Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films this coming Monday, June 22: FRESH DRESSED
Sacha Jenkins’ history of hip hop fashion made its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year. Other fest screenings included Dallas, RiverRun, Sarasota, Nashville, and Hawaii, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 19: THE WANTED 18
Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan’s story of the state of Israel vs a herd of cattle debuted at Toronto last year. Other screenings have included Abu Dhabi, Tallinn Black Nights, Thessaloniki Doc, and the Human Rights Watch fest, among others.
Decidedly in the category of stranger than fiction, Shomali and Cowan’s mix of talking heads and animated re-enactments reveals the now legendary tale of Palestinian rebellion via the unlikely vehicle of dairy farming. During the First Intifada in the late 1980s, a group of Palestinians in Beit Sahour in the Occupied Territories managed to purchase eighteen cows from a kibbutz, aiming for a level of self-sufficiency from the restrictions of dairy products from Israel, despite not having a clue how to work with cattle. When the Israeli government learned of their action, they began to crackdown, arguing that the cows were a threat to national security. In response the dairy collective set out to foil their persecutors, hiding the cows over an eight-day cowhunt as an act of collective civil disobedience. This intriguing, if farcical, background affords the filmmakers with massive potential to create a distinctive view into Israeli/Palestinian relations, but it’s largely squandered due to ill-conceived creative decisions. While the material’s absurdity makes animation an obvious fit, the crude claymation employed is unappealing, and, worse still, the choice to anthropomorphize the cows as strident California-speaking stereotypes is bizarre, throughly offputting, and not funny – and ends up derailing the project as a whole.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV – with a simultaneous broadcast on Logo launching their new Logo Documentary Films series – this coming Monday, June 22: OUT IN THE NIGHT
blair dorosh-walther’s investigation of the truth behind a sensationalized case of “killer lesbians” had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year. Its extensive fest circuit included New Orleans, Human Rights Watch, Frameline, Outfest, Oakland Underground, Rocky Mountain Women’s fest, Goteborg, Pan African, Athena, Cleveland, RiverRun, and LGBT fests around the world.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Friday, June 19: STATE OF CONTROL
Christian Johnston and Darren Mann’s attempt to document Tibetan repression debuted at Stanford’s United Nations Association fest in 2013. Other fest screenings included Woodstock and DocuWest. FilmBuff now makes it available across VOD platforms including iTunes.
Early into their documentary, American filmmakers Johnston and Mann explain that they didn’t intend to film themselves, but claim that they had no choice. Initially setting out to give voice to Tibetans struggling under Chinese rule, they instead begin to chronicle their own troubles attempting to make a film under China’s ever watchful eye. In the face of intimidation tactics, from constant surveillance by uniformed and undercover agents alike to vandalism of their equipment, the disappearance of their translator and guide to the hacking of their production team’s email accounts, the duo are warned in no uncertain terms that their probing into the Tibetan situation is officially unwelcome. While their doggedness is admirable, they do lose sight of their goal in their too-familiar turn to metafilmmaking, and end up more or less burying the more interesting stories of Tibetan activists like Dhondup Wangchen, imprisoned for making a film featuring candid interviews with Tibetans.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Frameline, the longest running LGBT film festival in the world, opens in San Francisco tonight, Thursday, June 18, and will present over 70 new features before it wraps up during SF Pride weekend on Sunday, June 28. More than 30 new and recent documentary features will screen, including Centerpiece film OUT TO WIN, Malcolm Ingram’s focus on professional LGBT athletes; and Showcase programs like FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, Sharon Shattuck’s personal reflection on her transgender dad. Highlights from the fest’s nonfiction programming is highlighted below: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to VOD today, Wednesday, June 17: LORD MONTAGU
Luke Korem’s exploration of the life of an eccentric British aristocrat debuted at Cleveland in 2013. It went on to screen at Dallas, Newport Beach, Napa Valley, and St Louis, among others. Gravitas now makes the doc available on on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube Movies, Xbox, Sony Playstation, and Cable on Demand.
