Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to NYC’s IFC Center this Friday, March 14: EXPOSED

Beth B’s exploration of modern burlesque had its world premiere at Berlin last year. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, DOK.fest Munich, Planete + Doc, Transylvania, Sydney, Moscow, Revelation, Melbourne, and Pornfilmfest Berlin, among others.

I previously described the film in the DOC NYC program, saying:
The World Famous *BOB*, Dirty Martini, Tigger!, Mat Fraser, Julie Atlas Muz, Bunny Love, Bambi the Mermaid, James Habacker and Rose Wood use satire and their own bodies to send up conventional notions of body image, gender, and sexuality in their modern burlesque performances. New York underground filmmaking legend Beth B enters their subversive world, both on stage and behind-the-scenes, in this entertainingly provocative portrait of NYC artists gleefully breaking taboos as they entertain.

Coming to theatres this Friday, March 14: TEENAGE

Matt Wolf’s meditation on the emergence of the teenager debuted at Tribeca last year. It went on to screen at Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Melbourne, Traverse City, Sidewalk, BFI London, DMZ Docs, Hot Springs, CPH:DOX, Denver, Portland, and Big Sky, among others.

I included the doc in my Tribeca coverage here.

New to VOD this week: ALL THE WAY THROUGH EVENING

Rohan Spong’s made its debut in NYC on World AIDS Day in December 2011. Other screenings have included Dublin Gaze and Birmingham Shout!, and special events in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, and throughout Australia, as well as a theatrical run in NYC this past December. FilmBuff made the doc available via iTunes and Amazon Instant Video earlier this week.

Since the early 1990s, quintessential downtown New Yorker Mimi Stern-Wolfe has organized annual music concerts celebrating the work of composers lost to AIDS. Featuring often unknown, unrecorded, and forgotten pieces, these tributes serve as one of the only ways for audiences to connect with a whole generation of creative, talented men often cut down in their prime. Spong profiles Stern-Wolfe as she rehearses for her latest concert, but gives ample time to performances both past and present, weaving in remembrances of some of the late musicians through family, friends, and partners. While the film has a modest look, it conveys an appropriate intimacy and heartfulness as it demonstrates one woman’s quiet, elegaic mission of remembrance.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, March 11: THE LEGEND OF COOL “DISCO” DAN

Joseph Pattisall’s urban anthropology of Washington DC through the profile of a graffiti artist made its debut at Silver Spring’s AFI Silver Theatre last January. It went on to screen at additional special engagements in Washington DC, LA, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Baltimore, among other cities.

In the 1980s, a Washington DC resident would be hard-pressed not to know who Cool “Disco” Dan was – his tag was ubiquitous, fueling speculation as to his identity and ability to reach so many locations. Filmmaker Pattisall tells Dan’s story – in reality a quiet African American teenager who turned to street art instead of other vices in order to make a name for himself – but, perhaps recognizing that, ultimately, there isn’s a great deal to it in a vacuum, expands his scope to contextualize Dan within the larger DC black culture of the era, and, specifically, go go music culture, a genre unique to the community based on live performances, bootleg tapes, and neighborhood crews. It’s in this greater exploration that the film proves most fascinating, detailing how this small music subgenre fell prey to racially-motivated police crackdowns, ultimately paving the way for the growth of gangs and drug warfare.