New to VOD via iTunes today, Thursday, February 9:
THE MARCH
Director:
John Akomfrah
Premiere:
PBS (August 2013)
About:
A chronicle of the historic 1963 March on Washington for civil rights.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its broadcast here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to Starz tomorrow, Friday, February 10:
AFTER SPRING
Directors:
Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez
Premiere:
Tribeca 2016
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, New Orleans, Sheffield, Zurich, AFI Docs, Bergen, One World, Greenwich, Hot Springs Doc
About:
An intimate look at life in a Syrian refugee camp.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, February 10:
KEDI
Director:
Ceyda Torun
Premiere:
!f Istanbul 2016
Select Festivals:
Full Frame, Sheffield, Seattle, Melbourne, Vancouver, DocPoint, Goteborg, Salem, Palm Springs
About:
Istanbul through the eyes of its colorful street cats.
Torun, a Turkish filmmaker now based in the US, returns to her hometown of Istanbul to capture the city from seven distinct feline perspectives, including mama cat Bengü, “jealous housewife” Psikopat, foodie Duman, and hustler Sari. Following this coterie – a small sampling of the city’s hundreds of thousands of strays – through the streets as they interact with their chosen human associates, the filmmaker crafts an infectious portrait full of charm and sweetness, at once a love letter to the regal animal and to the city itself. Interviews with admirers, and, most especially, magnificent tracking shots of the cats on the move, reveal the respect these creatures are afforded and the elegant manner in which they fit within the fabric of the ancient city.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS tomorrow, Friday, February 10:
JOHN LEWIS: GET IN THE WAY
Director:
Kathleen Dowdey
Premiere:
DGA, Los Angeles (October 2015)
Select Festivals:
St Louis, Woodstock, Nashville International Black Festival, International Family Film Festival, numerous university and museum screenings
About:
A portrait of the civil rights pioneer and Georgia congressman.
Well-timed for its PBS debut, celebrating Black History Month and coming just weeks after President Trump wrongheadedly insulted the congressman, Dowdey’s hour-long biography is unfortunately too conventional in its construction and too limited in its scope to do its subject justice, but serves, at least, as a brief primer of the man’s many accomplishments for the curious viewer. While in the works on and off for decades, the film condenses more than fifty years of public service into just a few short episodes, including his awakening as an activist after being inspired by a speech by Martin Luther King Jr in 1955, his participation in Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, his participation as a Freedom Rider; his role in organizing the historic 1963 March on Washington as chariman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and his leadership during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights. His later turn to politics, serving in the House of Representatives since 1987, and his leadership role there is only conveyed in brief sequences towards the film’s end, where the congressman is shown supporting President Obama’s health care bill and later organized a Democratic sit-in protesting congressional inaxction on gun control.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD via Amazon Instant Video this week:
AUSTRALIA’S LOST GOLD: THE LEGEND OF LASSETER
Director:
Luke Walker
Premiere:
Melbourne 2012, under its original title LASSETER’S BONES
About:
A quest to find legendary gold in the Australian bush.
