Category Archives: Film Festivals

Opening this Friday, September 3: LAST TRAIN HOME

Documentary programmers, press, and industryites attending IDFA last Fall were abuzz after viewing Lixin Fan’s film, which went on to have its North American premiere in the World Cinema Competition at Sundance. Capturing in heartbreaking detail the sacrifices many Chinese rural villagers have had to make to provide for their families, the film follows one couple amongst 130 million migrant workers who make an annual holiday visit from the city where they spend virtually the entire year back to their home village to see the children they’ve left behind.

Fan establishes a powerful intimacy with his subjects – so much so that, in a pivotal scene, the audience is usually left gasping at what they’re bearing witness to, powerless to intervene and pained to see the fracturing of a family. In years to come, LAST TRAIN HOME may very well be recognized as a new classic among world documentaries.

Update: indieWIRE has a great interview with Fan for their FUTURES column here.

Opening this Friday, August 20: THE TILLMAN STORY

Premiering at Sundance earlier this year, Amir Bar-Lev’s expose of the US military’s cover-up of the death by friendly fire of professional football player turned Army Ranger Pat Tillman was very well received and scored a distribution deal with The Weinstein Company. Recently, as happened with its fellow Sundance alum A FILM UNFINISHED, the Weinsteins unsuccessfully faced off against the MPAA over an R rating, due in large part over the language in the documentary – the film was originally announced with the title I’M PAT ____ TILLMAN, referring to some of the Tillman family’s propensity for swearing.

Director Bar-Lev has consistently crafted engaging, thought-provoking work, and in THE TILLMAN STORY, he asks the audience to consider how and why we choose our heroes. At its core, the documentary questions not only the propaganda-making of a government at war, but the public’s willingness to buy what the government is selling.

Update: indieWIRE has a review of the film here.

Opening this Wednesday, August 18 in NYC and Friday, August 20 in LA before a national roll-out: A FILM UNFINISHED

Yael Hersonski’s acclaimed documentary had its world premiere in competition at Sundance this year, where it also claimed the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. Oscilloscope picked up the film for theatrical release, and in the past few weeks generated quite a bit of press when the MPAA slapped an unwarranted R rating on the film due to graphic nudity, a ruling upheld even after a very public appeal.

The rating underscores the MPAA’s myopia, “protecting” younger teen viewers from seeing the horror of the Holocaust, which one could strongly argue they should be witnessing in the service of education and good conscience. Hersonski’s film reveals the story behind a Nazi propaganda film about the Warsaw ghetto which became an important source for Holocaust and Jewish history scholars after WWII. But, as Hersonski demonstrates, more recently discovered reels reveal the carefully orchestrated way the Nazis constructed their “documentary,” filming multiple takes in obviously staged scenes.

A FILM UNFINISHED lays bare this footage, reflecting on the power of the image and the question of documentary truth, while at the same time providing insight into the Third Reich’s propaganda machine.

indieWIRE profiles the film’s director here.