Category Archives: Film Festivals

Tomorrow, Wednesday, March 19, sees the launch of the 38th edition of the popular Cleveland International Film Festival, a sprawling and increasingly popular regional cinema event that annually serves the cinephilic tastes of the Ohio city. Showcasing over 350 films from nearly 70 countries through Sunday, March 30, the festival’s lineup includes approximately 70 documentary features, appearing in several sidebars and as part of a variety of competition programs. Highlights from the latter are singled out below: Continue reading →

The 43rd annual edition of the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films launches tomorrow, Wednesday, March 19, and continues through Sunday, March 30. The Spring cousin of the venerable New York Film Festival, ND/NF is a more tightly curated affair, presenting just under 30 feature length films from innovative and emerging filmmakers. Among these are just six recent works of nonfiction or hybrid nonfiction:

Three of these include recent standouts from Sundance which I’ve previously profiled: Talal Derki’s immersive Syrian civil war chronicle, RETURN TO HOMS, which previously opened IDFA; Hubert Sauper’s South Sudanese neocolonial expedition, WE COME AS FRIENDS (pictured); and Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s hybrid essay on musician Nick Cave, 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH, winner of two awards in Park City this January.

I’ve also previously written about another hybrid offering, Roberto Minervini’s slow-burning would-be rural romance, STOP THE POUNDING HEART. Other selections include Ben Rivers and Ben Russell’s experimental hybrid, A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS; and Jessica Oreck’s THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA (pictured), which blends fairy tale animation and documentary storytelling in a parable of life in Eastern Europe.

The 16th edition of Greece’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival began this past Friday, so I’m a bit late in posting this “preview.” I’ll once again be attending the tail end of the event, which will run through this coming Sunday, March 23, unspooling more than 140 new documentary features, with shorts and retrospective programming adding to that tally, including a tribute to the recently departed Peter Wintonick. What follows is a breakdown, section-by-section, of new and recent films in the lineup that have caught my attention, omitting titles that I’ve covered previously elsewhere. Continue reading →

SXSW kicks off tomorrow, Friday, March 7, and runs through Sunday, March 16. Between attending True/False (post to come) and working on programming Nantucket, I have been remiss in highlighting this year’s documentary line-up in any depth. As I’ve noted before, my annual pilgrimage to Austin feels like a rite of Spring, a week of typically warm weather that preps me for the eventual thawing out of a NYC seemingly caught in an endless polar vortex. While I’ll be checking out as many of the offerings, fiction and nonfiction alike, for Nantucket, my heart remains with the latter, so I’m especially interested in the fifty feature docs that are included in this year’s lineup. Selections from each section are highlighted below. Continue reading →

One of my favorite film events of the year, the True/False Film Festival, begins its second decade tomorrow, with its eleventh edition running through the weekend. Just over forty features plus several shorts will screen for the fest’s loyal local Columbia MO audience, as well as the scores of visitors that flock to the event each year. A festival with a distinctive vision, an appreciation for cinematic non-fiction, the organizers also have cultivated a unique approach to the event itself, peppering it with beloved traditions, like the March March Parade, eclectic screening venues, and fun parties. This year, they’ve decided to shake things up even further, revealing several weeks ago that they will be sharing revenue with their featured filmmakers. I’m always excited to head out to the festival, which carefully curates a program of new and recent work, cherry-picking from among the best of Sundance, IDFA, and other events, while offering some secret sneak previews, and, this year notably, a number of world premieres – though they don’t make a big deal about the latter. The following highlights these as well as other works I haven’t already mentioned here before. Continue reading →