Coming to NYC’s JCC Manhattan tomorrow, Tuesday, February 21:
THE SETTLERS
Director:
Shimon Dotan
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
New York, DocAviv, IDFA, Biografilm, Sheffield, SF Jewish, Bergen, Heartland
About:
A wide-reaching exploration of the impact of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Now on VOD via Amazon Video:
THE CREEPING GARDEN
Directors:
Tim Grabham and Jasper Sharp
Premiere:
Fantasia 2014
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Fantastic Fest, Imagine Science, CPH:DOX, Leeds, Cleveland, New Horizons, Revelation, DOXA
About:
An ode to the wonderfully weird slime mold.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction tomorrow, Tuesday, February 21:
TICKLED
Directors:
David Farrier and Dylan Reeve
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, True/False, Cleveland, Sarasota, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Montclair, Seattle, Sydney, Auckland
About:
Journalists embark on a wild investigation into an online fetish subculture.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, February 20:
UNLOCKING THE CAGE
Directors:
Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Full Frame, Sarasota, Minneapolis/St Paul, Montclair, Visions du Réel, DocAviv, New Zealand, Melbourne, deadCENTER
About:
Animal rights activists champion legal rights for chimpanzees.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Now on VOD via iTunes:
ADDICTED TO SHEEP
Director:
Magali Pettier
Premiere:
Sheffield 2015
Select Festivals:
Ashland, Holmfirth, Underwire, Leeds Wool Festival
About:
A portrait of a rural English family’s efforts to breed sheep over the course of a year.
Set in northeast England’s North Pennines, Pettier’s charming film focuses on Tom and Kay Hutchinson, who work as tenant farmers in a community largely devoted to agriculture. For their part, as underscored by the doc’s title, the Hutchinsons are devoted to their ovine charges, and dream of breeding the perfect sheep, out of both economic necessity and pride in their work. Pettier captures the slow pace of their environment as they contend with chores both mundane and heartbreaking – such as the difficult birthing process of a ewe. Also well featured are the Hutchinson children, whose experiences on the farm have given them a matter-of-fact perspective on life and death as well as a respect for the rhythms and quietude of rural life.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Now on VOD via Microsoft:
THE SPECIAL NEED
Director:
Carlo Zoratti
Premiere:
Locarno 2013
Select Festivals:
SXSW, Hamptons, Dallas, DOK Leipzig, ZagrebDox, CPH:DOX, IDFA, Ambulante, Thessaloniki Doc, Planete+ Doc, DOXA
About:
Two friends set out on a road trip to help their developmentally challenged friend lose his virginity.
Enea is a 29-year-old Italian man on the autism spectrum. Despite a healthy curiosity about sex and a boldness that sees him freely approaching women on the street, he’s not yet been able to locate the fashion model woman of his fantasies. Enter friends Alex and Carlo – the latter the film’s director. After failing to find a willing participant, they decide to hit the road on a quest through Europe to find a legal and safe way to allow Enea to meet this rite of passage. Employing some unacknowledged, yet clearly staged scenes, the crowdpleasing film is a low-level hybrid of sorts, but largely maintains a casual, observational style, enabled by the warm rapport between the three principals.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to the WORLD Channel’s Reel South this Sunday, February 19:
PRIVATE VIOLENCE
Director:
Cynthia Hill
Premiere:
Sundance 2014
Select Festivals:
True/False, New Orleans, Full Frame, Dallas, Hot Docs, Heartland, Seattle, Human Rights Watch, DOXA
About:
A courageous look at the consequences of domestic violence.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD via Amazon Instant Video today, Friday, February 17:
ART BASTARD
Director:
Victor Kanefsky
Premiere:
Orlando 2015
Select Festivals:
Newport Beach, Manchester, Santa Fe, Julien Dubuque
About:
A portrait of a frustrated, underappreciated artist who considers himself the Anti-Warhol.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
The Film Society of Lincoln Center presents its annual Film Comment Selects series starting tonight, Friday, February 17. The 17th edition, which runs through Thursday, February 23, presents an eclectic mix of new and retrospective work, including four documentary or hybrid features:
More recent work includes Terrence Malick’s VOYAGE OF TIME (pictured), presented in a shorter, music-focused, ultra-widescreen IMAX version; Wang Bing’s BITTER MONEY, a portrait of migrant Chinese garment workers; and Michał Marczak’s hybrid ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, following Polish twentysomethings in their nocturnal adventures. The series also presents a screening of Louis Malle’s 1985 GOD’S COUNTRY, in which the filmmaker visits a farming community in the midst of economic crisis.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Now on VOD via iTunes:
THE MAN WHOSE MIND EXPLODED
Director:
Toby Amies
Premiere:
Sheffield 2013
Select Festivals:
East End, BFI Flare, Brighton, Cambridge, Cork, Revelation
About:
The filmmaker befriends an eccentric gay man who has lost the ability to retain his memory.
Drako Zarharzar is an affable, rotund gay man with a ridiculous, Daliesque moustache, tattoos, and piercings, who is prone to public nudity and always surprised by the filmmaker showing up to interview him, given his memory issues. He has crammed his apartment with all sorts of pornography, creating a floor-to-ceiling mural of penises, remembers some memories at times, and likes to play with his nipples – he has cut holes in his shirt to give him easy access. While Amies’ film is framed by Drako’s apartment being cleaned out after his death, its focus is the relationship between the filmmaker and his subject over the preceding four years. This includes an awkward meeting with Drako’s sister and the recounting of the accident that eventually cost him his memory – but mostly it’s about their friendship, and the challenges his memory posed to making connections with people. Drako is an intriguing subject, but the film, though at times poignant and generally suprisingly upbeat, fails to make the most of his uniqueness, instead emphasizing the same points over and over again. While this may perhaps be intended as an echo of the repetitive experiences Drako goes through due to his anterograde amnesia, it grows somewhat tiresome before too long.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 