Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, July 3:
THE WAR SHOW

Directors:
Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard

Premiere:
Venice 2016

Select Festivals:
Toronto, IDFA, Bergen, Reykjavik, London, Dubai, Goteborg

About:
A group of friends capture the de-evolution of Syria’s revolution into civil war.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 30:
THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Director:
Errol Morris

Premiere:
Telluride 2016

Select Festivals:
Toronto, New York, Chicago, IDFA, Hong Kong, Provincetown, Moscow, IFF Boston,

About:
A large-scale Polaroid photographer reflects on her work on the eve of her retirement.

Laying aside his Interrotron for the moment, master documentarian Morris goes for a warmer, more personal interaction with his latest subject, visiting Elsa Dorfman in her Cambridge MA photography studio which doubles as a cramped archive. The photographer discovered her medium in the early 1980s when she encountered a 20×24 Polaroid camera, and has been taking large-print portraits ever since. Morris’ film’s title derives from her practice of shooting two portraits with the same client, keeping the rejected one – the “b-side” – for herself. As a result of Polaroid’s bankruptcy and its discontinuation of 20×24 instant film, Dorfman faces impending retirement, prompting a sometimes wistful look back at her career and the strikingly optimistic work she has produced. What emerges is a subtle contemplation of time, mortality, and legacy.

Coming to theatres this Friday, June 30, and to VOD next Tuesday, July 4:
THE REAGAN SHOW

Directors:
Pacho Velez and Sierra Pettengill

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Montclair, Seattle, AFI Docs

About:
In 1918, Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan took on the role of a lifetime: the 40th President of the United States.

I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program, saying:
Trading on his celebrity to curry favor with voters, Ronald Reagan transitioned from Hollywood actor to politician, ultimately attaining the highest office in the land. Composed entirely of 1980s news footage and behind-the-scenes videos produced by his own administration, this insightful, entertaining, and strangely prescient film details how Reagan used public relations savvy to become the first made-for-TV president – one uniquely suited to face off against a charismatic Russian rival.

New to DVD this week:
LAST DAYS OF SOLITARY

Director:
Dan Edge

Premiere:
Salem 2017

About:
An inside look at a high security prison’s reforms to reduce the number of inmates in solitary confinement.

Set in Maine State Prison, this PBS Frontline film explores a forward thinking program instituted by its warden to focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment, responding to the deleterious impact of solitary confinement on mental health, shown from years of study but largely ignored by the prison industry. Edge showcases the prison segregation unit, where prisoners spend 23 hours in their cells and often resort to self-harm to try to exercise some level of control on the corrections officers, smuggling razor blades and cutting themselves to force a cell extraction; or otherwise causing disruption such as flooding their cells by stopping up toilets. Followed over three years, the prison’s new reforms see counseling being substituted for additional persecution, with the goal of bringing prisoners out of solitary and eventually back into the general population. Several prisoners are profiled, including one violent participant in the program who’s subsequent murder of another inmate forces the warden to leave his post. Surprisingly, the next prison commissioner does not abandon the reforms but accelerates them, ultimately finding success, reducing the number of prisoners in solitary to a fraction of what they were, and seeing recidivism stats decline. Edge’s doc is an engaging look at a topic that’s been well covered before, but one that notably has an unusually hopeful message.