Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this Sunday, June 15: THE NEW BLACK

Yoruba Richen’s look at the relationship between African Americans and gay rights had its premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year. It went on to screen at Human Rights Watch, AFI Docs, Frameline, Urbanworld, Citizen Jane, Hot Springs, Polari, and New Orleans, among others.

I included the film in my AFI Docs coverage here.

Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, June 10: TIM’S VERMEER

Teller’s exploration of an art history mystery had its world premiere at Telluride. Other fest screenings included Toronto, Palm Springs, Denver, St Louis, Portland, Dubai, the Hamptons, and New York Film Festival, and enjoyed a limited theatrical release. The doc was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. It now becomes available in a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, as well as digitally via iTunes.

I previously wrote about the film out here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, June 10: THE MISSING PICTURE

Rithy Panh’s personal reflection on life under the Khmer Rouge premiered at Cannes last year, where it won the Un Certain Regard. Additional screenings included Toronto, New York, Vancouver, Cleveland, Seattle, Jerusalem, and Göteborg, among several others. The doc was Oscar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

I included the film in my Toronto coverage here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 10: BIBLE QUIZ

Nicole Teeny’s Scripture spin on SPELLBOUND debuted at Slamdance last year, where it claimed the best doc award. Other fest appearances have included New Orleans, Newport Beach, Kansas, St Louis, Oxford, American Doc, and Spokane.

At the same time a competition doc and a portrait of adolescence, Teeny’s film profiles seventeen-year-old Mikayla, a girl from a troubled home who turns to religion for stability and acceptance – or, perhaps more accurately, she turns to a small circle of earnest, pious friends who happen to be obsessed with memorizing the Bible. Their goal: to win the National Bible Quiz Championship. Mikayla’s goal, even though she may not know it herself at first: to make team captain JP her (chaste) boyfriend. Following standard competition doc conventions, Teeny films her subjects engrossed in prep, committing huge chunks of Scripture to memory, and triumphant in battle, rattling it off at debate-speed to beat rival schools – initially fascinating in its peculiarity, but not particularly riveting in and of itself without a more nuanced, in-depth exploration of the impact of Christianity on these young people’s lives, which is strangely lacking here. The viewer might expect Teeny to concentrate on both Mikayla and her clean-cut, attractive crush, JP, but instead she wisely focuses on Mikayla, an appealing, intriguing teen. If she plays to the camera a little too much, it’s forgiveable, as her vulnerability still comes through, with her tentative exploration of burgeoning sexuality and attraction complicating what could have been an otherwise rote comp doc.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 10: THE ABOMINABLE CRIME

Micah Fink’s exploration of the persecution of LGBT Jamaicans had its world premiere at Frameline last year. Its festival circuit has included DOC NYC, Montclair, QDocs, BFI London, St Louis, Reeling, and Outfest, among others.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program saying:
Exposing the roots of homophobia in Jamaican society, THE ABOMINABLE CRIME tells the story of a mother’s love for her child and an activist’s love for his country. It gives voice to Jamaicans like Simone Edwards, who survived an anti-gay shooting, and Maurice Tomlinson, a leading activist who is forced to flee the country after being outed. These personal accounts take the audience on an emotional journey traversing four years and five countries.