Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 15 sees the opening of the 14th Tribeca Film Festival, which this year will present over fifty feature documentaries before it closes on Sunday, April 26. The event’s nonfiction programming has consistently proven to be noteworthy, and organizers have recognized that in recent years, presenting documentaries as the event’s opening selection, such as this year’s LIVE FROM NEW YORK!, Bao Nguyen’s look at the history and enduring popularity of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. What follows are some highlights of this year’s nonfiction slate: Continue reading
Category Archives: Documentary
Tribeca 2015: Documentary Overview
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Special Screening: KING GEORGES
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, April 14: KING GEORGES
Erika Frankel’s portrait of an influential French chef debuted this past weekend at Full Frame. In addition to opening the new season of STF, the film will screen at IFF Boston later this month as it continues its festival run.
French chef Georges Perrier moved from Paris to Philadelphia in the late 1960s, and by the early 1970s established his restaurant, Le Bec-Fin, as one of the best French restaurants in the country. Despite decades of success and critical acclaim, the changing economy and shifts in taste have left the fate of Le Bec-Fin up in the air. Frankel follows the outspoken Perrier over several years as he attempts to hold on to his restaurant, and his legacy, after more than four decades. A partnership with a young head chef, Nicholas Elmi, shows promise, but can Perrier, closing in on 70, maintain the pace that has already cost him on a personal level? Frankel constructs an engrossing, multifaceted portrait of a chef confronting the possible end of his life’s work.
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On TV: THE HOMESTRETCH
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, April 13: THE HOMESTRETCH
Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly’s profile on teen homelessness debuted at Hot Docs last year. Screenings followed at AFI Docs, Citizen Jane, Indie Memphis, Human Rights Watch, and Hot Springs, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
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On Cable: LIVING WITH LINCOLN
Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, April 13: LIVING WITH LINCOLN
Peter Kunhardt and Brian Oakes’ look at one family’s role in preserving a presidential legacy makes its debut as part of the cable network’s popular nonfiction programming.
The family in question is Kunhardt’s own, making this a personal exploration of five generations of familial duty to “the collection,” a largely photo-based archive of all things Abraham Lincoln that was begun by the director’s great-grandfather, Frederick Hill Meserve. Born the same year the Civil War ended, Meserve started amassing his collection to illustrate his father’s war diaries, and soon found himself in possession of the definitive photographic record of the 16th US President, iconic images that would go on to serve as the basis of our popular conception of his likeness on Mt Rushmore, the $5 bill, and the penny. But Kunhardt, who narrates the film, discusses Meserve’s role as the originator of the collection, his focus is largely on Meserve’s primary collaborator, his daughter Dorothy, Peter Kunhardt’s grandmother. Dorothy, a children’s book author and illustrator best known for PAT THE BUNNY, emerges as a fascinating figure full of ideas and aspirations but also possessed of stifling self-doubt that long delayed her book about Lincoln’s assassination. Interwoven with her story is that of Lincoln and his own relationship with his family, as revealed through the historical collection. While the juxtapositions are sometimes a bit clunky and perhaps indulge in some overly speculative psychologizing, Kunhardt’s film still succeeds in conveying the deep significance – and costs – of this generational duty on the Meserve-Kunhardt family.
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Sarasota 2015: Documentary Overview
Florida’s Sarasota Film Festival opens its 17th edition today, Friday, April 10, and runs through Sunday, April 19. While the festival lost longtime director Tom Hall to Montclair this year, the event has maintained its scope, presenting nearly 150 features, with about a third of those nonfiction, including Centerpiece selection BRAND: A SECOND COMING, Ondi Timoner’s portrait of UK comedian/provocateur Russell Brand which recently opened SXSW. What follows are highlights of some of the event’s other documentary programming, reflecting newer or less familiar work not previously covered on this site. Continue reading
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Art of the Real 2015 Overview
The second edition of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real series begins tomorrow, Friday, April 10, and runs through Sunday, April 26. Dennis Lim and Rachael Rakes’ program continues its mission to broaden standard conceptions of nonfiction, giving viewers the opportunity to sample an eclectic, and sometimes, esoteric, assemblage of offerings. This year’s event opens with a shorts program and closes with Jenni Olson’s Sundance essay, THE ROYAL ROAD (pictured), with other special programming including an Agnès Varda tribute and a spotlight on the use of reenactment in film.
The remaining main program consists of sixteen new and retrospective feature films, as well as some additional short form programming. Some of the highlights among the newer feature work include the North American premieres of: Gustavo Vinagre’s NOVA DUBAI (pictured), a rumination on gay desire in an urban landscape; Alain Cavalier’s LE PARADIS, an essay film about encroaching mortality; and Luisa Homem and Pedro Pinho’s TRADING CITIES, an observational profile of the impact of development on Cape Verde.
Some of the US premieres screening during the two week series are: Daniel Hui’s speculative portrait of Singapore, SNAKESKIN; René Frölke’s experimental biography of an exiled Romanian writer, LE BEAU DANGER (pictured); and Ion de Sosa’s hybrid, future-set exploration of Spain, ANDROIDS DREAM.
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It’s All True 2015 Overview
Brazil’s It’s All True International Documentary Film Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary beginning tomorrow, Thursday, April 9 with a screening of the late Eduardo Coutinho’s LAST CONVERSATIONS. The festival will run through Sunday, April 19 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, while tours will continue in other cities into May and June. More than 40 new features will screen, with shorts and retrospectives bringing the total lineup to over 100 films. Continue reading
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In Theatres: SONG FROM THE FOREST
Coming to theatres this Friday, April 10: SONG FROM THE FOREST
Michael Obert’s portrait of a return to Western civilization debuted at IDFA in 2013. Other fest screenings have included DOC NYC, SXSW, ZagrebDox, Thessaloniki Doc, London, Cleveland, It’s All True, Planete + Doc, DOXA, Pan African, !f Istanbul, and Camden.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program:
Drawn to the Central African Republic to study the songs of the Bayaka pygmies 25 years ago, American musicologist Louis Sarno abandoned modern civilization to join the tribe and start a family. Fulfilling a long-standing promise to show his teenager, Samedi, the world, father and son trade the rainforest for the concrete jungle and travel to New York City, visiting family and friends like Louis’ college roommate, director Jim Jarmusch. While Samedi takes it all in, Louis, surprisingly, is the one who becomes the fish out of water.
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Full Frame 2015 Overview
This Thursday, April 9 kicks off year 18 for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which will present over 60 new doc features, plus shorts, retrospective programming, and several conversations before it wraps up on Sunday, April 12. In addition to a smartly curated lineup culling some of the best work from Sundance, IDFA, SXSW, and other previous events, the Durham NC fest also introduces its audiences to several notable premieres: Continue reading
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In Theatres: IN COUNTRY
Coming to theatres this Friday, April 10: IN COUNTRY
Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara’s profile of an unlikely pastime debuted at Full Frame last year. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, and Camden, among other events.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program:
By now, the idea of Civil War re-enactment is familiar, but the subjects of Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara’s intriguing film relive the battles of a far more surprising conflict: Vietnam. Drawing a mix of combat enthusiasts, Iraq War soldiers, actual Vietnam veterans, and even a former South Vietnamese Army officer, this band of brothers regularly recreates – by choice – a war that a whole generation would rather forget. What lies behind their compulsion to restage an unpopular war: therapy, nostalgia or something else?
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