Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, July 11: PERVERT PARK
Frida Barkfors and Lasse Barkfors’ look at a community of sex offenders had its premiere at CPH:DOX in 2014. Screenings followed at Sundance, BAMcinemaFest, Hot Docs, Dokufest, New Zealand, Sarasota, San Francisco Doc Fest, and Minneapolis, among other fests.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tonight, Monday, July 11, to theatres this Wednesday, July 13, and to VOD exclusively through Netflix this Friday, July 15: TONY ROBBINS: I AM NOT YOUR GURU
Joe Berlinger’s immersive look at the motivational speaker’s popular seminar debuted at SXSW earlier this year. The film has also screened at Hot Docs, Sheffield, Sarasota, Montclair, and Nashville.
Tony Robbins has made a career of offering pop psychology for a price to an audience hungry for personal transformation, whether in the realms of finance, relationships, or health. Berlinger, who has attended past seminars, invites viewers to attend the favorite of Robbins’ many speaking events – the intensive six-day “Date With Destiny.” When viewed within the context of a concert film, rather than a critical exploration (which this most certainly is not), Berlinger’s project offers a “you are there” experience, allowing the audience to witness the pyrotechnics both literal and metaphorical that take place when the toothy-grinned, gruff-voiced, and oddly charismatic host confronts attendees about issues that are holding them back from being fulfilled. The film captures several interventions, marked at the same time by both their clear emotional intensity and their too-surface treatment, as Robbins quickly cuts through any deep analysis to zero in, for good or ill, what he surmises to be at the root of the seminar attendee’s reason for speaking up – a young woman asking about diet concerns is cajoled into a teary admission of estrangement from her father; another woman is pressured into breaking up with her overly-nice boyfriend on the phone in the middle of the seminar audience (end cards reveal they get back together). While it’s clear that the self-selecting environment – audience members pay $5000 for the seminar – draws individuals predisposed to seek and accept all manners of advice, a more detached viewer is not likely to become convinced here. Extending the concert film comparison here, existing fans will find much to be enthusiastic about, while those who never cared for this kind of music won’t be rushing out to buy the next album.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 8: AT THE FORK
John Papola’s exploration of large-scale farming and food choices makes its debut theatrically via Tugg this month.
Perhaps hoping to distinguish his film from numerous others focused on similar concerns, Papola, a meat-eater married to Lisa, a vegetarian, uses their story as a starting point to look into the conundrums faced by both farmers and consumers seeking quality yet inexpensive food while still treating animals humanely. Papola and his wife pop up throughout the film, but this personal aspect to the story is not particularly developed nor does it ultimately have a satisfying narrative pay-off, making it feel like an ultimately unnecessary, somewhat half-formed, storytelling crutch. Leaving this aside, what remains is a sometimes effective survey of several farms using a variety of methods to raise chickens, cows, and pigs for the market, with forthright farmers noting the dilemmas they must face to balance productivity with animal welfare. Working in concert with these producers, Papola is granted notable access to their farms, resulting in a project that eschews the kind of undercover surveillance that has uncovered disturbing abuses within the industrial farming system in past nonfiction on the subject. While the filmmaker doesn’t stop eating meat, he does provide a call to action in the film’s credits to suggest helpful steps that consumers can take towards a better, more humane way of approaching food choices, including options that can remain palatable to other omnivores who are also unlikely to radically change their diets.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Friday, July 8: HARLEM STREET SINGER
Trevor Laurence and Simeon Hutner’s look back at an unheralded musician had its world premiere at DOC NYC in 2013. Screenings followed at St Louis, Leeds, Revelation, and Tallgrass, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 8: INDIAN POINT
Ivy Meeropol’s consideration of nuclear power plant safety bowed at Tribeca last year. The doc went on to screen at Hot Docs, DC Environmental, Traverse City, Rio, Hamptons, St Louis, Big Sky, Thessaloniki Doc, Salem, and Cleveland.
Long the subject of controversy, New York state’s Indian Point nuclear power plant has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Meeropol presents an extended look at the plant – located in Buchanan, NY, just 35 miles from densely populated New York City – and arguments for and against its continued existence. The film offers a strong mix of subjects, including environmental journalist Roger Witherspoon and his wife, Marilyn Elie, an activist; ousted US Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Gregory Jaczko, and Brian Vangor, a 35-year veteran employee of the plant. Meeropol’s film is strongest when it’s focused on the Buchanan plant and those subjects who are most closely tied to specific questions of its safety. With the shadow of Fukushima looming over the project, however, the director seems compelled to spend an inordinate amount of time referencing that disaster without adequately delineating how similar or dissimilar Indian Point is from the Japanese plant, ultimately coming off as alarmist in contrast to a more thoughtful, evenhanded approach earlier in the film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Outfest, the Los Angeles LGBT film fest, opens its 34th edition tonight, Thursday, July 7. Over 60 features will screen before the event comes to a close on Sunday, July 17, including 25 documentaries. Among these are its doc centerpiece, KIKI, Sara Jordenö’s intimate look at NYC’s youth ballroom scene, which debuted earlier this year at Sundance.