Lord Edward Montagu was born into privilege, becoming the Baron of Beaulieu, a 7,000 acre estate, at the age of only two years old. As an early adult in the post-WWII period, Montagu like so many others in the aristocracy, found the times – and the economy – changing, jeopardizing his ability to maintain Beaulieu as it had stood since the 13th century. His decision to open the estate to the general public as a tourist attraction saved Beaulieu, but this was shortlived after Montagu was embroiled in a legal scandal that soon saw him sentenced to jail for committing homosexual offenses. While open about his bisexuality, he persisted in denying any wrongdoing, paving the way for the eventual decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK. After his release, he set out to salvage his besmirched reputation, turning once again to the boon of Beaulieu, transforming his estate into Britain’s first motor museum, and becoming a consummate showman engaging with curious visitors, who came in droves. Korem stumbles a bit in framing the film as something of an autobiography, awkwardly utilizing actors to recite Montagu’s personal writing, but he does succeed in crafting a portrait that becomes increasingly more interesting as the film progresses. While interviews are a bit heavily utilized, and generally seem to avoid controversy, archival footage is particularly well employed to reveal a surprising life.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Tonight, Wednesday, June 17, sees the opening of the seventh edition of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s
annual BAMcinemaFest, a popular program of 35 recent films which had its origins as the Sundance at BAM series. The event, which runs through Sunday, June 28, continues to draw selections from Park City for their NYC premieres, along with acclaimed work from other notable events.
Nonfiction programming which appeared previously at Sundance includes Chad Gracia’s unforgettable conspiracy theorist profile, THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER (pictured); Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s political history, BEST OF ENEMIES; Frida Barkfors and Lasse Barkfors’ empathetic portrait of a place, PERVERT PARK; Bobcat Goldthwait’s surprising profile of a comedian turned activist, CALL ME LUCKY; and Amy Berg’s look at fundamentalist Mormonism, PROPHET’S PREY.
From Berlin comes Jem Cohen’s city essay, COUNTING; from Full Frame, Jon Nealon and Jenny Raskin’s portrait of a pioneering video collective, HERE COME THE VIDEOFREEX; and from SXSW, Luke Meyer’s look at fame’s impact on a junior high school metal band, BREAKING A MONSTER; and Elizabeth Giamatti and Alex Sichel’s hybrid about creativity and coping with a terminal illness, A WOMAN LIKE ME (pictured).
Also from this year’s SXSW and screening in Brooklyn as a Special Event is the late Les Blanks’ unreleased 1974 Leon Russell portrait, A POEM IS A NAKED PERSON. It joins another classic, Penelope Spheeris’ 1981 THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (pictured), a chronicle of LA’s punk scene, which screens here in a new restored version.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres this Friday, June 19: RUBBLE KINGS
Shan Nicholson’s look back at the legendary gangs of New York City made its bow at DOC NYC last year. It now comes to theatres in NYC, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Confronting a bankrupt, decaying city and the dashed hopes of the civil rights generation, African-American and Latino teenagers violently took over the streets of 1970s New York. The South Bronx became a war zone ruled by gangs like the Savage Skulls and the Ghetto Brothers. Hypnotic archival footage and present-day interviews with former gang members reveal how peace was brokered at the peak of the bloodshed in a most unlikely manner, laying the foundation for what ultimately became hip-hop culture.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Washington DC’s AFI Docs returns tomorrow, Wednesday, June 17, opening with acclaimed Sundance title BEST OF ENEMIES by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, about the infamous Buckley/Gore debates of 1968, and draws to a close five days later on Sunday, June 21 with Jessica Edwards’ loving tribute to performer Mavis Staples, MAVIS!, which debuted at SXSW earlier this year. The event’s 13th edition is the first under the leadership of new Festival Director Michael Lumpkin, formerly of the International Documentary Association and a longtime fest veteran as the former Executive Director of San Francisco’s Frameline.
This year’s lineup includes approximately 50 recent documentary features, primarily culled from the lineups of Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, IDFA, and other notable festivals. Notable exceptions are four world premieres: Dawn Porter’s RISE: THE PROMISE OF MY BROTHER’S KEEPER (pictured), looking at the initiative to mentor African American boys and men to success; Natalie Avital’s THE THREE HIKERS, about three Americans who found themselves behind Iranian prison bars; Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci’s SALAM NEIGHBOR, which explores a massive refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan; and Brad Horn’s FIRST AND 17, on the pressures faced by America’s top-ranked high school football recruit.
AFI Docs’ annual celebration of nonfiction artistry, the Charles Guggenheim Symposium, this year honors Stanley Nelson, whose Sundance title THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (pictured) screens at the festival. The festival also organizes a two-day Filmmaker Conference for nonfiction filmmakers and industry exploring a range of topics from the risky business of investigative documentary to creating social change through nonfiction projects.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres this Friday, June 19: 3 1/2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS
Marc Silver’s exploration of the tragic consequences of racial bias had its world premiere at Sundance this year, where it won a special jury award. It has since gone on to screen at Full Frame, Seattle, Sheffield, Ashland, RiverRun, and Human Rights Watch, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
what (not) to doc 