Category Archives: Overviews

Launched in 2009, Disappearing Act is a European film festival in New York City that celebrates critically acclaimed films from all across Europe that have still nevertheless been unable to attract widespread audience awareness. A co-presentation of the Czech Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute, the event draws on support from nearly two dozen additional European agencies. Its fourth edition begins tomorrow, April 11, and runs through April 22. Screenings will be held at the IFC Center, the Bohemian National Hall, and the Alliance Francaise. With the exception of the opening night, all other screenings are free to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Of the twenty-five features making up this year’s line-up, four are documentaries, while an additional two are hybrid narrative/docs. I’ve already seen and strongly recommend two of the former: CINEMA KOMUNISTO (pictured) and DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR.

The remaining docs are the Slovakian THE BORDER (pictured), directed by Jaroslav Vojtek, telling the story of the village of Slemence, divided by new borders in 1946 into a Slovak and a Ukranian side, literally separating families and the entire community; and the Hungarian NEGATIVE HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN CINEMA, directed by Gyula Nemes, which intriguingly seeks to rediscover unfinished or never-made films by the masters of Hungarian cinema.

The hybrids include Italian director Pietro Marcello’s award-winning THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF/LA BOCCA DEL LUPO (pictured), a truly sui generis piece celebrating Genoa and the unlikely love story of a murderer and a drug addict; and Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST, a similarly beguiling cinematic exploration of place, focused on the attempt to make a film against the backdrop of a summer music festival in a rural village community.

The 19th New York African Film Festival kicks off this Wednesday, bringing New York audiences a concise cross-section of new and retrospective film from all over Africa. Reflecting a desire to serve a diverse potential audience, aside from a couple of satellite events, the festival takes place at multiple venues over three different periods of time: The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre between April 11-17, Harlem’s Maysles Cinema between May 4-6, and Brooklyn’s BAM Rose Cinemas between May 25-28.

Documentaries outnumber the fiction films at the festival, perhaps speaking to one of the goals of the event – educating the public about the African continent and its widely distinct peoples, upending the stereotypes many viewers might have of a monolithic, “primitive” culture. Correcting these reductive notions, the non-fiction on display at the event instead represents an expansive, vibrant multiplicity of backgrounds and concerns. By my count there are eighteen feature-length documentaries or documentary series – almost entirely new work, with a few retrospective programs highlighting South Africa’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress. Continue reading →

Launched fifteen years ago (originally as the Double Take Documentary Film Festival), the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival annually brings over one hundred new and retrospective non-fiction films to Durham NC over the course of four days. Typically screening each film only once, forcing audiences to decide between as many as five simultaneous choices, organizers generate a real sense of urgency around every screening. While I’ve sadly only been once, the festival proved to be a well curated event with a notably erudite and diverse audience drawn from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle.

Running April 12-15, Full Frame 2012 includes more than fifty new documentary features in addition to shorts and retro programming that includes a four film tribute to Stanley Nelson and a ten film series around the theme of family, featuring notable titles like Doug Block’s 51 BIRCH STREET, Marco Williams’ IN SEARCH OF OUR FATHERS, Alan Berliner’s INTIMATE STRANGER, and Lucia Small’s MY FATHER, THE GENIUS. Among the lineup are a number of fantastic films I’ve written about previously that screened at other festivals like Toronto, IDFA, and Sundance, but my eye was drawn to a number of titles making their premieres here that, for the most part, I haven’t seen yet but would put on the top of my list if I were attending. Continue reading →

The 41st edition of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, begins next Wednesday, March 21 and runs through Sunday, April 1.

As always, ND/NF is a tightly curated showcase of international emerging talent – the series consists of 29 features and 12 shorts from 28 countries. There are only four feature docs included, but of the three that I’ve already seen (Sundance titles), they represent some of the strongest, most provocative non-fiction work of the past few months:

5 BROKEN CAMERAS

THE AMBASSADOR

HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE

I haven’t yet seen the fourth film, Anca Damian’s CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND, from Romania, which has already picked up awards at CPH:DOX, Locarno, and Warsaw.

While not technically a doc in its final form, a fifth film, another Sundance alumnus, Terence Nance’s AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY, has its origins in non-fiction, and utilizes documentary strategies to tell its winning story about love and desire.

This month, I’m excited to be attending the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival for the first time. I’ll be leaving SXSW after its first half to catch the second half of the Greek festival, making for a packed couple of weeks. It’s been far too many years since I’ve been to Greece – the homeland of both of my parents – and the first time I’ve attended a film event there. The tight timing unfortunately means I won’t have a chance to visit relatives in Athens, putting me in the doghouse with them, but so it goes.

Thessaloniki’s documentary fest, part of the same organization that puts together the larger non-doc specific event in the Fall, opens tomorrow, March 9 and runs through the 18th. Its 14th edition, under the theme “Images of the 21st Century, presents a staggering 185 films – features and shorts – under eight sections plus an additional six special programs. I’m covering the festival for Indiewire and looking forward to sampling as many of the offerings as possible. Following is a section-by-section overview, with some of the titles that caught my attention as I read through the lineup descriptions: Continue reading →

SXSW opens in a week, and I’m happy to be attending once again. I’m honored to be serving as a juror for the fest once again, this time for the documentary short competition, and I’ll also be participating on the very first film panel, Beginners Guide to SXSW Film, on Friday, March 9 at 2pm.

With great weather, a fun atmosphere, a welcoming staff, and fantastic programming, SXSW has quickly become one of my favorite festivals after just a few years of attending, and a trip I look forward to every year. The documentary programming is diverse, spread throughout the various sections of the festival, and reflects a freewheeling mix of portraiture, social advocacy films, music docs, and everything in between. While my trip this year is slightly truncated so that I can also attend the Thessaloniki Documentary festival in Greece, I’m hoping to catch as many of the festival’s lineup of nearly 60 feature documentaries as I can while I’m in Austin. Continue reading →

The ninth edition of Columbia MO’s innovative and fun documentary festival, True/False, begins next Thursday, March 1 and runs through the weekend. Sadly, I won’t be attending this year as I have the past couple of years, but I wanted to offer a quick rundown of some of the films in the always well-curated festival’s lineup. Continue reading →

Now in its eleventh year, the Documentary Fortnight is MoMA’s annual exhibition of recent non-fiction from around the world. Running February 16-28, the program aims to expand the consideration of what constitutes documentary in contemporary filmmaking and art, reflected in an eclectic and innovative line-up as well as two guided tours of Web-based interactive non-fiction storytelling. Continue reading →

Yesterday, the first part of my IDFA overview highlighted a number of films screening in the Amsterdam-based festival’s various competitions. In this second post, I look at the remainder of the regular programming and offer a few more of my must-sees. This still only barely scratches the surface of the event’s extensive line-up, not to mention other components like the Forum, DocLab, retrospective screenings, panels, and shorts. Continue reading →

IDFA, the largest documentary event in the world, begins next Wednesday in Amsterdam and continues through November 27. More than 300 films will screen, culled from 3600 submissions – staggering figures, and a testament to the diligence of Director Ally Derks and her staff.

I’ve been attending the festival for the past few years, and am honored to be serving on the its First Appearance competition jury for this edition. I look forward to seeing each of the sixteen debut films in this category, hailing from nearly as many countries, so, out of impartiality, I won’t single any of them out below. The full list may be found here. Continue reading →