Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 14:
THE DAWN WALL

Directors:
Josh Lowell and Peter Mortimer

Premiere:
IDFA 2017

Select Festivals:
SXSW, Banff Mountain, Mountainfilm, Melbourne, Greenwich

About:
Two free climbers attempt to scale a seemingly unscalable rock face.

Named for the section of Yosemite’s El Capitan sheer rock face that captures the first light of the day, Lowell and Mortimer’s appealing film chronicles the 2015 effort of climbing partners Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson to ascend the granite monolith. The pair are free climbers, only using ropes as supports in case they slip. El Capitan has long been declared an impossible goal for free climbers, but Caldwell – whose background contains a few surprises – has been wanting to conquer it for a decade. The well-shot film is its most engaging and even thrilling as it shadows the two men for the nineteen days of their attempt, witnessing the punishing lengths they take to complete sections of the course, and celebrating their dedication and teamwork. The filmmakers struggle with pacing, however, interrupting the flow of their climb with sometime superfluous interviews apparently meant to inject more human interest long after it’s really needed, as well as with structure. Given the worldwide media attention the pair received, it’s a strange decision to have the entire narrative hinge on the foregone conclusion of their climb, only to abruptly end with very little reflection from the men afterward.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 14:
AMERICAN CHAOS

Director:
James D Stern

Premiere:
Montclair 2018

Select Festivals:
Zurich, Martha’s Vineyard

About:
Another look back at the 2016 US Presidential election.

The unlikely ascent of Donald Trump to the top of the Republican Party ticket motivates director James D Stern – a lifelong Democrat – to try to understand the businessman’s appeal to his supporters. Stern – who appears on camera in Michael Moore mode, but unassuming where that veteran director is instead confrontational – sets out across the country expressly just to listen, rather than to debate. The results, this long after the events of 11/08/16, are not at all surprising – Trump supporters range from individuals with legitimate viewpoints, acknowledging some of their candidate’s negative aspects, but willing to let them slide, to those with a pathological hatred of Hillary Clinton and a persecution complex. All along, Stern, only rarely so incensed to very delicately challenge some outright lies being spouted, lets them have the stage, subjecting the film’s viewers to his exasperation after the fact. His is a well-intentioned project, but it doesn’t reveal anything really new, and it’s hard to imagine who will want to revisit this terrain yet again.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, September 14:
LETTER FROM MASANJIA

Director:
Leon Lee

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2018

Select Festivals:
NYC Asian American, DOXA, Bergen, Calgary, Lunenberg, Newburyport, Chagrin Doc, United Nations Association

About:
A Chinese dissident prisoner makes a desperate attempt to reveal his plight to the outside world.

While unpacking Halloween decorations, a woman in Oregon discovered letters from an anonymous Chinese author recounting human rights violations at the forced labor camp which produced the goods. When human rights groups proved unresponsive, she contacted the media, and the story went viral. Lee’s film investigates further, discovering the identity of the letter writer, a Falun Gong practitioner, Sun Yi, to tell his story of persecution, and to expose efforts to reform the labor camp system. While Lee wisely makes use of Yi’s cartooning skills to bring a critical, creative visual element to the film, as a whole the proceedings feel overlong and often sentimental, hampered further by a plodding score, undercutting the essential and worthwhile aspects Yi’s ultimately tragic story.