Coming to the World Channel’s America ReFramed series tomorrow, Tuesday, March 14:
RADICAL GRACE
Director:
Rebecca Parrish
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2015
Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, Chicago, Denver, Athena, Ebertfest, Martha’s Vineyard, Virginia
About:
Three Roman Catholic nuns remain defiant as they follow their conscience to combat injustice.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, March 10:
MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE
Director:
John Dower
Premiere:
BFI London 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sheffield, Docville, Tribeca, Revelation, Reykjavik, Mill Valley, Austin
About:
British journalist Louis Theroux attempts to understand the Church of Scientology.
Theroux had long hoped to gain access to higher-ups in Scientology with the hopes of gaining insight to the controversial religion. Unsurprisingly, the secretive organization declined to participate, so the intrepid journalist instead sought out ex-members. Using their experiences, as well as leaked, official recordings of church galas and interviews as source material, he sets out to film dramatic re-enactments of various church practices and particularly disturbing accusations of brainwashing as a means of understanding the religion from within. What he stages is in large part due to the involvement of Marty Rathbun, perhaps the highest placed former Scientology figure to publicly renounce the religion. Rathbun, of course, also appears in Alex Gibney’s Emmy-winning GOING CLEAR, a more in-depth and straightforward investigation into the church, and one to which this invariably must be compared. Theroux’s film is a more convoluted affair, with the re-enactments, or the edification they’re intended to provide, never really quite gelling. There are moments of intriguing paranoia – a fame-seeking actress interrupting an initial interview, the production being followed by a white car, a hapless Scientologist attempting to film Theroux’s activities only to accuse him of harassment – and intense confrontations with Scientologists using “bull baiting” and “squirrel busting” techniques to try to intimidate (or in their view, defend themselves) Theroux or Rathbun, but ultimately not much that hasn’t been seen before. Perhaps recognizing this – and tacitly acknowledging the challenge of making headway when his subject, the current leadership of the Church of Scientology, refuses to participate – Theroux turns his attention to the prickly Rathbun and the extent of his past involvement in the morally suspect activities he now aims to expose. The friction that results is diverting, but, again, not particularly revelatory.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD via Vimeo on Demand this week:
THE LEGEND OF SWEE’ PEA
Director:
Benjamin May
Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015
Select Festivals:
Milwaukee, Flyway, Portland, deadCENTER, Maryland
About:
The story of a talented basketball player’s unusual road to the NBA.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Lloyd Swee’ Pea Daniels was a legend on the highly competitive playground basketball courts of NYC, and one of the top college basketball recruits of the late 1980s. Before he was able to play a single game at UNLV, a drug bust ended his college career. But this was far from the end of his story. Benjamin May recounts the unexpected twists and turns in the life and career of the flawed but ever-charismatic sports prodigy in this engaging portrait.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS
Director:
Gabrielle Burton
Premiere:
Cleveland 2016
Select Festivals:
Southern Circuit, Buffalo, Newark, LGBT fests in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Bern
About:
Drag performers in Columbus OH explain gender, sex, sexuality, and drag.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, March 10 and to HBO this coming Monday, March 13:
CRIES FROM SYRIA
Director:
Evgeny Afineevsky
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
An overarching account of the impact of Syria’s civil war on its people.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Thursday, March 9:
UNCERTAIN
Directors:
Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands
Premiere:
Tribeca 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Seattle, AFI Docs, Tempo Doc
About:
A Southern Gothic study of three residents of a small Texan town.
Named after the Texas/Louisiana bordertown, population 94, McNicol and Sandilands focus their attention on three distinct stories centered on three men at different ages, all in some way haunted by past or present concerns: 74-year-old Henry, a recently widowed fisherman and tour guide; middle-aged Wayne, a former addict with a prison background, currently on a quest to kill his sworn enemy, a wild boar named Mr Ed; and 21-year-old Zach, a diabetic heavy drinker who recently had his troubled mother committed. Their stories slowly play out against a shared background portending a greater existential threat – an aquatic weed is wreaking havoc with the fragile ecosystem of the community’s lake, potentially destroying the town’s only real source of livelihood. Capturing their setting with evocative lensing and an unhurried pace, the filmmakers deftly craft a humanistic, and surprisingly hopeful, portrait.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE
Director:
Jon Manning
Premiere:
limited theatrical engagements (February 2017)
About:
A survey of the neo-burlesque scene in Portland OR.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New on VOD via Google Play and VUDU this week:
THE SWIRL (EL REMOLINO)
Director:
Laura Herrero Garvín
Premiere:
Ambulante 2016
Select Festivals:
Locarno, Camden, Washington DC Environmental, DocsMX, Oaxaca, Morelia
About:
A trans farmer and her sister navigate life in an oft-flooded Chiapas village.
The small community of El Remolino – literally translated as “the swirl” – annually faces extreme flooding, located as it is along a raging river in Chiapas, Mexico. Trying to maintain their precarious existence here are Esther, a mother who documents her life via camcorder, and Pedro, her openly MTF transgender sister, a farmer. Garvín’s observational slice-of-life portrait is well made, presenting her subjects as fleshed out individuals while also taking on larger social issues that have an ongoing impact on their lives, from climate change to gender and sexuality.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
This Friday, March 10 sees the opening of this year’s edition of SXSW, Austin TX’s popular film/interactive/music event. The film festival component, which runs through Saturday, March 18, offers approx 125 features, including new and retrospective work. Among these are more than 50 documentary features, appearing in the event’s various sections, with highlights noted below: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
New to DVD this week:
NOTFILM
Director:
Ross Lipman
Premiere:
BFI London 2015
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Dublin, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Film Comment Selects series, BAFICI.
About:
The story behind Samuel Beckett’s only film project, FILM.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 