Borrowing a page from the Morgan Spurlock/Michael Moore school of documentary filmmaking, Walker appears onscreen, an active participant in this treasure hunt. He joins Bob Lasseter, the 95-year-old son of Harold Lasseter, who claimed that he discovered a rich vein of gold in central Australia in 1897. As the filmmaker, archival materials, and animation reveals, the elder Lasseter managed to secure financing to set out on an expedition to retrieve the gold in 1930, but none was found and the treasure-hunter instead lost his life. A follow up decades later cast further doubt on Lasseter’s claims, but his son, who barely remembers his father, has been searching for the gold for decades to try to vindicate his father. Walker attempts to retrace Lasseter’s steps and research his claims, more often finding little clarity given the passage of time, conflicting stories, and, ultimately, the possibility that, even if there is gold to be found, it very well might be part of sacred Aboriginal lands and thus off limits. While crafting a generally engaging and sometimes fun mystery, albeit a padded one, Walker’s on-camera presence is an unnecessary distraction that further lends an unfortunate television feel to the proceedings.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD via iTunes tomorrow, Friday, February 10:
SPEED SISTERS
Director:
Amber Fares
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Global Visions, Sheffield, Melbourne, EBS Doc, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Calgary, Rio, CPH:DOX, Santa Barbara, If Istanbul, Athena, Glasgow, One World, Atlanta, Cleveland, Palestine fests in Toronto, Atlanta, Boston, DC, Chicago, and Houston
About:
A portrait of an unlikely group of race-car athletes.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Demolishing stereotypes while avoiding wrecking their cars, the Speed Sisters are the Middle East’s first all-female race-car team. Demonstrating high-octane talent, and the marketing savvy to draw attention to their camera-friendly lineup, this diverse, engaging group competes in Palestine’s makeshift motor sports circuit across the West Bank, overcoming Israeli checkpoints and restrictive societal expectations to become role models for a new generation of young Arab women in the process.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD via iTunes this week:
IN THE TURN
Director:
Erica Tremblay
Premiere:
Seattle LGBT 2014
Select Festivals:
Inside Out, Ottawa, St Louis, FilmOut San Diego
About:
A profile of an inclusive queer roller derby team.
Tremblay’s subject is the Vagine Regime, a loose-knit intentional family of roller derby players who reside in different cities and countries. Ostensibly, the film is meant to focus on Crystal, a Canadian pre-teen MTF whose school bars her from playing in sports. After her overworked but supportive mother learns about the Vagine Regime, she shares Crystal’s story with them, inspired by their openness to queer and trans players. In practice, however, Crystal and her mom almost immediately fade into the background while Tremblay proceeds to profile one player after another – ultimately far too many characters to keep track of or invest in, including some too tangential figures. While Crystal eventually comes back into the doc for a happy, hopeful coda, the scrappy film’s overall structure remains problematic.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD via iTunes this week:
GARY NUMAN: ANDROID IN LA LA LAND
Directors:
Steve Read and Rob Alexander
Premiere:
SXSW 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Helsinki, CIMMFest, East End
About:
A portrait of the legendary British synthpop musician as he relocates to Los Angeles to record a new album.
Read and Alexander eschew a career overview for the once chart-topping Numan, best known for the songs “Cars” and “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?,” to more firmly focus on the present day. The film finds the performer in the midst of a difficult transition, moving with his adoring fan-turned-wife Gemma and their three young daughters to Los Angeles, and working on his 2013 comeback album, “Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind).” As referenced in the film’s title, Numan was known for his robotic stage presence – a demeanor eventually attributed to Asperger’s. While the film addresses formative issues like this, as well as his ambivalence towards fame and other personal matters, in far too cursory a manner, Numan himself comes off here as so disarmingly vulnerable that he easily wins over the viewer regardless.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD this Friday, February 10:
LEFT ON PURPOSE
Director:
Justin Schein
Co-Director:
David Mehlman
Premiere:
Woodstock 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Leeds, Big Sky Doc, Boulder, Thessaloniki Doc, Cleveland, Maryland, Florida, Newport Beach, DOXA, SF Jewish
About:
A filmmaker faces off against his determined subject.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
This project began as a portrait of the life of Mayer Vishner, an antiwar Yippie activist. In the midst of filming, the aging radical informs director Justin Schein that, having had his fill of solitude and depression, he intends instead to make the project about his death – and he wants his suicide captured on camera. Forced to break down the barrier between filmmaker and subject, Schein struggles with the ethics of intervening in the literal life-or-death story unfolding before his eyes.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD and VOD this week:
LOOK AT US NOW, MOTHER!
Director:
Gayle Kirschenbaum
Premiere:
Sarasota 2015
Select Festivals:
DocAviv, Woods Hole, Rhode Island, Woodstock, Orlando, Mumbai, and Jewish fests in Toronto, Nashville, Atlanta, Palm Beach, Miami, Baton Rouge
About:
The filmmaker attempts to come to grips with her overly critical mother.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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