Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, June 21: LIVING STARS
Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat’s glee-inducing look at Argentines dancing debuted at Sundance earlier this year. The film also screened at Hot Docs, Little Rock, and BAFICI.
My pre-Sundance profile of the film may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s American Experience and to DVD this coming Tuesday, June 24: FREEDOM SUMMER
Stanley Nelson’s latest Civil Rights era chronicle debuted at Sundance earlier this year. It’s gone on to screen at Mountainfilm, Chicago’s African Diaspora fest, Maryland, Montclair, IFF Boston, Full Frame, Nashville, and the Pan African fest, among several other special screenings.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tonight, Thursday, June 19: THE LAST SEASON
Sara Dosa’s exploration of connection between two mushroom foragers made its debut at San Francisco this Spring, where it won an award. It has also screened at Hot Docs, and Mountainfilm in Telluride.
Taking place in rural Oregon over the course of the two month season which sees hundreds of foragers – many Southeast Asian migrant workers – seeking the prized matsutake mushroom, Dosa’s film focuses on three singular figures: middle-aged Kuoy, a Cambodia immigrant who last part of his leg as a freedom fighter against the Khmer Rouge; 75-year-old Roger, a former US Special Forces sniper in Vietnam; and his strong, loving wife, Theresa. Together, the trio form an unexpected surrogate family – the men bonded not only in their common quest for the lucrative fungus, but in their shared experience of conflict and violence, which they reveal gradually over the course of this quiet, sensitively realized project. Dosa immerses the viewer in the rhythms of their sylvan world, entering her subjects’ inner lives as carefully as they root around searching for the matsutake.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Gay film fest season officially kicks off tonight with the opening night of Frameline, celebrating its 38th edition this year. San Francisco is home to the world’s longest-running queer film festival, drawing an estimated 65,000 attendees to experience the newest in LGBT cinema. More than 30 feature length documentaries are included in this year’s lineup, including the fest’s coveted Opening Night slot, which goes to Sundance winners Ben Cotner and Ryan White’s excellent THE CASE AGAINST 8, with fellow Sundance alum Jennifer Kroot and Bill Weber’s TO BE TAKEI taking one of the Centerpiece spots. The following spotlights additional documentary programming SF audiences should be sure to check out: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to PBS’s POV this coming Monday, June 23: WHEN I WALK
Jason DaSilva’s account of the onset of his multiple sclerosis made its debut at Sundance last year. Other fest appearances have included Hot Docs, Sarasota, LA’s Arclight Doc Fest, Vancouver, Hot Springs, Margaret Mead, ReelAbilities, San Diego Asian, Heartland, Hot Springs, and Poland’s New Horizons American Film Festival, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Recently relocated to New York City from its former base in Miami, the American Black Film Festival celebrates its 18th edition beginning tomorrow, Thursday, June 19, and running through Sunday, June 22. This makes Manhattan the home to two higher-profile African American festivals, with mainstay Urbanworld also heading into year 18 this coming September. ABFF makes a notable splash, closing out this year’s event with the world premiere of Spike Lee’s latest film, the Kickstarter-funded DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS.
In total, more then two dozen films, masterclasses, and special events make up the event’s lineup, with five doc features included. Two appear in the Spotlight Screenings section: Muta’Ali Muhammad’s sadly timely tribute to his grandparents, LIFE’S ESSENTIALS WITH RUBY DEE (pictured), given the actress’ recent passing; and Barion Grant’s profile of a hip-hop mogul, A GENIUS LEAVES THE HOOD: THE UNAUTHORIZED STORY OF JAY-Z. The remaining nonfiction titles vie for the CNN sponsored Best Documentary Award, including two world premieres: Mike L Brown’s 25 TO LIFE, about an HIV-positive man reckoning with his promiscuous past; and Sam Hampton’s TRANSCENDING SURGEON, a consideration of African Americans in medicine through a portrait of an acclaimed surgeon; as well as the North American premiere of Khalo Matabane’s NELSON MANDELA: THE MYTH & ME, an exploration of freedom and reconciliation set against the continuing inequality faced by South Africans.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to PBS’s American Masters and to VOD this Friday, June 20: AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ
Nancy Buirski’s portrait of the tragic dancer debuted at last year’s New York Film Festival. It went on to screen at Berlin, Palm Springs, Full Frame, and Bermuda, among others. In conjunction with its broadcast debut, the doc is also expected to be released on iTunes.
