Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 12: LIVE FROM NEW YORK!

Bao Nguyen’s exploration of the pop cultural phenomenon of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE made its debut as the opening night selection of this year’s Tribeca. Other fest screenings have included Nashville, Maui, Hot Docs, and the upcoming Provincetown.

Nguyen’s film debuted in the midst of SNL’s 40th anniversary season – and in fact was made specifically to tie-in to that milestone – which ends up being both a blessing and a curse. It’s a boon because the anniversary lends a certain gravitas, as well as a logical motive for a retrospective consideration of the program, complete with some occasional gems of archival footage, like some of the screen tests of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players. On the other hand, however, the film comes after SNL’s own multi-hour anniversary special, which, unfortunately for Nguyen’s project, already utilized that choice archival footage, as well as other more familiar clips, in addition to generally addressing the same terrain. Even excusing this, Nguyen would always face a difficult task in trying to summarize, lionize, and even kind of criticize a still-running series in less than ninety minutes – while appealing to the show’s core fanbase and the casual viewer at the same time. Though he makes something of an attempt to contextualize his film as a study of how the program evolved over time from subversion to institution, this never feels fully formed or developed, making fairly obvious points about sexism or lack of diversity in television before quickly retreating to familiar sketches and laudatory talking heads. As a result, while the doc makes for a diverting enough reminiscence of SNL’s highs and occasional lows, it’s unfortunately fairly generic and not particularly memorable in itself.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 9: GTFO THE MOVIE

Shannon Sun-Higginson’s investigation of hostility against women in the gaming world had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year. It has since screened at DOXA, IFF Boston, Global Visions, and SF DocFest. FilmBuff now releases the doc on iTunes and Vimeo on Demand.

Last Summer’s Gamergate exposed rampant misogyny within some elements of the gamer community. While Sun-Higginson’s film is not focused on the particulars of that controversy, addressing it only as a postscript, she assembles more than enough damning testimony that speaks to the challenges faced by women in gaming, a player population that has been on the rise. As the film relates, at its most (relatively) benign, gaming culture historically and consistently has set up barriers to entrance to females, and displays a lack of diversity and representation within its design and play that caters nearly exclusively to males. At its most extreme, gaming has proven outright hostile at times, escalating a “boys club” sentiment that moves from condescension to harassment to even threats of physical violence against women who are encroaching on their territory. In addition to revisiting notorious examples of such hostility, Sun-Higginson surveys a range of women about their individual experiences. While the topic is engaging, essential, and rife with potential, the execution is sadly wanting – talking heads dominate and are repetitive, production values vary and are often rough, and music is overused and distracting. The film does make some good use of 8-bit graphics and titles, but much more could have been done to make this more visually arresting.