Previously available on iTunes and other VOD platforms, but new to Amazon Video this week:
TOWER
Director:
Keith Maitland
Premiere:
SXSW 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Seattle, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Melbourne, Fantasia, the Hamptons, BFI London, Sitges, Mill Valley
Notable Recognition:
The doc has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
An animated re-telling of a sniper’s attack on school campus in 1966.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
TRUMPED: INSIDE THE GREATEST POLITICAL UPSET OF ALL TIME
A behind-the-scenes look at Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS
Barbara Kopple provides viewers with a behind-the-scenes look at the YouTube celebrity’s life-changing transition.
Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
New to DVD and VOD this week:
AN ACT OF LOVE
Director:
Scott Sheppard
Premiere:
Mill Valley 2015
Select Festivals:
Denver, Florida, St Louis, Sedona, Newport Beach, Bentonville, deadCENTER, LGBT fests in Calgary, Mumbai, Hartford, Kansas City, Memphis, Palm Springs, Atlanta, extensive church screening tour
About:
A Methodist minister, defrocked after officiating his son’s same-sex marriage, becomes an inadvertent LGBT rights activist.
After his son Tim came out, Reverend Frank Schaefer was personally forced to confront an issue that splits his denomination to this day. Although the United Methodist Church has rejected LGBT ministers and punished heterosexual ones who have officiated same-sex marriages, Schaefer agreed to oversee his son’s wedding. Eventually, an aggrieved parishioner reported him, and, after Schaefer refused to refrain from future officiations, he was defrocked. In his earnest, straightforward profile, Sheppard recounts Schaefer’s story and the efforts he made to be reinstated while speaking out for LGBT inclusivity in the church. While overscored to a detrimental degree, and offering little new in the already well-covered subgenres of same-sex marriage docs and religion/LGBT docs, Schaefer does emerge as an engaging figure whose message could potentially reach the unconverted.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
TELL THEM WE ARE RISING: THE STORY OF BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Stanley Nelson explores the pivotal role played by historically Black institutions of higher learning in American society.
Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 13:
RESET
Directors:
Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai
Premiere:
French TV 2015
Select Festivals:
Tribeca, Sydney, Jerusalem, Melbourne, IDFA, Seattle, Vancouver
About:
A new director aims to shake up the Paris Opera Ballet.
Acclaimed choreographer, New York City Ballet principal, and BLACK SWAN choreographer/performer Benjamin Millepied took on the prestigious post of dance director for the Paris Opera Ballet in late 2014. Attaining privileged access, Demaizière and Teurlai follow the charismatic, forward-thinking newcomer as he prepares for his first show while trying to reinvigorate the institution by diversifying casting and updating staging technologies. As the film counts down to the opening night, Millepied is seen developing movements and overseeing his dancers, while the camera also spotlights the physical spaces of the Ballet itself. Given its lack of any real narrative drama, the film, while somewhat overlong, works best as an institutional portrait, one that is beautifully lensed and well edited – with the exception of intermittent rapid-fire montage sequences which prove more distracting than instructive.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON
Rory Kennedy profiles the iconoclastic athlete who revolutionized big wave surfing.
Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
The 10th anniversary Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing achievements in non-fiction film from 2016, were celebrated at the Museum of the Moving Image at a ceremony last evening. Earlier this week, the organization announced its Legacy Award winner, Rob Epstein’s THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK; as well as Michal Marczak’s hybrid ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS as the winner of the Heterodox Award, which annually goes to a fiction film that incorporates nonfiction strategies.
Below is the full list of winners announced at last night’s ceremony, which was hosted for the second year in a row by acclaimed documentarian and part-time comedian Steve James. I was happy to once again serve on the Nominations Committee. Congratulations to all the winners, nominees, and the Cinema Eye organizers!
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
CAMERAPERSON
Audience Choice Prize
GLEASON
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Ezra Edelman for OJ: MADE IN AMERICA
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Nels Bangerter for CAMERAPERSON
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow for OJ: MADE IN AMERICA
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Kirsten Johnson for CAMERAPERSON
Outstanding Acheivement in Nonfiction Films Made for Television
MAKING A MURDERER
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
HOOLIGAN SPARROW
Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score
David Byrne, LeeAnn Rossi, and Aaron Rosenblum for CONTEMPORARY COLOR
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Craig Staggs and Keith Maitland for TOWER
Spotlight Award
LES SAUTEURS (THOSE WHO JUMP)
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
LA LAGUNA
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
New to DVD/VOD this week:
YARN
Director:
Una Lorenzen
Co-Directors:
Heather Millard and Thordur Jonsson
Premiere:
Göteborg 2016
Select Festivals:
SXSW, Newport Beach, Iceland’s Skjaldborg Doc fest
About:
Survey of artists working in yarn.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
RANCHER, FARMER, FISHERMAN
Directors Susan Froemke and John Hoffman and co-director Beth Aala profile unlikely conservation leaders.
Festival Section:
Documentary Premieres
Special Program:
The New Climate
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
what (not) to doc 