The San Francisco International Film Festival, the nation’s longest-running film festival, celebrates its 59th year starting tonight, Thursday, April 21. Almost 100 new feature films, among them approximately 40 documentaries, will be presented before the event wraps on Thursday, May 5 with a screening of Jesse Moss’ THE BANDIT, a love letter to Burt Reynolds’ SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. Other nonfiction on offer follows: Continue reading
Category Archives: Film Festivals
San Francisco 2016: Documentary Overview
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
In Theatres: HOW TO LET GO OF THE WORLD…
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, April 20: HOW TO LET GO OF THE WORLD (AND LOVE ALL THE THINGS CLIMATE CAN’T CHANGE)
Josh Fox’s personal meditation on climate change had its debut at Sundance earlier this year. The doc has gone on to screen at Cleveland, Thin Line, environmental fests in San Francisco, Washington DC, Princeton, and Yale, and at the upcoming Hot Docs, among other events. The theatrical release is part of the grassroots renewable energy awareness Let Go and Love Tour that will travel to 100 US cities through the Spring.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
On DVD & Digital Download: DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD
Coming to DVD and digital download today, Tuesday, April 19: DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON
Douglas Tirola’s chronicle of the influential humor magazine debuted at Sundance last year. The film also appeared at Nantucket, Tribeca, Hot Docs, Full Frame, AFI Docs, Traverse City, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Sarasota, Montclair, and Sydney, among several others.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
On DVD: SEMBENE!
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 19: SEMBENE!
Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman’s tribute to the African cinema pioneer had its world premiere at Sundance last year. Screenings followed at Cannes, Telluride, Sydney, BFI London, Durban, Mill Valley, Zanzibar, Rio, and AFI Fest, among other events.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Visions du Réel 2016 Overview
Switzerland’s Visions du Réel holds its 47th annual edition beginning tomorrow, Friday, April 15 through Sunday, April 23. The Nyon-based documentary event will screen nearly 100 new and recent features in addition to retrospective and shorts programming. Highlights from various sections are noted below: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Tribeca 2016: Documentary Overview
The 15th annual Tribeca Film Festival begins this Wednesday, April 13, kicking off with an opening night screening of Andrew Rossi’s FIRST MONDAY IN MAY, a behind-the-scenes look at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Gala. By the time the event wraps on Sunday, April 24, the festival will have showcased nearly 60 additional nonfiction features, including fellow Gala title THE BOMB, Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari, and Eric Schlosser’s immersive 360 degree meditation on nuclear weapons, and other highlights noted below: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
On TV: NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER
Coming to HBO tomorrow, Saturday, April 9: NOTHING LEFT UNSAID: GLORIA VANDERBILT & ANDERSON COOPER
Liz Garbus’ profile of a famed socialite, via her equally famous journalist son, had its world premiere at Sundance at the beginning of the year. Additional berths have included the Miami and Martha’s Vineyard fests as well as part of year-round special programming at Newport and Nantucket.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Art of the Real 2016 Overview
The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s nonfiction and hybrid showcase, Art of the Real returns for the third year starting tomorrow, Friday, April 8 and runs through Thursday, April 21. In addition to presenting twenty new features, this year’s series offers two programs of short films as well as a five-program retrospective of the work of experimental filmmaker Bruce Baillie. Two films open Art of the Real – the world premiere of Ben Rivers’ WHAT MEANS SOMETHING (pictured), a quiet portrait of artist Rose Wylie; and Roberto Minervini’s THE OTHER SIDE, a look at outsiders’ lives in the Louisiana bayou – while Jumana Manna’s ethnomusicological portrait of Palestine, A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE FLOWS INTO ME, brings the series to a close.
Additional programming includes the US premiere of José Luis Guerín’s ACADEMY OF THE MUSES, a romantic comedy crossed with a philosophical meditation on love and art, partly based on reality; Federico Lodoli and Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli’s FRAGMENT 53, an exploration of extremism through the confessions of perpetrators in Liberia’s civil war; Andrea Bussmann and Nicolás Pereda’s TALES OF TWO WHO DREAMT, in which a real Roma family seeking asylum in Canada inspires self-mythologizing stories; and Thom Andersen’s THE THOUGHTS THAT ONCE WE HAD (pictured), a Deleuzian jaunt through film history.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
In Theatres: The Maysles & Co
Tomorrow, Friday, April 8, sees the launch of The Maysles & Co, a near-comprehensive series at NYC’s Film Forum celebrating the work of the acclaimed Albert and David Maysles and their team of collaborators. Spanning twenty-five features and more than a dozen shorts, the series, which runs through Thursday, April 21, offers audiences the chance to see not only acclaimed classics like GREY GARDENS (1976) and SALESMAN (1969), but more recent work, including IRIS (2014), and especially rarely screened Out-takes, Commercials, Rarities and Portraits & Early Work (1955-1966), among several other highlights.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Overviews, Recommendations
It’s All True 2016 Overview
São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro will host the 21st edition of Brazil’s It’s All True International Documentary Film Festival, which opens tomorrow, Thursday, April 7 in the former with Berlin winner FIRE AT SEA, Gianfranco Rosi’s meditation on the refugee crisis; and in the latter on Saturday, April 9 with THE AMAZING ARTRICKS OF THE GYPSY CLOUD, Paola Vieira and Claudio Lobato’s profile of a 1970s Rio art collective. Before the festival wraps on Sunday, April 17, the event will present over forty new and recent feature docs, as well as shorts and retrospective programming. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
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