Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 16: AN AFFAIR OF THE HEART

Sylvia Caminer’s look at devoted Rick Springfield fans had its world premiere at the Florida Film Festival, where it picked up a special jury prize. It went on to win awards at Nashville, Sidewalk, and Boston, and also screened at IDFA, Hot Docs, Hot Springs, Sound Unseen, and Planete+ Doc, among others, before its theatrical release last Fall.

Wearing its hagiographic intentions on its sleeves, Caminer’s film unabashedly celebrates the 1980s pop star who famously sang the catchy “Jessie’s Girl” and appeared on GENERAL HOSPITAL. He’s an affable figure, consistently maintaining an active performance schedule in the intervening decades, thanks in large part to, Caminer demonstrates, the obsessive loyalty of his legion of fans. Ultimately, this is what makes her film worthwhile – for, despite its attempts to address Springfield’s history (including, to be fair, some of his missteps or moral failings), he could almost be any once huge but somewhat diminished celebrity – perhaps explaining the odd presence of former teen heartthrob Corey Feldman as an interviewee in the proceedings. What’s really at its core is a look at celebrity fandom, both a cause for inspiration and obsession in equal measures. While it steers clear of the pathological kind of fandom found in the excellent Tiffany fan doc I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW, Caminer’s film profiles Springfield superfans, some who have been following him for decades, from middle-aged housewives taking girls’ weekends to attend his concerts to a teenager who has been regularly jamming with his idol ever since he was first pulled onstage as a toddler, or, hitting more serious notes, a woman who used a Springfield album to recover from life-threatening surgery, and a minister who gained strength to resist suicide through his music. These ordinary people elevate the project from charges of being a puff piece, speaking instead to the relationship between celebrity and fan, and celebrating it in an entertaining, if generally light, manner.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16: BIDDER 70

Beth and George Gage’s look at one man’s act of defiance debuted at last year’s Mountainfilm in Telluride. Its festival run has included Cleveland, Human Rights Watch, Traverse City, Cine Montana, and several environmental events. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release this past May.

I wrote about the doc upon its release here.

Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16: THE FRUIT HUNTERS

Yung Chang’s look at exotic fruit lovers debuted at RIDM last year. Its fest circuit included IDFA, Toronto Reel Asian, Palm Springs, Hawaii, and Global Visions, among others. It was part of Cinedigm’s Docurama theatrical doc screening series this Spring.

I previously wrote about the film out of IDFA here.

Coming to ESPN as part of their Nine for IX series next Tuesday, July 16: LET THEM WEAR TOWELS

Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s revisitation of the double standards female journalists once faced debuted at Tribeca this year. The film was commissioned by ESPN for its women-directed, women in sports doc series, an offshoot of sorts to the network’s popular 30 for 30 doc brand.

I included the doc in my Tribeca coverage here.

Coming to WORLD Channel’s Global Voices series this Sunday, July 14: INVOKING JUSTICE

Deepa Dhanraj’s look at Muslim South Indian women uniting to ensure justice under Sharia law made its debut at IDFA in 2011. Its festival run has included Hawaii, DocPoint, One World, CAAMFest, and NY’s Asian American fest, among others.

In Southern India’s Tamil Nadu, disputes involving family issues – dowries to divorces, domestic violence to murder – used to be adjudicated by local Jamaats, all-male assemblies tasked with applying Sharia law, without women present to offer testimony or defense. In 2004, this practice changed, when a Women’s Jamaat was formed to attend directly to women’s issues, a radical and controversial idea that nevertheless proved popular as women became emboldened by its equal application of the law. Dhanraj’s film focuses on the work of a Women’s Jamaat as its fierce advocates seek justice for a mother whose daughter was allegedly set aflame by her husband and in-laws in a dowry dispute, and for a battered wife who’s finally reached her limit when her husband makes inappropriate sexual advances to their daughter. Eye-opening in its raw exposé of continuing gender inequities and corruption, the film nevertheless leaves the viewer feeling that these women are making a real difference, working from within the bounds of the system to reclaim their religion from extremists who would use it to subjugate and do violence upon women.