Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, October 20: ONE CUT, ONE LIFE

Lucia Small and Ed Pincus’ collaborative exploration of mortality had its world premiere at Full Frame last year. It went on to screen at IFF Boston, Woods Hole, Torino, and the New York Film Festival, among others. The doc now comes to VOD via iTunes.

I previously wrote about the film upon its theatrical release here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 16: ALL THINGS MUST PASS

Colin Hanks’ tribute to Tower Records had its world premiere at SXSW this Spring. It went on to screen at Seattle, AFI Docs, Sacramento, and Greenwich, among other events.

Opening by revealing that the retail giant made over a billion dollars just five years before it filed for bankruptcy, Hanks sets the stage for a rise and fall trajectory that will be of no surprise to anyone old enough to fondly remember a time when you couldn’t buy (or otherwise “find”) new music online. While the film indulges in a largely anecdote-driven history, delivered by Tower Records founder Russ Solomon and a large circle of past store clerks-turned-management, the history revealed here does double duty as that of the larger music industry and its shortsightedness in response to Napster and the digital music revolution. Focusing on the growth, mistakes, and eventual demise of Tower, and, significantly, the group of eccentrics that called the company home for nearly forty years, Hanks humanizes the faceless, corporate industry, and instead offers an intimate, and often quite poignant, reflection of a vastly different, if only relatively recently departed, era.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, October 16: TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL

Jeffrey Schwarz’s exploration of the secret life of a Hollywood heartthrob made its debut at SXSW this Spring. Its extensive fest run has also included Cleveland, Sarasota, Seattle, Maryland, Provincetown, Revelation, and LGBT fests in London, Miami, Boston, San Diego, Toronto, Portland, Torino, San Francisco, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Dublin, Atlanta, Montreal, and Sydney, among many others.

Tab Hunter – born Arthur Gelien – was the all-American boy next door, a handsome blond, blue-eyed young man who found success in Hollywood in the 1950s. As revealed in his 2006 autobiography, upon which Schwarz’s entertaining portrait is based, he was also gay, but the Warner Bros studio machine worked overtime to bury any rumors as they marketed him to the emerging teen audience, making him the subject of countless fan magazine articles and grooming a pop singing sideline career. As he tried to balance clandestine relationships with the likes of Anthony Perkins with the demands of the film industry, Hunter grew restless with the generic roles the studio offered. He eventually decided to strike out on his own, but was unable to shake off his highly-polished image, and his acting career lay mostly dormant until John Waters cast him in POLYESTER. Schwarz benefits greatly from Hunter’s full participation here, demonstrating a genuine affability rather than any rancor over lost opportunities or faded dreams. His sexuality remains primarily a private matter rather than a political cause, but he seems perfectly content with his life now, partnered with film producer Allan Glaser, and out of the limelight.