Category Archives: Film Festivals

The 9th annual edition of Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival technically begins tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30, and runs through Sunday, August 4, but “pre-festival” screenings have actually been taking place since Saturday afternoon. The festival offers its audiences the opportunity to experience a wide selection of “just great movies,” representing standouts from larger festivals like Sundance and SXSW, as well as a sampling of brand new films and some retrospectives. Among these are more than forty documentary features, including its Centerpiece slot, Chiemi Karasawa’s ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME, and the following:

Screening as part of the pre-fest “Friends Only” show was the world premiere of Ky Dickens’ SOLE SURVIVOR (pictured), recounting the experiences of people who miraculously survived plane crashes. Also exploring a tragic air accident is Kristina Borjesson’s TWA FLIGHT 800, which investigates claims made by whistleblowers of a cover-up. Robert Greenwald’s WAR ON WHISTLEBLOWERS: FREE PRESS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE takes as its subject the fates facing those who would publicly reveal government wrongdoing.

Other newer or lesser-seen docs appearing at the festival are Ben Anderson’s THIS IS WHAT WINNING LOOKS LIKE (pictured), about the transition facing Afghanistan as US forces leave the war-torn country to its own security and defense forces; Shosh Shlam and Ada Ushpiz’s GOOD GARBAGE, following Palestinian men and boys as they attempt to support their families by picking through garbage at a Hebron dump; and Jane Gillooly’s SUITCASE OF LOVE AND SHAME, an auditeuristic exploration of a 1960s affair conducted through tape recordings. Finally, of special note is Traverse City’s tribute to Michael Apted with a retrospective screening of all the docs in the UP series.

NYC’s Film Society of Lincoln Center turns the spotlight on music docs in their new Sound + Vision series, which runs this Friday, July 26 through Thursday, August 1. Covering a wide range of topics and approaches, the seventeen feature docs included in the program celebrates musicians as well as the power music has on our lives. Very generally speaking, it’s a genre that doesn’t always immediately strike a chord with me, but I would single out the following highlights:

Among the films that I’ve not had a chance to see yet but have been on my radar: Lily Keber’s BAYOU MAHARAJAH: THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF JAMES BOOKER (pictured), about the man known as the “Black Liberace;” Hark-Joon Lee’s 9 MUSES OF STAR EMPIRE, which follows the making of a K-pop girl group over a year; John Anderson’s BORN IN CHICAGO, the story of a group of middle-class white musicians who were inspired by Mississippi Delta black performers in the 1960s; Olallo Rubio’s GIMME THE POWER, a profile of the successful political activist Mexican band Molotov; and Désirée von Trotha’s WOODSTOCK IN TIMBUKTU: THE ART OF RESISTANCE (pictured), a look at a desert musical festival and its role in uniting the nomadic Touareg people.

Titles that I’ve seen elsewhere that are worth a look include: Jesse Acevedo’s VIVA CUBA LIBRE: RAP IS WAR!, also focuses on the ability of popular music to catalyze protest, through the story of Cuban rap duo Los Aldeanos; Greg “Freddy” Camalier’s Sundance alum MUSCLE SHOALS, on the famed Alabama recording studio; Doug Hamilton’s SXSW alum, BROADWAY IDIOT, on the adaptation of Green Day’s heralded album into a successful Broadway musical; and Bobbi Jo Hart’s I AM NOT A ROCK STAR, an intimate portrait of a gifted young Canadian pianist over eight years.

Beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, July 24 and running through Saturday, August 3, NYC’s AsianCinevision presents the 36th edition of the Asian American International Film Festival. The event, the longest-running of its kind in the US, annually celebrates the work of Asian and Asian-American filmmakers. This year, the festival presents more than two dozen features and over forty shorts from eighteen countries, in addition to workshops and other special events. Among its documentary feature offerings are a pair of Sundance alums: Evan Jackson Leong’s LINSANITY, making its East Coast premiere here as the Opening Night film; and Jason DaSilva’s WHEN I WALK, screening as a sneak preview.

Among the other docs on offer are Mona Lisa Yuchengco’s MARILOU DIAZ-ABAYA: FILMMAKER ON A VOYAGE (pictured), an overview of the late Filipino director, whose 1983 KARNAL also screens this year; Hua Tien-hau’s GO GRANDRIDERS, about a Taiwanese senior citizen motorcycle club; Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi’s HAFU: THE MIXED-RACE EXPERIENCE IN JAPAN, an exploration of Japanese biracial identity; and Benito Bautista’s HARANA, a search for a lost Filipino courtship tradition.

