Category Archives: Documentary

Photo courtesy Universal Pictures

Director:
Mat Hodgson

World Premiere:
VOD release (June 2019)

About:
The story of Panamanian boxing champion Roberto Durán.

Durán is known to boxing fans as a multi-class world champion with an exceptionally long career for the sport, competing from 1968 until 2001. Mat Hodgson’s professional, albeit conventional, sports doc recounts the fighter’s rise and fall, played out against the backdrop of Panamanian politics to not always successful effect. From underprivileged beginnings, Durán elevated his economic and social status through boxing, becoming an icon in his country and gaining fame on the international boxing circuit, eventually fighting America’s beloved Sugar Ray Leonard in a contentious fight and later infamous “No más” rematch, reviewed here in depth. In addition to reviewing the boxer’s life and career, Hodgson provides an interesting look at how boxing promotion operates, and how the sport developed in popularity and financially over Durán’s career. The project never quite transcends its genre to explore the deeper issues it seems to want to, but succeeds as a sports doc for devoted fans.

Coming to VOD via HBO digital download tonight, Monday, June 3:
SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND

Directors:
Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Premiere:
Tribeca 2018

Select Festivals:
Traverse City, Chicago, San Francisco Black, New York African Diaspora, Woods Hole, Bahamas, Nashville

About:
An investigation of the controversial death of the titular African-American activist while in police custody.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 31:
XY CHELSEA

Director:
Tim Travers Hawkins

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sydney, Sheffield

About:
A portrait of whistleblower and activist Chelsea Manning.

In 2010, while on leave, Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst, leaked 750,000 classified or sensitive documents to WikiLeaks. As a result, she was court-martialed and convicted under the Espionage Act, and sentenced to 35 years in prison. While in prison, she publicly came out as a trans woman, and attempted to begin her transition, though oppressive prison policies hampered this process. Tim Travers Hawkins’ imperfect profile actually begins at the unexpected end of her imprisonment, when President Obama commuted her sentence to the seven years she had served. Blessed with close access to Manning, her attorney, and others in her intimate circle, the film captures Manning’s initial months of freedom, as she reflects on her past, is able to express her gender identity as she’d like, and becomes an outspoken activist both online and in public events, even running in a US Senate primary race. At the same time, the doc reveals the challenges Manning continues to face, from depression and suicidal ideation to severe missteps in her public persona, characterized here in a damaging episode in which she attempted to serve as a “double agent” at an alt-right rally but was pilloried by all sides. Hawkins has a lot of ground to cover, which makes the project feel a bit choppy at times, and, in light of ongoing developments touched upon at the film’s end – chiefly, his subject’s re-arrest for refusing to testify before a grand jury about Julian Assange – leaves a sense that the film may be only the first chapter of Manning’s continuing story.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 31:
THE RUSSIAN FIVE

Director:
Joshua Riehl

World Premiere:
Freep 2018

Select Festivals:
Traverse City, Seattle, Montreal

About:
An exploration of the impact of several Russian players on an American hockey team in the 1980s-1990s.

In the late 1980s, Detroit’s ice hockey team, the Red Wings, had long seen better days. Nicknamed the “Dead Wings,” they were in need of a radical change. That came with their new owner, Little Caesar’s founder Mike Ilitch, and new general manager, Jimmy Devellano, and their decision to draft five Russian star players, starting with Sergei Federov. Director Joshua Riehl’s film is at its best – and most generally accessible – when it’s delving into the behind-the-scenes intrigue that enabled these Soviet athletes to get to the US from behind the Iron Curtain. After that, however, the stories of culture clash experienced by the new players gives way to a too slavish retrospective appreciation for all of the key games that helped define the Red Wings comeback – an approach that feels very much geared to a hockey fanbase. Still leaving that aside – as well as its irksome score – there is a generally appealing underdog story here with some strong personalities to provide viewers with a hook.