Coming to MUBI Friday, January 28:
FEELS GOOD MAN
Director:
Arthur Jones
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
True/False, SXSW, Big Sky Doc, Taipei, Fantasia, Sidewalk, Kyiv
About:
An exploration of the unpredictable development of an influential Internet meme.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
PHOENIX RISING
Actress and activist Evan Rachel Wood takes her experience as a survivor of domestic violence to pursue justice, heal generational trauma, and reclaim her story in a culture that instinctively blames women. The film intimately charts her journey as she moves toward naming her infamous abuser for the first time.
Director:
Amy Berg
Producers:
Kirsten Sheridan, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller
Festival Section:
Special Screenings
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
LAST FLIGHT HOME
An examination of Eli Timoner’s intentional death and his family’s emotional turmoil as they grapple with his decision to end his own life. The family journeys back through Eli’s remarkable, painful life to discover what true love looks like and help him shed shame he’s carried for forty years.
Director:
Ondi Timoner
Producers:
Ondi Timoner, David Turner
Festival Section:
Special Screenings
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
THE AMERICAN DREAM AND OTHER FAIRY TALES
Abigail Disney looks at America’s dysfunctional and unequal economy and asks why the American Dream has worked for the wealthy, yet is a nightmare for people born with less. As a way to imagine a more equitable future, Disney uses her family’s story to explore how this systemic injustice took hold.
Directors/Producers:
Abigail E Disney, Kathleen Hughes
Producer:
Aideen Kane
Festival Section:
Special Screenings
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to DVD via The Criterion Collection Tuesday, January 25:
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
Director:
Kirsten Johnson
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, True/False, CPH:DOX, Doc10
About:
The filmmaker approaches her father’s mortality with inventiveness and dark humor.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Instant Life
Destitute without electricity and running water, Yolanda Signorelli Von Braunhut has lost control of her late husband Harold’s iconic Amazing Live Sea Monkeys novelty. Yet she alone knows their secret formula, and from her crumbling estate on the Potomac, Yolanda wages legal and existential battles to fully win them back.
Directors/Producers:
Mark Becker, Aaron Schock
Festival Section:
Indie Episodic
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Three Minutes – A Lengthening
Three minutes of footage are the only moving images known of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk in Poland before the Holocaust. An examination of that film — in color, random, full of life — reveals historical and personal dimensions.
Director:
Bianca Stigter
Producer:
Floor Onrust
Festival Section:
Spotlight
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Meet Me In The Bathroom
An immersive journey through the New York music scene of the early 2000s. Set against the backdrop of 9/11, the film tells the story of how a new generation kickstarted a musical rebirth for New York City that reverberated around the world. Inspired by the book by Lizzy Goodman.
Director:
Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
Producers:
Vivienne Perry, Sam Bridger, Marisa Clifford, Thomas Benski, Danny Gabai, Suroosh Alvi
Festival Section:
Midnight
More Info:
Check out the Sundance website for more details by clicking on the film title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to MUBI this Saturday, January 22:
WHIRLYBIRD
Director:
Matt Yoka
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, Full Frame, Calgary, Rocky Mountain Women’s, Sun Valley
About:
The story of a marriage’s fraying against the backdrop of cutthroat news reporting in 1990s Los Angeles.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to MUBI this Wednesday, January 19:
TAMING THE GARDEN
Director:
Salomé Jashi
World Premiere:
Sundance 2021
Select Festivals:
Berlin, CPH:DOX, New Directors/New Films, Shanghai, Cinéma du Réel
About:
An artful look at the unusual disruption caused by the removal and transport of several massive trees from small Georgian villages.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
what (not) to doc 