My third week of Sundance previews open with the final film of the World Cinema Documentary Competition: From Peru, Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel’s WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE details a contentious battle between development and conservation.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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My second week of Sundance doc profiles wraps up with today’s third film, the penultimate entry in the World Doc competition: From UK/USA/Japan, WE ARE X, Stephen Kijak’s profile of the glam metal powerhouse band X Japan.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Next up, the second of today’s Sundance doc profiles: From New Zealand, TICKLED, David Farrier and Dylan Reeve’s most unusual journalistic investigation.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Coming to theatres today, Friday, January 8: TROUBLEMAKERS: THE STORY OF LAND ART
James Crump’s look at a radical revolution in art practice debuted at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art last Fall. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, New York Film Festival, St Louis, Milan’s Fondazione Prada, and Art Basel Miami, among others.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the 1960s and ‘70s, a group of NYC-based artists abandoned the constraints of gallery spaces and the demands of the marketplace, moving to the expanse of the American Southwest to engage in a radical reconceptualization of their artistic practice. Turning to nature, acclaimed artists like Michael Heizer (Double Negative) and Robert Smithson (Spiral Jetty) changed accepted notions of scale and exhibition by producing monumental creations out of the earth itself. Crump’s archive-rich film reveals their breathtaking work and their fascinating process.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The first of today’s three Sundance world doc profiles: From Germany/Iran/Switzerland, SONITA, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami’s intimate collaboration with an Iran-based Afghani teenager and her fledgling hip hop dreams.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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This year’s Day One film representing the World Doc section brings today’s profiles to a close: SKY LADDER: THE ART OF CAI GUO-QIANG, Kevin Macdonald’s look at the life and work of one of China’s most celebrated artists.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Onto the second half of this year’s World Cinema docs: From Israel/France/Canada/Germany, THE SETTLERS, Shimon Dotan’s in-depth consideration of the ever-contentious West Bank settlements.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Coming to VOD today, Thursday, January 7: JE SUIS CHARLIE
Daniel Leconte and Emmanuel Leconte’s tribute to Charlie Hebdo made its debut at Toronto this past Fall. It has gone on to screen at CPH:DOX, Berlin’s French Film Week, Rio, and the Hong Kong French Film Festival. Netflix now releases the doc on the one-year anniversary of the attack that left eleven magazine staffers dead.
Making its debut less than eight months after the shooting, the Lecontes’ film would seem a hasty response, were it not for the fact that Daniel, the father of the father-son helming duo, had already made a doc on the satirical publication in 2007. This provides ample interview footage of the fallen cartoonists to supplement the newly-filmed testimony of the survivors which greatly benefits the project, and also speaks to the rapport the elder director felt for his subjects, which manifests in an unfortunate – and largely unnecessary – narration that bogs down the film, and too much of an insider’s viewpoint which to some degree assumes that all viewers are intimately familiar with Charlie Habdo‘s personalities. Still, the filmmakers do offer a rundown of the various controversies the paper invited through its brash provocations – including the defiant stand the surviving staffers took in their very next issue – providing a context for the attack and the free speech debate that followed internationally. Ultimately, the Lecontes succeed in paying tribute, even if their realization stumbles at times.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
The first half of this year’s world docs wraps up: From Mexico, PLAZA DE LA SOLEDAD, Maya Goded’s profile of older sex workers on the streets of Mexico City.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Rounding out today’s Sundance doc preview: From the UK, THE LOVERS AND THE DESPOT, Robert Cannan and Ross Adam’s tale of cinephilia crossed with totalitarianism.
Festival Section:
World Cinema Documentary Competition
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Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
what (not) to doc 