Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 13:
PATH OF BLOOD

Director:
Jonathan Hacker

Premiere:
UK theatres (July 2018)

About:
An inside look at al Qaeda terrorists and their campaign against Saudi Arabia in the early 2000s.

A companion to the director’s book of the same name and produced by ZERO DARK THIRTY’s Mark Boal, Hacker’s film is composed entirely of jihadist recordings and Saudi security services footage, chronicling several years of terrorist cell activity directed against perceived enemies of Islam within Saudi Arabia. Opening with seemingly familiar, home movie footage of a jihadist announcing his latest plot, it’s revealed instead to be several outtakes that demonstrate the youth, immaturity, and lack of education of the terrorists, even as they record a message before a suicide bomb attack. From there, this unusual project, disturbing both for showing the brutality of al Qaeda’s actions and for somehow humanizing the people behind their horrific attacks, catalogues a range of jihadist activities within Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis’ response to curb the threat. It’s a chillingly effective way to convey the terrorists’ perspective, not to sympathize with them, but to gain insight into the misguided motivations that have led them to turn to violence not only against the expected non-Muslim targets, but against those Saudi Muslims they view as aiding the US. At the same time, the film sits on uneasy ground, strangely avoiding explicit reference to 9/11 and championing Saudi forces without acknowledging or contextualizing that nation’s role in propagating extremist ideologies that have fed into jihad across the Middle East.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 13:
MILFORD GRAVES FULL MANTIS

Director:
Jake Meginsky

Co-Director:
Neil Young

Premiere:
Rotterdam 2018

Select Festivals:
SXSW, CPH:DOX, Sheffield, Art of the Real, Sarasota, Indielisboa, Maryland

About:
An eclectic portrait of the avant-garde jazz percussionist.

Faced with the eccentricities of their singular subject, director Meginsky and co-director Young take a decidedly non-conventional approach to this profile. Those unfamiliar with Graves’ biography or musical accomplishments will only glean very basic background information here through archival footage of past performances. Instead, the uninitiated is more likely to learn about the titular subject’s unusual world view, interest in martial arts and gardens, theories about physiology and their relationship to tonal scales, and the like. Less a biography and more a master class in whatever crosses Graves’ mind at the moment – sometimes intriguing, but often just shy of nonsensical – this free-ranging film will likely strain the patience and goodwill of most viewers, though the musician’s fans will likely find much more to appreciate.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 10:
BRONX GOTHIC

Director:
Andrew Rossi

Premiere:
Full Frame 2017

Select Festivals:
Provincetown, Maryland, Black Harvest, Milwaukee, Spokane

About:
An in-depth exploration of a performer and her acclaimed one-woman show.

Okwui Okpokwasili’s one-woman show, also titled “Bronx Gothic,” revolves around an apparently autobiographical series of written exchanges between a young Okpokwasili and a more experienced friend. The writer/artist developed the performance as a way to explore the experiences of growing up as a black female, and, on a larger scale, to combat society’s efforts to keep females ignorant about or ashamed of their own bodies. As demonstrated in Rossi’s portrait, the piece is intentionally, unabashedly confrontational, meant to force the audience to encounter Okpokwasili on her own terms, whether that’s in uncomfortably watching her dance in a frenzy in the extended opening, listening to her read a graphic exchange about teenage girls’ burgeoning sexuality, or enduring a litany of race- and body-shaming obscenities to which those two characters are subjected. Following her over the three months during which the piece was toured around the country, Rossi weaves together clips from the show with revealing talkbacks between the artist and audience members; more guarded moments with her young daughter and husband, the play’s director; and, most refreshingly, interviews with Okpokwasili’s more grounded, less heady Nigerian parents, among others. As with pretty much any one-person show, Okpokwasili’s is to some degree self-indulgent, and the film could have been more judicious about tempering the somewhat repetitive exegesis of the piece with more biographical elements that could have served as a counterpoint to the extremes of the content of the performance. Still, the revelatory and raw power in Okpokwasili’s work comes through clearly.