Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 5: JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY
Brian Oakes’ chronicle of the life and death of the American journalist had its world premiere at Sundance this year, where it won the US Documentary Audience Award. Other fest screenings include New Zealand, East End, Telluride Mountainfilm, Newport, and True/False.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, July 6: UNDER THE SUN
Vitaly Mansky’s subversive portrait of North Korea debuted at DOK.Leipzig last year. Screenings followed at Nantucket, IDFA, Hot Docs, Tallinn Black Nights, Jihlava, DocPoint, SXSW, DOXA, San Francisco, and Seattle, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program guide, saying:
To gain permission to shoot a documentary in Pyongyang, Russian director Vitaly Mansky works closely with the North Korean government. Functionaries handpick his subjects: 8-year-old Zin-mi, who has just joined a party youth group, and her parents, workers at impressively productive factories. What starts as an authorized portrait of a typical family, however, soon proves to be a carefully orchestrated piece of propaganda. Beyond simply dictating parameters for the supposed documentary shoot, government handlers have written a script to present a utopian version of life inside North Korea. Turning the tables, Mansky instead crafts a wry exposé of Kim Jong-un’s regime.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 5: STAR MEN
Alison Rose’s chronicle of a reunion of astronomers made its debut at Sheffield last year. Screenings followed at CPH:DOX, Cambridge, RIDM, Cork, and Docville, among other events.
Driven by the Cold War’s space race, astronomy was a high priority in 1960s America, and resulted in the recruitment of international experts to US universities like CalTech. Five such British astronomers bonded on a research trip through the deserts of the Southwest, visiting observatories, and now, fifty years later, the four surviving friends decide to recreate that journey. Amiable and intelligent, the four titular star men reminiscence about the past and what inspired their course of study, while also offering a sensitive consideration of aging and mortality, even if the road trip structure seems more of a distraction than an appropriate vehicle through which to really focus on their lifelong passion for the stars. Laying this aside, what truly hampers the project is the unfortunate presence of the filmmaker both within the space of the film, and, most unnecessarily, as its narrator.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 5: MAD TIGER
Jonathan Yi and Michael Haertlein’s candid look at the personalities behind an eclectic music group made its bow at DOC NYC last year. Other fest berths have included CAAMFest, Minneapolis-St Paul, Salem, and Osaka.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 5: A SINNER IN MECCA
Parvez Sharma’s clandestine chronicle of a religious pilgrimage debuted at Hot Docs last year. The doc went on to screen at Sheffield, Outfest, and LGBT fests in Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, Sydney, and Dublin, among others.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Tonight, Friday, July 1 sees the start of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The 51st edition of the Czech Republic’s most notable film event offers audiences approximately 150 new and recent features, including just under 40 works of nonfiction, before it wraps on Saturday, July 9. In contrast to last year’s program, which included standalone competitive and non-competitive documentary strands, this year’s features only the former, with the latter parceled out amongst various other non-competitive sections. Some of the highlights include the following.
Among the dozen titles included in this year’s Documentary Film Competition are: Manuel Abramovich’s SOLAR, in which the director struggles to control his portrait of a New Age author; Leire Apellaniz’s THE LAST SUMMER (pictured), on a traveling film projectionist’s final season; Vitaly Mansky’s CLOSE RELATIONS, the Ukrainian filmmaker’s personal meditation on the complex case of his homeland; Tomáš Bojar and Rozálie Kohoutová’s FC ROMA, about the chilly reception received by an all-Roma Czech soccer team; Alice Diop’s ON CALL, an observational portrait of a French doctor who tends to immigrants for free; and Miroslav Janek’s NORMAL AUTISTIC FILM, an attempt to reframe autism not as a condition but as a different way of seeing the world.
Nonfiction appearing out of competition includes: Helena Třeštíková and Jakub Hejna’s DOOMED BEAUTY (pictured), about a Czech actress whose career suffered after an affair with Nazi Joseph Goebbels; and Pavel Štingl’s COURAGE, which captures a celebrated Czech sculptor as he works on his latest high-profile commission; Christophe Bisson’s SFUMATO, a portrait of French artist Bernard Legay; and the hybrids BROTHERHOOD, Pepe Diokno’s inside look at the secret social mores that govern the Philippines; and HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!, Žiga Virc’s speculative exposé of Yugoslavia’s secret 1960s space program.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 1: LIFE, ANIMATED
Roger Ross Williams’ profile of an autistic man’s awakening through Disney animated films made its bow at Sundance this year, winning the US Documentary Directing Award. Festival screenings have also included Nantucket, True/False, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Full Frame, Montclair, San Francisco, DocAviv, Transilvania, Sundance London, Los Angeles, Sheffield, and Sydney, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to DVD this week: DREAM/KILLER
Andrew Jenks’ exploration of a strange case of wrongful conviction made its bow at Tribeca last year. Screenings followed at Montclair, Sidewalk, Kansas, Hot Springs Doc, Heartland, Hamptons, and CPH:DOX, among other events.
In 2003, two years after the body of a newspaper editor was found in a parking lot, a young man named Charles Erickson stepped forward claiming responsibility for the murder. Offering a full confession, he was convicted, and implicated an accomplice, his childhood friend Ryan Ferguson. What makes this unusual is that Erickson couldn’t remember committing the crime, claiming a blackout from drugs, and instead credited a dream for jostling his memory. Despite an absence of any physical evidence, and Ferguson’s vehement denial of any connection to the murder, he too was convicted. With his son facing forty years in prison for a crime he swore he did not commit, Ferguson’s father, Bill, began his own investigation, and, as recounted in Jenks’ engaging film, uncovers a shocking series of breaches by the prosecution that provide his son with a fighting chance to win his freedom. At its best when it keeps focused on Bill and defense attorney Kathleen Zellner’s efforts, rather than on odd semi-animated interstitials offering Ryan’s reflections on his prison experience, the film offers a damning critique of a justice system more concerned with getting and maintaining convictions than on seeing crimes actually solved.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Thursday, June 30: (T)ERROR
Lyric R Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe’s inside look at an FBI informant premiered at Sundance last year, winning a special jury award. Its fest circuit included Nantucket, True/False, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Full Frame, Nashville, and Human Rights Watch, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to DVD this week: ELSTREE 1976
Jon Spira’s look at the making of STAR WARS from the margins made its bow at BFI London last year. It has also screened at Sitges and at a handful of smaller events before a limited theatrical and VOD release last month.
Named after the studio where and year when George Lucas’ unexpected blockbuster was made, Spira’s film assembles a series of interviews with nearly a dozen individuals who were there. But, with one notable exception, these don’t include the likes of stars like Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, or Carrie Fischer. Instead, Spira’s protagonists settled for bit parts – some named, others part of a sea of extras, including bar patrons, X-Wing pilots, or Stormtroopers – giving them a very brief brush with fame that nevertheless has left a lasting impact. The odd man out here is David Prowse, who enacted the role of Darth Vader, but was essentially made to play second fiddle to the character’s ominous voice, as performed by James Earl Jones. Subjects offer a too-brief reminiscence of their experiences auditioning or on set before moving on to reflect on their largely average lives which followed, and on their later intersections with the enduring fandom of the STAR WARS franchise. While the balance here is decidedly off – more behind-the-scenes details about their experiences with the film would be welcome rather than the overlong consideration of their uneventful careers – the film does offer a curious window into the notion of celebrity and its limits. On a technical level, Spira depends too much on largely static talking heads, but intermittently livens up the proceedings with evocative action figure close-ups and quirky tableaux reimagining the participants’ offtime at Elstree.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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