Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 17: THE LOOK OF SILENCE

Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to his provocative THE ACT OF KILLING made its debut at Venice last year. It has since gone on to screen at the New York Film Festival, Toronto, Human Rights Watch, True/False, Hamptons, San Francisco, SXSW, Abu Dhabi, and many more around the world.

Oppenheimer’s initial foray into Indonesia’s 1965-1966 genocide was lauded by many for its audacious foregrounding of the perpetrators of the murder of one million alleged communists as they boasted of their actions and gleefully re-enacted them for the camera. It also engendered concerns over documentary ethics from a fair number of detractors. With this second investigation into the horrors of Indonesia’s past, Oppenheimer has perhaps helped to address some of those critics, turning his attention from the killers to the families of their victims, and focusing specifically on Adi, an optician whose elder brother, Ramli, was murdered. With Oppenheimer’s help, Adi sets out to confront Ramli’s murderers and their own families, notably more to seek a sense of understanding and closure than revenge. Oppenheimer takes a much more subdued approach here, jettisoning the extravagant fantasy music video sequences of the first film for a rawer, honest look at how individuals can justify the most reprehensible crimes against their fellow man. Even as Adi bears witness to their past misdeeds, forcing them to think about the impact their murderous actions had on families like his, the criminals hold fast to the national narrative that they made their country safer. Like the first film, Oppenheimer’s follow-up is not an easy watch, but it underscores in its frankness the enduring wounds of Indonesia’s history and the need for truth, and in its directness and focus is perhaps an even stronger work of nonfiction as a result.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 7, while also expanding its VOD release: 112 WEDDINGS

Doug Block’s reflection on the successes and failures of married life made its bow at Full Frame last year. It also screened at Nantucket, Hot Docs, Sheffield, Melbourne, Traverse City, and at various Jewish fests. In addition to its DVD release, it expands from its initial iTunes release to additional VOD platforms, including Vudu, Amazon, and Google Play.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to PBS’s American Experience tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14: BLACKOUT

Callie T Wiser’s look back at the tumultuous New York City blackout of 1977 makes its debut on the long-running public television series.

Thirty-eight years ago to the date, on July 13, 1977, a severe lightning strike in Westchester county set off a chain reaction that resulted in a total blackout for virtually all of New York City. In comparison to a similar power failure just twelve years prior, which saw masses of ordinary New Yorkers helping to maintain order and safety, this one became characterized as something more sinister, noted for widespread looting and arson that left long-lasting wounds for many neighborhoods and their residents. Wiser gathers an impressive assemblage of period footage, and draws from the recollections of a range of people who lived through that dark night, from Con Edison employees who were tasked with restoring power and shop owners who saw their businesses ransacked, to police officers and firefighters who faced the thankless job of trying to maintain order in the chaos and neighborhood residents who tried to make sense of it all. Without forgiving the perpetrators, some of the interviewees point out that, rather being primarily a racial issue, as was suggested at the time, the criminality that emerged in some areas were more a reflection of class, a response to the devastating unemployment and reduction in social services that characterized an essentially bankrupt New York City. Through its cogent contextualization of these and other factors, the film underscores this, contrasting recollections of staff at the World Trade Center’s Windows on the World restaurant, which appeased diners during the blackout by offering free champagne, with the spontaneous looting of under-served neighborhoods, carried out not only by career criminals but by first-time offenders, many taking illegal advantage of the absence of social order to steal diapers and food for their families. That there were victims of this behavior is not ignored, of course, as represented by a shop owner who lost hundreds of thousands that evening, and who could not accept that the actions taken, whatever the circumstances, were justified.

Coming to theatres and VOD today, Friday, July 10: DO I SOUND GAY?

David Thorpe’s exploration of stereotypes and self-acceptance made its debut at Toronto last year. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Santa Barbara, RiverRun, Montclair, Dallas, Sydney Mardi Gras, IFF Boston, Nashville, Seattle, New Orleans’ Filmorama, Provincetown, Frameline, and BFI Flare, among others.

Reeling from a recent breakup, Thorpe begins a self-examination of a particular quality he dislikes about himself and the larger gay community of which he’s a part: the gay voice. In addition to beginning speech therapy sessions to determine if he can consciously remove some of the identifying vocal mannerisms that so irk him, the director/subject takes to the street for some off the cuff vox pops and visits with friends and celebrities who weigh in on the “problem” with having an effeminate voice. While on the surface, this quest might initially seem like self-involved therapy, Thorpe wisely moves beyond the strictly personal to begin to unpack the larger societal constructs at play, from a subconscious misogyny that punishes men for daring to sound like women, to a related homophobia, both internalized by gay men against themselves, and propagated by straight people eager to maintain some strict division of appropriateness by gender and sexuality. Maintaining a lighter tone throughout, the film opens up a dialogue that proves insightful and accessible to LGBT and straight audiences alike.