Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, February 12:
ANTONIO LOPEZ 1970: SEX FASHION & DISCO
Director:
James Crump
Premiere:
London 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, IDFA, Guadalajara
About:
A portrait of an unheralded figure in the 1970s fashion scene.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, February 12:
THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET
Director:
Jeremy Workman
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Denver, IFF Boston, Nashville, RiverRun, Newport Beach, deadCENTER, Heartland, Bergen, Woodstock, Hot Springs Doc
About:
A man explores NYC by walking every single one of its streets.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s American Experience today, Monday, February 11:
SEALAB
Director:
Stephen Ives
Premiere:
American Experience (February 2019)
About:
The story of the pioneering US Navy project which expanded the limits of deep sea diving.
Even as America’s astronauts were inspiring the country with their brave exploration of the final frontier, another group of pioneers were poised to challenge another great unknown – the unforgiving and dangerous deeps of the ocean. As revealed in Stephen Ives’ informative film, these aquanauts were part of Sealab, an experimental project conceived by Dr George Bond, a rural Appalachian doctor on a mission to expand humans’ ability to explore the ocean by expanding our ability to endure the pressures of the ocean floor and to successfully escape its dangers. Under Bond’s leadership, the program successfully broke deep sea diving records and trained the next generation of undersea explorers, though a tragic accident unfortunately led to its premature conclusion. While following in the standard American Experience mode, the doc impresses with its archival footage as it reveals the largely forgotten story of Sealab.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to A&E tonight, Monday, February 11:
STUDIO 54
Director:
Matt Tyrnauer
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Tribeca, Full Frame, CPH:DOX, Reykjavik, Provincetown, Santa Barbara, Hot Springs Doc, Savannah, Vancouver, Sidewalk, Outfest, Frameline
About:
A look back at the meteoric rise and crushing fall of the legendary NYC nightclub.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s AfroPoP tonight, Monday, February 11:
WHILE I BREATHE, I HOPE
Director:
Emily Harrold
Premiere:
New Orleans 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Springs Doc, Cucalorus, Toronto Black, Oxford,
About:
A portrait of a young African-American politician in the South.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
When he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2005, Bakari Sellers became the youngest African-American elected official in US history. In this candid profile, the charismatic Democrat sets his sights on becoming the state’s lieutenant governor, a role not held by an African American since 1876. Emily Harrold offers an eye-opening look at the legacy of racism in American politics as she follows Sellers through his campaign and beyond, including the tragic shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME church.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s DCTV screening series tonight, Monday, February 11:
FOR THE BIRDS
Director:
Richard Miron
Premiere:
Sheffield 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, New Orleans, Hamptons, Thessaloniki Doc, AFI Docs, DocPoint, Antenna Doc, Cork, Austin, Planet in Focus, Woodstock
About:
An obsessive bird lover struggles to properly care for her flock.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Birds hold a special place in Kathy’s heart. In the upstate New York home she shares with her husband, Gary, she has accumulated more than 200 pet chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys over the past decade. This unusual behavior draws the attention of local activists and animal welfare officers. As a legal custody battle ensues over her birds, Kathy is forced to defend herself, and the situation puts a strain on her relationship with Gary. Richard Miron crafts a sensitive, nuanced, and ultimately hopeful portrait of a woman reckoning with unwanted change.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 11:
HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
Director:
RaMell Ross
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, True/False, New Directors/New Films, Full Frame, Sheffield, Ambulante, Champs-Élysées, Maryland, DOK.fest Munich, Martha’s Vineyard African American, San Francisco, Montclair
Notable Recognition:
The documentary has been nominated for the Academy Awards.
About:
An impressionistic portrait of two young African American men in the American South.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images
Director:
Hannah Berryman
Premiere:
BBC (September 2018)
About:
A two-part docuseries exploring the rebellious life of Queen Elizabeth’s younger sister, Princess Margaret.
Popularized for a modern-day audience by the series THE CROWN, Margaret Rose Windsor was a boundary-pushing public figure at a time of great change in Britain. Hannah Berryman’s two-part biography draws from an extensive archive as well as the reflections of close friends and associates, plus appealing animation, to offer an entertaining and illuminating sense of the ever-unpredictable iconoclast who transformed the public’s idea of what a royal should or shouldn’t do. Taking a strictly chronological approach, the first part briefly sketches out Elizabeth’s path to the throne, and the resultant impact on her sister Margaret, who dutifully fulfills royal obligations but eventually attracts media attention for her affair with the older, married Peter Townsend, and later due to her romance with the womanizing commoner Antony Armstrong-Jones. The second part follows the troubled path of that marriage, her sensational trip to America, divorce, and further scandals, as Margaret rides the wave of societal changes that bring more and more scrutiny to the monarchy.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, February 8:
ONE MILLION AMERICAN DREAMS
Director:
Brendan Byrne
Premiere:
Galway 2018
Select Festivals:
Cork
About:
A revealing look at a NYC island that’s the final resting place for the poor and forgotten.
Restricted from public access, the 101 acres of Hart Island serve as a potter’s field, a cemetery for the unclaimed dead, buried each week by Rikers Island inmates. While not a secret, the location is little known to the ordinary residents of NYC – unless unfortunate circumstances arise with family members, as revealed in the heartbreaking stories of four of the forgotten souls who were consigned to Hart Island as their final resting place. Not only representative of the more than a million bodies lain to rest there, these profiles also expose problematic practices by the city and the medical examiner’s office – failure to notify surviving family members, or, in an extreme case, the loss of an infant’s body. Though somewhat diffuse, and hampered by a plodding score, Brendan Byrne’s project is otherwise well-produced and a respectful meditation on the ill treatment of those on the margins, in death as in life.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
photo by Jim Judkis
Director:
Morgan Neville
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, SXSW, True/False, San Francisco, Montclair, Seattle, Cleveland, Minneapolis St Paul, Wisconsin, Boulder, Miami
Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
A moving exploration of the enduring impact of children’s television show host Fred Rogers on generations of viewers through his pioneering program, MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
what (not) to doc 