Latinbeat, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual Latin American cinema showcase, begins this Friday, July 12 and runs through Sunday, July 21. For its 14th edition, taking place a month earlier than its typical August berth, the series presents 18 films – hailing from all over the region, from Argentina to Uruguay, Chile to Brazil – of which four are documentaries:

From Colombia, Priscilla Padilla’s THE ETERNAL NIGHT OF TWELVE MOONS (LA ETERNA NOCHE DE LAS DOCE LUNAS) (pictured above) explores an indigenous tradition that keeps young women isolated for a year upon the onset of menstruation; from Guatemala/Mexico, Mercedes Moncada’s MAGICAL WORDS (BREAKING A SPELL) (PALABRAS MÁGICAS (PARA ROMPER UN ENCANTAMIENTO)), a personal reflection of growing up in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution; from Mexico, Emiliano Altuna, Diego Enrique Osorno, and Carlos Rossini’s THE MAYOR (EL ALCALDE), a portrait of a controversial millionaire turned politician who resorts to extreme measures to keep his community safe from the narcotrafficking violence plaguing other parts of the country; and from Argentina/France, Daniele Incalcaterra and Fausta Quattrini’s IMPENETRABLE (EL IMPENETRABLE), following the filmmaker and his brother as they try to explore inherited land in Paraguay, only to be frustrated by unwelcoming neighbors.

Southern California’s largest LGBT film event, Outfest, kicks off its 31st edition this Thursday, July 11. Over eleven nights, the festival will present nearly 60 features, close to 100 shorts, as well as panels and other special events, for an estimated audience of 55,000. Included among the lineup are more then 20 feature documentaries from which I’ll offer highlights below:

Like last year, nonfiction takes two of Outfest’s coveted Gala slots: Roger Ross Williams’ Sundance alum GOD LOVES UGANDA screens as the Documentary Centerpiece, while Pratibha Parmar’s ALICE WALKER: BEAUTY IN TRUTH (pictured) takes the Fusion Centerpiece position.

The bulk of the fest’s docs screen in the main program, which includes: Lily Keber’s BAYOU MAHARAJAH: THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF JAMES BOOKER (pictured), a portrait of the unheralded African American gay jazz pianist; Liam Sullivan’s IAN HARVIE SUPERHERO, the trans standup comedian’s concert film; Timothy Wheeler’s THE OTHER SHORE, following lesbian long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s attempts to finally swim from Cuba to Key West after a disappointing failed attempt three decades prior; Lisa Biagiotti’s DEEPSOUTH, exploring the inadequacies of HIV/AIDS healthcare in the American South; Fan Popo’s MAMA RAINBOW, a profile of mothers of LGBT kids in China; and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason’s Tribeca winner BRIDEGROOM, about tragedy befalling a young gay couple.

Finally, Platinum, the experimental and cutting edge section, includes two docs: Travis Mathews and James Franco’s Sundance hybrid, INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR., inspired by CRUISING; and Charles Atlas’ TURNING (pictured), a concert film on Antony and the Johnsons’ 2006 European tour.

Running tomorrow, July 4 through Saturday, July 13, the Jerusalem Film Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary. Long established as one of the region’s key film events, the festival annually showcases a broad range of both international and new Israeli productions. More than 40 documentary features and hybrids are included in this year’s lineup, appearing in a standalone competition as well as in various other sections of the festival. The following spotlights a few select titles:

Among the ten local titles vying for the main documentary awards are: Ilan Moskovich and Dan Bronfeld’s APOLLONIAN STORY, about a father and son, and the elaborate cave in which they live; Nurit Kedar and Yaron Shani’s LIFE SENTENCES, on the different paths taken by the children of a Jewish woman and an Arab father discovered to be a terrorist; Nissim Mossek’s WILD WEST HEBRON, which finds the tables turned on a German convert to Judaism turned militant settler; Itamar Alcalay’s FOUR YEARS OF NIGHT (pictured), following a photographer as he revisits the French neo-Nazi gang he documented thirty years ago; and Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia’s ELECTRONIC HEROIN, an up-close look at the treatment for China’s Internet “addicts.”

Other Israeli titles screening include: Irit Gal’s THE FADING VALLEY, an exposé of the embattled Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley; Nurith Aviv’s ANNONCES, in which women offer their own interpretations of holy scripture; and Helen Yanovsky’s JERUSALEM BOXING CLUB (pictured), presented as a work-in-progress, about a bomb shelter turned gym that unites and inspires youth. Finally, from outside Israel in the fest’s Jewish Experience strand is Diana Groo’s REGINA, recounting the life of the first modern female rabbi, who perished at Auschwitz in 1944.