Continuing today’s look at this year’s Doc Premieres: RESILIENCE, James Redford’s investigation into the connections between childhood emotional trauma and later physical illness.
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2016 Sundance Docs in Focus: RESILIENCE
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On VOD: MEET THE PATELS
Now available on Netflix: MEET THE PATELS
Geeta V Patel and Ravi V Patel’s exploration of dating from an Indian-American perspective debuted at Hot Docs in 2014. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Los Angeles, Traverse City, Hamptons, Citizen Jane, San Diego Asian, Dubai, Bentonville, Seattle, and Sydney, among many others. The doc was released on iTunes and various other VOD platforms last month, and now comes to Netflix.
I previously wrote about the film here.
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2016 Sundance Docs in Focus: NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER
With one week to go before Sundance kicks off, my profiles of this year’s Doc Premieres are headed into the homestretch: NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER, Liz Garbus’ dual portrait of the famed mother and son.
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2016 Cinema Eye Honors Winners
The 9th annual Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing achievements in non-fiction film from 2015, took place last night in a ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image. Earlier this week, the organization hosted its Honors Lunch, which celebrated this year’s Legacy Award winner, Chris Smith’s AMERICAN MOVIE; as well as “The Influentials,” 24 additional classic nonfiction films which were singled out as inspirational to this year’s nominees; “The Unforgettables,” a list of notable documentary subjects from 2015’s films; and Jafar Panahi’s TAXI 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 by acclaimed documentarian Steve James, who might just have a future in comedy. 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
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Audience Choice Prize
MERU
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Joshua Oppenheimer for THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Chris King for AMY
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Signe Byrge Sørensen for THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
tie:
Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll for CARTEL LAND
and
Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk for MERU
Outstanding Nonfiction Film Made for Television
PRIVATE VIOLENCE
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
THE WOLFPACK
Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score
Laurie Anderson for HEART OF A DOG
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing for KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK
Spotlight Award
TOTO AND HIS SISTERS
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
tie:
BUFFALO JUGGALOS by Scott Cummings
and
HOTEL 22 by Elizabeth Lo
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88th Oscars: Best Documentary Feature Nominees
The Best Documentary Feature Oscar finalists were announced this morning, together with all the other categories – the entire list of nominees will be posted by the Academy here. The documentaries are listed below. Congratulations to all the nominees, which were all on the DOC NYC Short List, and include 2 Sundance alums!
AMY (pictured)
Congrats also to the Documentary Shorts nominees, which includes DOC NYC alum CLAUDE LANZMANN: SPECTRES OF THE SHOAH!
BODY TEAM 12
CHAU, BEYOND THE LINES
CLAUDE LANZMANN: SPECTRES OF THE SHOAH
A GIRL IN THE RIVER: THE PRICE OF FORGIVENESS
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM
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2016 Sundance Docs in Focus: NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU
This year’s Day One US doc feature brings us past the Documentary Premieres’ halfway point: NORMAN LEAR: JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s profile of one of the masters of the television sitcom form.
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On DVD: IN THE BASEMENT
New to DVD this week: IN THE BASEMENT
Ulrich Seidl’s exploration of what happens in Austrians’ inner sanctums made its bow at Venice in 2014. Other fest berths included CPH:DOX, London, Montreal, Zurich, Thessaloniki Doc, Hong Kong, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Melbourne, Sydney, and Sidewalk.
Seidl offers a survey of both the innocuous – smoking teens, model train enthusiasts – and the extreme – SM dungeons, Nazi memorabilia – in the basements of his fellow countrymen and women. Artfully, precisely filmed, often in wide, static shots, these spaces are presented as tableaux, inviting the viewer to gaze upon that which is often kept private. While Seidl includes some deliberately staged sequences – notably, the older woman who fusses over creepy lifelike dolls – the majority of the proceedings seem to be authentic, and carry unusual power precisely because they are presented so matter-of-factly. At the same time, interviews with participants are sometimes more affecting than the images are perhaps meant to be, with a former victim of domestic abuse turned masochist notably disturbing, and a prostitute’s skinny john’s humblebrags about his ejaculations disarmingly funny.
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2016 Sundance Docs in Focus: MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL
The next Sundance doc profile also takes on a cultural icon: MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL, Spike Lee’s exploration of the transformation of the child star to the King of Pop.
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On DVD: FEAR NO FRUIT
New to DVD this week: FEAR NO FRUIT
Mark Brian Smith’s affectionate portrait of a pioneering entrepreneur debuted at the San Luis Obispo fest last year. It also screened at Newport Beach and was released on VOD last Summer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
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2016 Sundance Docs in Focus: MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE
Continuing my look at this year’s Sundance docs: MAYA ANGELOU: AND STILL I RISE, Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack’s celebration of the acclaimed poet.
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what (not) to doc 