Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14: MUDBLOODS

Farzad Nikbakht Sangari’s look at sport born from popular literary origins premiered at AFI Docs this Summer. It has also screened at Tacoma, IdeaFestival, Hot Springs, Potter Fest, and the upcoming Philadelphia, Hawaii, Gold Crest, and Napa Valley festivals. It now comes to VOD on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, and Vudu.

Sangari’s film explores the underdog sport of Quidditch – technically, I suppose, Muggles Quidditch, the real-world adaptation of the fantastical sport created by JK Rowling for her HARRY POTTER series. While earthbound, owing to the lack of functional flying Nimbus 2000s or Firebolts outside of Hogwarts, the sport has gained a passionate if still relatively small following on college campuses across the US and beyond. Embracing co-ed teams and unfazed by criticism of geekery, teams like UCLA take the game very seriously, as shown in this engaging and likable chronicle of their attempt to defeat reigning champion Middlebury College in the Quidditch World Cup. Sangari balances conventions of sports docs and fandom docs while profiling affable subjects like UCLA captain Tom, whose earnestness and determination successfully connect with audiences, whether they are Potter superfans or not.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, October 14: AS THE PALACES BURN

Don Argott’s unexpectedly dramatic profile of a band had its premiere at Philadelphia’s Trocadero Theatre this Winter before its theatrical release in a series of one-night-only special events.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, October 13: BULLY

Lee Hirsch’s exploration of the impact of bullying debuted at Tribeca in 2011. It screened extensively, including Hot Docs, the Hamptons, Silverdocs, and the Los Angeles Film Festival, among others, and made the Oscar shortlist following its theatrical release.

I previously included the doc in my Tribeca coverage here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, October 10: WAITING FOR AUGUST

Teodora Ana Mihai’s appealing observational portrait of a Romanian teen left alone to care for her siblings debuted at Visions du Réel this Spring. Its festival circuit has included Hot Docs, Karlovy Vary, Dokufest Kosovo, Moscow, Camden, Bergen, Vancouver, DMZ Docs, and the upcoming IDFA and BFI London fests, among several others.

Out of economic necessity, unemployed Romanian parents like Liliana see little choice but to seek job opportunities in wealthier European countries like Italy, often leaving their children behind for months on end. While grandparents or other relatives often act as guardians, in the Halmac family’s case, that responsibility falls on fifteen-year-old Georgina, the eldest daughter of seven children. While still little more than a child herself, the intrepid teen takes on the role of surrogate mother and head of household, all while tending to her own schoolwork and interpersonal drama, and fending off threats from neighbors to report the family to the authorities. As Georgina waits for her mother’s return, sneaking parenting advice from Liliana through the occasional phone call or Skype session, Mihai’s fluid camera captures their begrudgingly accepted reality, forced to be separated, at the poignant cost of Liliana’s time with her kids, and Georgina’s experience of her own childhood.

Already on VOD and coming to the IFC Center as part of New York Super Week this Friday, October 10 and Saturday, October 11: HARMONTOWN

Neil Berkeley’s portrait of an unlikely celebrity writer/showrunner debuted at SXSW earlier this year. It went on to screen at Los Angeles, deadCENTER, Hot Docs, and Napa Valley, as well as at numerous special screenings this Fall. The film came to iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, Xbox/Playstation, and other VOD platforms last Friday.

Dan Harmon has attracted a cult following as the creator and showrunner of NBC’s COMMUNITY, a quirky and creative comedy with critical acclaim and a rabid fanbase that responded to the show’s focus on outsiders. A self-proclaimed nerd with self-destructive tendencies, Harmon found himself regularly embroiled in spats with executives and the show’s cast, leading to him famously being fired. Berkeley’s film follows the self-deprecating writer, reeling from this development, as he takes his popular (to those in the know) podcast/talk show on a tour across America. While the show itself is only occasionally amusing, what’s far more intriguing is the self-awareness that Harmon demonstrates about his uncomfortable relationship to celebrity and fan adulation, and his candidness about being, at times, a truly unlikeable person – most notably in a scene in which he and his girlfriend hash out an argument during the course of the show. His realization that, despite being an unabashed exercise in self-promotion, the tour, and this film as a result, is instead revealing him not as a hero, but as a villain, feels organic and refreshing, with Harmon and Berkeley offering quiet fan-turned-tour member Spencer, the D&D dungeonmaster, as a sweet, alternate protagonist in a film that speaks affectingly to the need for (self) acceptance and community within fandom.