Category Archives: Film

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, January 29:
MAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROTHERS

Directors:
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Full Frame, Nashville, IDFA

About:
A behind-the-scenes look at the folk rock band as they record their latest album.

Longtime fans of the NC band, directors Apatow and Bonfiglio offer a loving tribute, focusing on the sibling pair at its heart, elder brother Scott and younger brother Seth. Hewing fairly close to music docs of its ilk, the film reviews the band’s origins, presents numerous performances, and provides fans a look at their creative process in the studio with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin to record “True Sadness,” which went on to be nominated for two Grammy Awards. Along the way, Apatow and Bonfiglio establish and re-establish that Scott and Seth are remarkably close and that everyone in the band gets along, briefly profiling other bandmates and family members. While offering some pathos in the consideration of the real-life inspiration of Seth’s new song about divorce, the film largely feels fairly surface, playing primarily to its fanbase and never really transcending its celebratory feel to dig much deeper.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, January 29:
I AM ANOTHER YOU

Director:
Nanfu Wang

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, BAMcinemaFest, Ashland, Cleveland

About:
What begins as a portrait of a seemingly carefree young drifter becomes something more complex.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 23:
NASSER’S REPUBLIC: THE MAKING OF MODERN EGYPT

Director:
Michal Goldman

Premiere:
Washington DC International Film Festival 2016

Select Festivals:
IFF Boston, Cairo, Pan-African, Luxor African, African Disaspora

About:
A profile of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nasser quickly rose to power in Egypt as one of the leaders of the 1952 revolution, a military coup to abolish the monarchy and end the British occupation. Following its success, and a later face-off with the Muslim Brotherhood, the charismatic Nasser became Egypt’s president and continued widespread reforms, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the formation of a nascent pan-Arab nation. As Goldman points out in her educational but workmanlike film, however, is that while Nasser brought many positive contributions to Egypt – and tried to accomplish much more that might very well have helped to stabilize the Middle East – he unfortunately failed to institute a true democracy. As a result, while hailed as Egypt’s great liberator, he also became the nation’s dictator until his death in 1970, setting the course for subsequent decades of authoritarian rule. In many ways, however, the Egypt that Nasser set out to transform shared much in common with today’s post-Arab Spring one, a country seeking to move beyond Mubarak and build a new, modern nation, making Goldman’s project timely for its historical contextualization and analysis.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 23:
WHERE YOU’RE MEANT TO BE

Director:
Paul Fegan

Premiere:
Glasgow 2016

Select Festivals:
IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sheffield, Edinburgh, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Chicago, Vancouver, Guth Gafa

About:
A Scots musician attempts to modernize and popularize outdated folk songs.

Fegan’s film follows Aidan Moffat, who was part of popular band Arab Strap, as he sets out to tour Scotland with his rewritten folk songs, borne out of an affection for the oral tradition of passing along the music and a desire to revitalize it. When Sheila Stewart, a 79-year-old traveller and folk singer hears his reworkings, however, she is not impressed – she believes the traditional songs are sacrosanct and that Moffat has missed the meaning. Despite this criticism, Moffat perseveres, in his own way helping to continue Stewarts work in keeping the music alive. While on the whole focused too much on the performances and not enough about Moffat, Stewart, or the music’s background, Fegan’s film has just enough charm and humor to keep a non-Scots audience engaged.