About: Four celebrity chefs reckon with the impact of the pandemic on their restaurants.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC, saying: Like many businesses, the restaurant industry has been hard hit by COVID-19. This timely film, directed and executive produced by Guy Fieri and Frank Matson, intimately chronicles the impact of the pandemic on the restaurants of four chefs familiar to viewers of Food Network: Antonia Lofaso, Marcus Samuelsson, Maneet Chauhan, and Christian Petroni. Unfolding as the COVID-19 outbreak sweeps across the US, the filmmakers follow these chefs as they face the reality of shutting down, laying off staff, and finding alternate ways to save their beloved restaurants and industry.
Coming to Disney+ today, Friday, December 18: ON POINTE
Director: Larissa Bills
World Premiere: DOC NYC 2020
About: A series capturing a season in New York City’s School of American Ballet.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read: Ballet lovers of all ages won’t want to miss this six-part Disney+ docuseries. Filmmaker Larissa Bills captures a season in New York City at the School of American Ballet, following students ages 8 to 18 as they try to realize their dreams of a career in dance. For many, that starts with performing in George Balanchine’s THE NUTCRACKER onstage at Lincoln Center. Filmed before the pandemic, the series is an emotional reminder of New York as a hub of young talent.
About: An institutional history and portrait of a contemporary arts center.
MASS MoCA is a contemporary arts center located in North Adams MA, a small blue collar town that was, since 1860, a one-industry town until the 1980s, when the local factory shut down, resulting in an economic downturn and depression that saw the population dwindle, with few opportunities. Numerous ideas were put forward for economic development using the old factory buildings, but ultimately the unlikely concept of a contemporary arts center was hatched, using the scale of the site to enable the showcasing of land art and other non-normative work that doesn’t easily fit within the confines of a traditional museum. Jennifer Trainer, a longtime part of MASS MoCA’s staff, interweaves the long road to getting state and local government funding for the museum with an overview of its past exhibitions and performance presentations, alongside the present project of mounting an ambitious project by artist Nick Cave. A constant refrain is how much or how little the institution has properly integrated with North Adams – many residents have no interest in or understanding of contemporary art – and the slowness of the economic development that was expected – but neither of these are particularly well-developed. While to some extent aiming for an institutional profile in the Wiseman school, the project instead ends up feeling too promotional and insider, with far too much time devoted to elements that simply don’t merit the attention, and short shrift paid to aspects that are more interesting, such as the challenges of the space.
Coming to virtual cinemas tomorrow, Friday, December 18: NASRIN
Director: Jeff Kaufman
World Premiere: GlobeDocs 2020
Select Festivals: DOC NYC, Denver, Global Health, Human Rights Film Festival Berlin
About: A portrait of human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read: Nasrin Sotoudeh never stood down from a tough battle as a human rights attorney in Iran. Fans of filmmaker Jafar Panahi will remember her appearance in his subversive film TAXI. In Jeff Kaufman’s film, she’s serving a prison sentence of 38 years for representing women who protested the country’s mandatory hijab law. This immersive portrait weaves extensive filming with Sotoudeh along with interviews with Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and journalist Ann Curry. Even while she’s behind bars, Nasrin won’t let her voice be silenced.
About: A nostalgic look at the rise and fall of Blockbuster Video.
Founded in the mid-1980s and quickly expanding to dominate the video rental business through the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Blockbuster Video once boasted of over 9000 retail stores. As signaled by the title of Taylor Morden’s film, the company’s fortunes changed, with the last outlet located in Bend OR, run by the pleasant and unassuming Sandi Harding, a surrogate mom to the parade of local teenagers who have worked for her. Morden attempts to profile Harding and her struggles to keep her store afloat despite competition from Netflix and other VOD services, while also recounting the history of the company and how it fell from grace. Unfortunately, despite its nostalgic appeal, the overall result feels imbalanced and padded, with far too many anecdotes from celebrity interview subjects and the like, suggesting that the project might have worked better as a short film.
About: An in-depth look back at 1970s UK protest movement Rock Against Racism.
In the mid-1970s, the UK saw the rise of the National Front, a fascist political party fueled by xenophobia and racism and embraced by disenfranchised young white people eager for an identity. But overt racism was not just in the wheelhouse of NF’s skinheads, as Conservative MP Enoch Powell had spent years speaking out against immigrants, attracting admirers such as Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. In response, an agitprop theatre performer, Red Saunders, wrote an op-ed for Britain’s rock publications calling for musicians and their fans to take a stand against racism. Rubika Shah’s chronicle of Rock Against Racism’s activism is appropriately scrappy and energetic, borrowing its DIY aesthetic from the group’s zine-focused communications, and serves as a welcome reminder of the collective power of people to organize for positive change.
what (not) to doc 