Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 2:
COMBAT OBSCURA
Director:
Miles Lagoze
Premiere:
True/False 2018
Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, Jihlava, Dallas, FID Marseille, Virginia, DocuWest, Brisbane
About:
A candid, insider look at the lives of US Marines.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 2:
ZULU SUMMER
Directors:
Joseph Litzinger and Eric Michael Schrader
World Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2019
About:
A Zulu trio from a small South African town travel to Butte MT.
In Butte MT, a pair named Dark and Clark run a small community radio station that has a pretty small audience. Online, however, they can be reached across the world, including 10,000 miles away, in Nongoma, South Africa. There, the operators of a small radio station tune in to learn how to better use radio and, through it, to improve their own struggling community. Prince Siboniso “Sbo” Zulu reaches out to Dark and proposes a crosscultural ecxhange, eventually working out a plan for the Prince and two of his colleagues to spend the summer in Butte. Though some townsfolk are skeptical, the Zulu delegation follows through, visiting Butte and meeting all the nice, curious people. Litzinger and Schrader’s film is well-meaning, with the aim of showing a conflict-free example of crosscultural understanding, but this does not make for a compelling feature. With countless scenes of the Prince and his companions meeting random Butte residents, explaining the purpose of their visit, hugging one another, and having an innocuously pleasant time sightseeing and sharing stories, the project ends up feeling like a quirky short stretched far too thin.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, July 1:
CALL HER GANDA
Director:
PJ Raval
Premiere:
Tribeca 2018
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Doc Edge, Frameline, Outfest, Inside Out, Cínemalayà, LA Asian Pacific, DMZ Docs, Sidewalk, New Orleans
About:
The murder of a transgender woman by a US Marine exposes the legacy of imperialism in the Philippines.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 28:
MAIDEN
Director:
Alex Holmes
World Premiere:
Toronto 2018
Select Festivals:
Sundance, Nantucket, SXSW, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Tribeca, Seattle, Biografilm, DocPoint, Glasgow, Dublin, Sydney
About:
The immersive, against-all-odds story of sailor Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female international crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to OVID today, Friday, June 28:
ALIVE!
Director:
Vincent Boujon
World Premiere:
Lussas 2014
Select Festivals:
Inside Out, BFI Flare, MIX Brasil, LGBT fests in Rio, Hong Kong, Glasgow, Taiwan, Lisboa, Copenhagen, Amsterdam
About:
A group of HIV-positive gay men train to skydive.
In filmmaker Vincent Boujon’s simple but well-shot film, he trains his camera on five gay men with HIV who discusses their status, relationships, and history while participating in skydiving training. Repetitive scenes of class safety training are balanced out with some more cinematic shots of the jumping itself, but it’s the interpersonal interactions that are meant to be the true focus of the film rather than the confronting-one’s-fears backdrop. While the men’s conversations are intimate and candid, and offer viewers insight into their experiences living with HIV, the film as a whole never feels natural. This group of strangers wouldn’t be in this setting absent being subjects in this doc, and this unfortunately lends a forced, manufactured sense to the proceedings.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, June 29:
MIDNIGHT FAMILY
Director:
Luke Lorentzen
World Premiere:
Sundance 2019
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, New Directors/New Films, Sheffield DocFest, CPH:DOX, Hong Kong, Cartagena, Ambulante, Guadalajara, Docville, Full Frame, San Francisco, Freep, Doc10, Sydney, Krakow
About:
A Mexico City family struggles to make a living as ragtag private paramedics, facing cut-throat competition to respond to patients in need of urgent help.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to Union Docs tonight, Thursday, June 27:
FLAG WARS
Directors:
Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras
World Premiere:
SXSW 2003
Select Festivals:
NewFest, Full Frame, Nashville, Oxford
About:
A candid look at gentrification as white gays and lesbians begin to buy up homes in an African American community.
I previously wrote about the doc for NewFest’s program, saying:
This incredibly telling documentary reveals the effects of gentrification on a working class neigborhood in Columbus OH. Filmed over the course of four years in a cinema verite style, the film shows the complicity of upper middle-class white gay men and lesbians in transforming neighborhoods and, effectively if not wholly consciously, pushing African American working class homeowners out of the area. Longtime residents Linda and Baba face legal challenges, directly or indirectly resulting from the work Nina, a lesbian realtor, has done to increase property values. Some of the new gay neighbors, meanwhile, face threats of violence and robbery and financial risk from costly housing renovations. Acknowledging the complexity of the multiple issues involved, Bryant and Poitras present a fair, balanced, and ultimately extraordinarily intimate view of a community divided.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Festival:
The 54th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Dates:
June 28-July 6
About:
Documentaries make up about a third of the new offerings of this A List event in the Czech Republic. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Available for free online now:
THANK YOU FOR COMING
Director:
Sara Lamm
World Premiere:
LA Film Festival 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Woodstock, Carmel
About:
An in-depth look back at the Chinese student protest movement that captivated the world three decades ago.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
More than a decade after learning she was conceived via a sperm donor, filmmaker Sara Lamm is still on the hunt for her biological father. Using online registries and the scant clues provided by her parents, she is able to track down Jennifer, a woman sharing remarkable similarities who might just possibly be her half-sister. Working together, they become genealogical detectives, navigating ancestry databases and DNA tests as they explore the meaning and power of family in this alternately funny and bittersweet personal film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD this week:
KANGAROO
Directors:
Kate McIntyre Clere and Michael McIntyre
Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2017
Select Festivals:
NYC Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Rotterdam
About:
An exposé of the brutal treatment of kangaroos in Australia.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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