In the early 1950s, ballerina Le Clercq, known familiarly as Tanny, captivated audiences – and the legendary George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins – until she was stricken with polio at the age of 26, never to dance again. Buirski’s haunting portrait captures not only the biographical and personal, but also a sense of a bygone era when the mainstream accepted – and appreciated – modern dance and ballet. While the film features numerous colleagues and confidantes of Le Clercq, invaluable in offering insight into her personality, relationships, and, critically, her ability to cope with tragedy, it is the footage of her dancing that is the heart of Buirski’s profile. Utilizing just enough of the latter to demonstrate the dancer’s artistry – and, in its age-worn softness, a sense of time long past – but not so much that it becomes inaccessible to non-dance fans, the film succeeds in conveying Le Clercq’s allure to new audiences.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Tonight, Wednesday, June 18 sees the kick-off of the 68th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Running through Sunday, June 29, the festival will present over 150 features, representing nearly 50 countries, an increase from last year’s numbers. Among these are nearly 30 documentaries, spread about various strands, from American Dreams – recent US indies – to Focus on Film – tributes to cinema and its makers – to Teen Spirit – youth-focused films. The following spotlights some newer nonfiction work screening in other festival sections:
Most appear in the Directors’ Showcase, an auteur-driven strand, which includes LIFE MAY BE, a consideration of art and the artistic process via a collaboration between Mark Cousins and Mania Akbari; and CATHEDRALS OF CULTURE, a 3D meditation on six distinct works of architecture by Karim Aïnouz, Michael Glawogger, Michael Madsen, Robert Redford, Wim Wenders, and Margreth Olin. Nonfiction also makes a showing in New Perspectives, focused on emerging filmmakers, with such new projects as Davi Pretto’s CASTANHA, about a middle-aged Brazilian cross-dresser who lives with his mother; Lucie Dèche, Karim Loualiche, and Tarek Sami’s CHANTIER A (pictured), a hybrid personal reflection on Algeria; and Ed Perkins’ GARNET’S GOLD, which follows an unusual man on the hunt for fabled treasure.
A number of boundary pushing nonfiction projects appear in No Limits, including Antoine d’Agata’s ATLAS (pictured), an international compendium of prostitutes’ stories; and Jan Soldat’s THE INCOMPLETE, abo ut a 60-year-old gay German man who aspires to be the perfect slave. The festival offers a Focus on Germany, in which Thomas Heise’s portrait of a Mexican juvenile prison STAEDTEBEWOHNER is the sole doc; and a Focus on Iran which includes Sara Rastegar’s look at love, the Iranian revolution, and exile, MY RED SHOES.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s popular BAMcinemaFest returns for its sixth year, opening tomorrow, Wednesday, June 18, and running through Sunday, June 29. After recent staff changes at the venerable institution, this year’s event was curated by BAMcinématek programmers Nellie Killian and David Reilly together with new Programmer at Large Ryan Werner, appointed at the beginning of the year. The lineup of over two dozen films includes several standouts – a mix of heralded titles from Sundance, SXSW, and beyond.
New nonfiction offerings are Göran Hugo Olsson’s exceptional, confrontative rumination on colonialism, CONCERNING VIOLENCE; Amir Bar-Lev’s complex exploration of the impact of the Penn State scandal, HAPPY VALLEY; Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s engaging portrait of an infamous international criminal, THE NOTORIOUS MR BOUT; Amanda Rose Wilder’s fascinating immersion into a free school, APPROACHING THE ELEPHANT (pictured); Darius Clark Monroe’s personal reflection on the mistakes of his past, EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL; and Joe Callander’s look at the limits of philanthropy, LIFE AFTER DEATH.
Retrospective doc programming includes a retrospective program of the late Les Blank’s doc shorts, and a rarely seen cult classic, STATIONS OF THE ELEVATED (pictured), Manfred Kirchheimer’s 1981 graffiti-focused city symphony.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, June 17: INVASION OF THE SCREAM QUEENS
Donald Farmer’s interviews with B-movie actresses was originally released by Mondo Video on VHS in 1992. Never before available on DVD, the film is now available in a 20th anniversary edition (never mind that it’s actually the 22nd anniversary).
The preview provided appeared to be a transfer from an old VHS, complete with some tracking and sound issues – it’s unclear if these artifacts will be in the final release version or not. If so, they fit the lo-fi approach of Farmer’s movie well-enough, which primarily consists of sit-down interviews with actresses in front of horror/sci-fi movie posters, intercut with clips from some of their work. There’s a monotony to their answers – at times it feels like they are on a press junket, giving rote responses to very basic questions about what it’s like to work with a particular director, or how they feel about nudity and exploitation in their roles – it’s all very promotional, and, frankly, not well put together. While this makes it a tough watch, the overall effect, if one does make it all the way through, is a bit tragic, as the present-day audience hears these frankly still-unknown young women speak with certainty that they’ll eventually get a shot at “real” movie roles. The one notable exception is Mary Woronov, whose quirky sequence breaks somewhat from the conventions established by Farmer to include asides about the camera set up and an explication of several of her paintings. Still, as a whole, this is of interest to genre fans only, or, if generous, as a curious relic of the VHS-era.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 