The festival’s remaining nonfiction includes a mix of highlights from Sundance and other notable events, as well as lesser known or brand new work. Among these are: Dante H Alencastre’s RAISNG ZOEY, a profile of a typical teenage girl, who happens to be trans; Annalise Ophelian’s MAJOR! (pictured), a biography of a notable black trans community leader; C Fitz’s JEWEL’S CATCH ONE, about the long-running African-American owned disco; Tiffany Rhynard’s FORBIDDEN: UNDOCUMENTED AND QUEER IN RURAL AMERICA, on a young man’s dual activism around immigration and LGBT rights; Robyn Symon’s UNCLE GLORIA: ONE HELLUVA RIDE!, about a criminal who found her true gender after crossdressing to escape the law; and Yony Leyser’s hybrid DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE, an exploration of Berlin’s queer art scene.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 8: NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s portrait of the small screen pioneer debuted at Sundance at the beginning of the year. Further fest play has included Nantucket, Hot Docs, Seattle, Montclair, Palm Beach, AFI Docs, True/False, Miami, Sarasota, RiverRun, Biografilm, and the upcoming Traverse City, Woods Hole, San Francisco Jewish, and Martha’s Vineyard fests.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Tomorrow, Thursday, July 7, sees the start of the 33rd Jerusalem Film Festival, which will present more than 100 new feature films before its closing night on Sunday, July 17. With more than 40 documentaries, the festival demonstrates an increase from last year’s nonfiction numbers, though still fewer than it has shown in past editions. The following offers some highlights, focused primarily on new Israeli offerings:
This year’s Documentary Competition once again presents seven titles: Michael Alalu’s PEPE’S LAST BATTLE (pictured), which follows the director’s secular father in his longshot Jerusalem mayoral run; Yariv Mozar’s BEN-GURION, EPILOGUE, constructed from a long-lost interview conducted with the Israeli pioneer late in his life; Michal Aviad’s DIMONA TWIST, about the experiences of women who immigrated to a small Israeli desert community in the 1950s and ’60s; Maya Zinshtein’s FOREVER PURE, which chronicles the racist backlash that followed the inclusion of Muslim players on a Jerusalem soccer team; Kobi Faraj’s PHOTO FARAJ, a personal excavation of the director’s family’s photography business; Yonatan Nir’s MY HERO BROTHER, about a group of Down syndrome youth trekking through the Himalayas with their siblings; and Era Lapid and Haim Lapid’s KINDERGARTEN, which re-examines an accusation of abuse against a schoolteacher.
Among the Israeli work appearing outside of competition are Maayan Schwartz’s MY FRIEND, YANIV, about a man who longs to finally find his independence; and Neta Shoshani and David Ofek’s HOUSE CALL (pictured), an intimate look at home hospice care for the terminally ill. Additional newer, non-Israeli, titles appearing at the festival and focused on Middle Eastern concerns include Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young’s DISTURBING THE PEACE, on former enemies turned peacemakers; and David Schisgall’s THEO WHO LIVED, about an American journalist kidnapped and later freed by Al-Qaeda forces in Syria.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres and to VOD this Friday, July 8: ZERO DAYS
Alex Gibney’s exploration of Internet-based threats to global security made its debut at Berlin earlier this year. The film has gone on to screen at Nantucket, AFI Docs, Sydney, Edinburgh, Biografilm, and the upcoming Jerusalem and New Zealand fests.
I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program, saying:
Oscar®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney turns his attention to the disturbing world of cyber warfare in this urgent, riveting investigation of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus that was designed to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program but inadvertently spread throughout the world. Surprising evidence points to the collusion of two world powers in creating the sophisticated weapon; though both governments officially deny it, they still face recrimination and retaliation. Clearly laying out the origins and trajectory of this powerful new mode of international combat, Gibney convincingly demonstrates its staggering destructive potential.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to iTunes today, Tuesday, July 5: JALANAN
Daniel Ziv’s portrait of Indonesian amateur musicians premiered at Busan in 2013, where it won best documentary. Other fest berths have included DocAviv, Biografilm, Melbourne, Vancouver, Reykjavik, Zanzibar, Margaret Mead, ZagrebDox, and DOK Leipzig. The doc was released on VOD via Vimeo last Fall and now expands to iTunes.
Over the course of five years, Ziv profiles three impoverished young buskers on the buses of Jakarta, subsisting through their music while trying to deal with a rapidly developing city. When not riding the buses, Boni is a tunnel dweller, but a city beautification and infrastructure improvement project threatens his makeshift home. Ho, whose dreadlocks announce his rebel status, is a politically-minded womanizer who runs afoul of the police. Young mother Titi can’t afford to care for her three children, leaving them with relatives as she tries to complete her education. Weaving these three stories together – with the first two offering the more compelling arcs – Ziv offers a street-level look at modern Indonesia through the lenses of class, politics, education, and, of course, music.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 