Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 16:
AUGIE

Director:
James Keach

Premiere:
Nashville 2017

Select Festivals:
Austin, Greenwich, Boston, Hot Springs, Newport Beach, Heartland

About:
A portrait of life with ALS for fitness mogul Augie Nieto and his wife.

Entrepreneur Augie Nieto found success in the fitness industry with the Lifecycle. At the age of 47, in 25, he was diagnosed with ALS. In response, Nieto, together with his supportive wife, Lynne, set up Augie’s Quest, an organization devoted to raising funds for research into the disease. Keach profiles the devoted couple as they contend with the challenges of ALS and of their mission to finds its cure. While treading on familiar terrain as other films addressing life with a debilitating and likely terminal diagnosis, and tending to over-rely on disconnected, indulgent anecdotes about Augie, the uplifting film benefits from Lynne’s centrality and candor.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 16:
MAINELAND

Director:
Miao Wang

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Camden, Vancouver, Maryland, IFF Boston, Durban, Hawaii, San Diego Asian American, Seattle Asian American

About:
An observational portrait of affluent Chinese teenagers in a US boarding school.

Wang’s project focuses on Stella and Harry, who leave their native China to enroll in the Fall 2012 semester at Fryeburg Academy in rural Maine, a boarding school that has found a new market for students in Asia seeking an escape from the rigors of China’s national education system and a leg up in the global marketplace through direct experience with American culture. Following their experiences over three years, Wang subtly explores culture clash and language differences, and how Stella and Harry do – and don’t – immerse themselves in their new surroundings. It’s a quiet film – there’s little evidence of the emotional impact of this major life change on the Chinese students, at least on the surface – but it offers an intimate look at two strangers in a strange land.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, March 13:
ART OF THE GAME: UKIYO-E HEROES

Director:
Toru Tokikawa

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2017

Select Festivals:
St Louis, Comic-Con

About:
A look at an unusual artistic collaboration melding ancient Japanese craft and pop culture.

Tokikawa’s film focuses on the partnership between Jed Henry, an American illustrator, and David Bull, a Westerner in Japan who has spent decades becoming a master at ukiyo-e, an ancient Japanese craft of woodblock printing. After encountering ukiyo-e, Henry seeks out Bull, proposing a partnership: making a series of prints that integrate characters from old video games into classical ukiyo-e motifs. Though initially hesitant, Bull agrees, and they promote their enterprise via a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign. The film recounts this background and then proceeds to spend an interminable amount of time painstakingly detailing the creation of a new print, from Henry’s idea and initial composition to Bull’s translation into the woodblock process and ultimate execution, with cutaways to other Japanese craftsman who function as suppliers of the master’s brushes, paper, and paint. While some of this process is not uninteresting, it does not sustain interest for a general audience. There’s also something odd about this ancient Japanese craft being basically unquestioningly represented by two Westerners. Regardless, the subject matter’s insularity and excessive detail makes this of strictly niche appeal.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed series tomorrow, Tuesday, March 13:
100 YEARS: ONE WOMAN’S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

Director:
Melinda Janko

Premiere:
LA theatrical release (September 2016)

Select Festivals:
Athena, Big Sky Doc, Washington DC Environmental, Red Nation, One Earth, American Indian, LA Femme

About:
An unlikely champion for the Blackfeet tribe stands up against the US government to demand justice after more than a century of exploitation.

In 1887, at the end of the Indian Wars, the US government broke up several Indian reservations into individual allotments parceled out to 300,000 Native Americans, but retained control over the land’s management, holding mineral and gas rights in trust, and promising regular accounting. In practice, the government allowed these rights to be exploited without providing proper compensation, resulting in generations of Native Americans remaining in poverty. After noticing discrepancies in these official accounting practices, Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet accountant, began to investigate. Despite being given the runaround, Cobell didn’t back down, eventually joining forces with other tribes to file the largest class action ever filed against the US government in 1996 – one that drags on for nearly fifteen years. Janko follows Cobell as she works tirelessly to keep the struggle alive, through three presidential administrations, stalling tactics, and broken promises, only to finally receive some small measure of justice. While Cobell is very worthwhile and appealing subject, the film unfortunately tends to feel dry and retrospective rather than dynamic and in the moment. Still, it offers a welcome portrait of persistence and serves to introduce viewers to a largely unheralded heroine.