenting 20 documentaries among its approximately 80 new features.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
what (not) to doc 