Category Archives: Overviews

This Thursday, April 9 kicks off year 18 for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which will present over 60 new doc features, plus shorts, retrospective programming, and several conversations before it wraps up on Sunday, April 12. In addition to a smartly curated lineup culling some of the best work from Sundance, IDFA, SXSW, and other previous events, the Durham NC fest also introduces its audiences to several notable premieres: Continue reading →

Cinéma du Reél, the documentary festival of Paris, opens its 37th edition tonight, Thursday, March 19, and continues through Sunday, March 30. While programming remains geared to visual anthropology, this year’s event also has stated an openness to flexible considerations of nonfiction forms, represented by opening night selection AUSTERLITZ, a hybrid by Stan Neumann which draws inspiration from a novel by WG Sebald. The event’s various special screenings, retrospectives, and tributes – covering a range of creators from Haskell Wexler to Amit Dutta, and exploring nonfiction from China to Greece – also attempt to bridge the past with the future. The focus below, however, remains on the newer films in the fest’s lineup, as represented in its three feature competition sections: Continue reading →

The 39th Cleveland International Film Festival kicks off tonight, Wednesday, March 18, and runs through Sunday, March 30. One of the nation’s best regional film events, the festival takes over the Ohio city with an impressive showcase of nearly 200 feature films and more than 200 shorts. The following offers a brief overview of the event’s feature documentary slate, broken down by the many competitions featured in the fest. Continue reading →

This year’s New Directors/New Films, a collaboration between the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, kicks off this Wednesday, March 18, and runs through Sunday, March 29. 2015’s 44th edition of the Spring favorite showcases 26 features from emerging filmmakers. Sadly, the nonfiction offerings, which never make up a large percentage of the event’s programming, have been halved relative to last year, with only two documentaries and one hybrid making the cut:

Two made their debut at Sundance this past January: The Ross Brothers’ WESTERN (pictured), which looks at the way two border towns deal with the threat of cartel violence; and Stevan Riley’s LISTEN TO ME MARLON, a textured biographical portrait of Marlon Brando. The third, Simone Rapisarda Casanova’s hybrid THE CREATION OF MEANING, which was awarded at its premiere in Locarno, focuses on a Tuscan shepherd’s struggle with the encroachment of modernity on his way of life.

Tomorrow, Friday, March 13 marks the opening of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which sees its 17th edition run through Sunday, March 22. While I’ve been fortunate to attend the past few years, I’m taking a break this time around. The following section overview offers highlights of new and recent films that I would try to see, were I to be heading to Greece:

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This Friday, March 13, sees the kick off of the latest edition of SXSW, with the film program continuing through Saturday, March 21. I’ll be attending the first half of the festival, joining the hordes of film, music, and interactive professionals and fans who annually descend on Austin. In terms of nonfiction programming, the festival has increased the number of feature docs in its lineup after a bit of a reduction last year, with 68 out of 145 selections. The following section breakdown (excepting Festival Favorites and Midnighters) offers highlights of many of these: Continue reading →

Beginning tomorrow, Thursday, March 5, the 12th edition of the True/False Film Festival takes over Columbia MO through the weekend. More than forty features figure in the popular destination event’s programming, representing an eclectic cross-section of brand new work, recent Sundance titles, standouts from the past Fall’s European festivals like IDFA, CPH:DOX, and elsewhere, several “secret screenings” that offer attendees sneak previews of upcoming debuts, and works on the border of fiction and nonfiction, as featured in the event’s Neither/Nor series. I’m looking forward to returning to the festival again, with the below highlights foremost on my watch list: Continue reading →

The 11th edition of Croatia’s premier nonfiction event, ZagrebDox, begins this Sunday, February 22, and continues through Sunday, March 1. The festival annually showcases nearly one hundred new and retrospective feature documentaries, in addition to shorts, masterclasses, panels, and a pitching forum. Its programming lineup includes a healthy mix of international work that has already debuted on the festival circuit, and has been covered here previously, as well new regional work, which makes up the bulk of the following overview:

Of the fest’s two competitions, Regional and International, there are more new titles that catch my eye in the former, including: Goran Stanković’s meditation on the lives of Serbian miners, IN THE DARK; Damir Ibrahimović and Eldar Emrić’s hybrid psychological profile of a Russian mafioso, RUSSIAN (pictured); Hrvoje Mabić’s look at a lesbian couple’s attempts to deal with past trauma, SICK; and Eva Kraljević’s portrait of her sister with Down’s syndrome, I LIKE THAT SUPER MOST THE BEST.

The non-competitive Official Programme consists of nine thematic sections, including Biography Dox, which features films like Marcus Vetter and Karin Steinberger’s THE FORECASTER, on a prescient American economic analyst, and Lorenzo Cioffi and Alessandro De Toni’s RUSTAM CASANOVA – LIFE OF AN ARTIST, about a chameleon-like opera singer; Controversial Dox, featuring work like Aleksandar Nikolić’s THE SERBIAN LAWYER, which focuses on an attorney struggling to defend former enemies, and Karim B Haroun’s MYSTIC MASS, detailing a massive Shia Muslim ritual; Happy Dox, such as Oscar Pérez’s THE FINAL STRETCH, about a small Spanish village facing crisis; Teen Dox, which includes August Baugstø Hanssen’s profile of a borderline personality disorder sufferer, IDA’S DIARY, Alexandra Likhacheva’s look at modern Russia through the eyes of two disaffected young people, LONG.BLACK.CLOUD IS COMING DOWN, and Linda Hakeboom’s portrait of a Dutch rockstar poised for international celebrity, WHO THE FUCK IS JETT REBEL (pictured); as well as strands on global music, current affairs, documentary auteurs’ latest work, and factual programming.

ZagrebDox’s Special Programme this year consists of two focus areas, the Middle East, which features such work as Firouzeh Khosrovani’s FEST OF DUTY
(pictured), a look at a traditional Muslim ceremony for girls, and Søren Steen Jespersen and Nasib Farah’s WARRIORS FROM THE NORTH, on the radicalization of young Somali men; and Thriller Dox, which includes Andreas Koefoed’s THE ARMS DROP, about a 1995 weapons deal that went wrong, and Pekka Lehto’s EMERGENCY CALL – A MURDER MYSTERY, on an unsolved 2006 crime in small Finnish town.