Coming to theatres for a one-night event across the US tonight, Thursday, November 29:
MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY
Directors:
Morgan Capps and Jilann Spitzmiller
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
Tallgrass, BendFilm, Santa Fe, Denver
About:
The story of the inexplicably popular Santa Fe-based artist collective.
Founded in 2008 by a group of young artists decidedly outside of Santa Fe’s very mainstream arts culture, the intentionally randomly-named group emerged to create an alternative space for art and music in the community. As detailed in Capps and Spitzmiller’s project, largely an oral history by members of the collective, they achieved unlikely financial success through their large-scale, immersive installations – so much so that they have been able to expand into other cities. Skirting the line between art and entertainment – if not arguably crossing it completely – the collective seemingly has been able to tap into audience desires for a kind of perpetual adolescence or even childhood, inviting play and exploration, despite – or perhaps because – the work itself is garish, crude, and fairly one-note. The film’s subtitle, in its reference to a familiar trope of comic books and fantasy films, underscores this kind of preoccupation with pop culture/entertainment. On the whole, the film is too celebratory, never really interrogating some key questions behind the group, whose membership seems on the surface to be a fairly homogenous, white one, though interviewees do occasionally offer thoughts on Meow Wolf’s growth and the clash of art vs commerce.
New to DVD this week:
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, November 30:
As the lineup of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival (January 24-February 3) is revealed, I’ll be including pointers here. The Features lineup, which includes the US and World Cinema Documentary and Dramatic Competitions, NEXT, Documentary Premieres, Premieres, Midnight, Spotlight, and Kids, has just been announced today 
New to VOD this week:
Coming to theatres this Friday, November 30:
New to VOD via iTunes this week:
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, November 27:
Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, November 27:
Coming to YouTube today, Tuesday, November 27:
what (not) to doc 