This post is a pointer to the fourth lineup announcement for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. This year’s selections in the Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Spotlight, Sundance Kids, and Special Events sections may be found here.
The Shorts lineup will be revealed in a future announcement.
Previous pointers include the US and World Cinema Documentary and Dramatic Competitions, plus NEXT, here; the Midnight lineup here; and the films, installations, and events of New Frontier here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8: EMPTYING THE SKIES
Douglas and Roger Kass’ look at efforts to stop the poaching of songbirds premiered at Sheffield in 2013. Its fest circuit also included DOC NYC, Hamptons, Big Sky, Wild & Scenic, Washington DC’s Environmental, Atlantic, and the San Francisco Green fests, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8: BRAVE MISS WORLD
Cecilia Peck’s portrait of a beauty queen turned victims’ advocate premiered as a sneak preview at NYC’s Athena fest in 2013. Screenings followed at DOC NYC, AFI Docs, Sarasota, Dallas, Chicago, San Diego, Mumbai, Denver, Woodstock, SF Jewish, and Cleveland, among others. FilmBuff now releases the doc across various VOD platforms.
I previously included the film in my AFI Docs coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s JCC CineMatters series tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8: TREE MAN
Jon Reiner and Brad Rothschild’s portrait of a Christmas tree salesman had its world premiere at Montreal World this Fall. It has gone on to screen at DOC NYC and St Lawrence.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
For five weeks each year, François leaves his wife and small children in Quebec to live in a van on the streets of New York City. Like hundreds of other seasonal workers, he’s a tree man, selling Christmas trees on the Upper West Side, sacrificing time with his loved ones to provide an essential element of the holiday spirit for others. But, as revealed in Jon Reiner and Brad Rothschild’s affectionate portrait, François’ time away from home is not without the warmth of a family of sorts.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8: ALTHEA
Rex Miller’s tribute to the tennis trailblazer debuted at DOC NYC last year. It went on to Full Frame, AFI Docs, Palm Beach, Athena, and the American Black Film Festival, among other events, and was broadcast on American Masters this past Fall.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 4: BIKES VS CARS
Fredrik Gertten’s look at a transportation debate made its debut at the Tempo Documentary Festival earlier this year. It went on to screen at SXSW, Docs Against Gravity, Sydney, Melbourne, Transilvania, Big Sky, Sedona, SF Green, and DC’s Environmental fest, among others.
Couching an overarching environmental message in a perhaps too simplistic question of personal transportation choices, Gertten suggests a battle waged between cyclists and motorists in urban environments. Primarily focused on São Paulo and Los Angeles, where the “bikes” side of the equation are presented in a decidedly sympathetic light, the film also spends some time in Toronto and Copenhagen, while namechecking other cities. Regular cyclist deaths, often due to a lack of bike lanes and aggressive bus and car drivers, provide an unfortunate impetus for mobilization and lobbying by Brazilian activists, while LA’s historical catering to cyclists offers an intriguing background to Gertten’s portrait of community organizer Dan Koeppel. Strangely, despite offering Copenhagen as one of the utopian ideals for cyclists, the film’s profile of that city is through the lens of a frustrated taxi driver who must navigate the city streets while avoiding scofflaw cyclists, scoring some points for the “cars” side of Gertten’s film. Still, these are undercut by the striking statistics the film offers about the worrying growth of cars, cyclist deaths, the influence of the car/petrochemical lobbies, the insight of an engaging Brazilian urban planning professor, and even former Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s pandering to car-loving suburbanites. What remains problematic is the reductive argument at the core of the film, however, which willfully ignores the role that public transportation must play in any rethink of car culture, and that, for many, socioeconomic factors don’t make it quite so easy to choose between the only two options the film seems to present as viable.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 4: ONLY THE DEAD
Michael Ware and William Guttentag’s personal experience of the Iraq War made its world premiere at Sydney this Summer. The doc has also screened at Melbourne, New Zealand, and Telluride.
Constructed as an essay from Ware’s perspective, the film follows the war correspondent as he arrives in Baghdad in 2003 to report on the war for CNN and Time Magazine. Collecting footage over the next decade, Ware offers his reflections via narration on the invasion and the morass of occupation while loosely following the trajectory of al Qaeda’s Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after the notorious jihadist sends the journalist a videotape claiming credit for brutal crimes. While the film is notably concise, there’s a looseness to the proceedings that never quite coheres, and Ware’s incessant musings have a tendency to grate. At the same time, he captures a harrowing and visceral experience of the front line of battle, often with a disturbing amount of hauntingly graphic violence on display that offers little respite from the brutality of modern-day warfare.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 4: ORION: THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING
Jeanie Finlay’s stranger-than-fiction story of a would-be resurrected pop star made its bow at Tribeca this Spring. Its festival circuit also included Hot Docs, Nashville, Bentonville, Doxa, Sheffield, Martha’s Vineyard, DOCS DF, Tallgrass, Indie Memphis, and Barcelona’s In-Edit, among others. In addition to a limited theatrical release, Sundance Selects releases the doc on VOD via cable platforms as well as iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Sony Playstation, Xbox, and Sundance Now.
Small town Alabama boy Jimmy Ellis had aspirations for a singing career but despite his good looks and soulful voice, he couldn’t get a break – not until Elvis Presley died in 1977, that is. Inspired by a recently-published novel which played on the premise that an acclaimed musician faked his own death, Shelby Singleton, the president of Sun Records, Presley’s former label, recruited Elvis’ lookalike and soundalike Ellis to become “Orion.” Decked out in Elvis-like outfits and sporting a mask, Orion aimed to capitalize on fan theories that Elvis was still alive. Contractually obligated to wear the mask and to remain elusive about his true identity, the fame-hungry Ellis began what proved to be a frustrating career living in the shadow of a dead man. Finlay assembles the strange, and sometimes poignant, story with a generous use of archival performances and interviews, demonstrating the paradoxical cost of giving up one’s identity in the elusive pursuit of fame.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
This post is a pointer to the third lineup announcement for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. This year’s selections in the New Frontier section may be found here.
The remaining non-competition feature sections will be revealed in further announcements.
If you missed yesterday’s announcement, the US and World Cinema Documentary and Dramatic Competitions, plus NEXT, click here; while the Midnight lineup may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, December 4: ALMOST THERE
Dan Rybicky and Aaron Wickenden’s surprising profile of an outsider artist had its world premiere at DOC NYC last year. Other screenings have included Nantucket, True/False, Big Sky, Cleveland, Sebastopol Doc, Sarasota, Minneapolis-St Paul, Sheffield, EBS Doc, Camden, andCork, among others. In addition to its theatrical release, it also comes to VOD via Fandor, iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, GooglePlay, Sony Playstation, X-Box, YouTube, and other platforms.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
