Category Archives: Film

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 14:
ALMOST SUNRISE

Director:
Michael Collins

Premiere:
Telluride Mountainfilm 2016

Select Festivals:
Human Rights Watch NYC, AFI Docs, Wisconsin, Waimea Ocean Film Festival, SF Docfest, GI Film Festival

About:
Two suffering veterans cross the country by foot in an attempt to combat the persistent after-effects of war.

Like many veterans, Tom and Anthony returned from several tours of duty as changed men. Suffering from hyper-vigilance, depression, suicidal ideation, and with relationships with loved ones strained, they seem like textbook PTSD cases. But when conventional treatments and self-administered band-aids – prescription drugs and alcohol – yielding little relief, the friends set out on a 2700 mile walking trek across the country to draw attention to the plight of veterans like them. While this element of Collins’ film offers viewers the opportunity to consider the alarming suicide rates among vets, and to meet fellow soldiers and families touched by combat along the pair’s journey, their odyssey itself doesn’t seem to yield much insight. Instead, their exploration of the concept of “moral injury” – distinct from PTSD as it directly addresses the guilt experienced by soldiers for violating entrenched moral codes against killing – seems the real key to their healing. Unfortunately, because the therapy sessions that go to the heart of this reckoning were not allowed to be filmed, their impact is somewhat lessened here. Regardless, both men surprisingly emerge from their pilgrimage and therapy transformed, able to communicate better with their loved ones, and seemingly more at peace than they’d been for several years, making for an uplifting, hopeful film that may very well help others.

New to DVD this week:
HEARING IS BELIEVING

Director:
Lorenzo DeStefano

Premiere:
Hawaii 2016

About:
A portrait of Rachel Flowers, a blind musical prodigy.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to VOD this week:
BARBECUE

Director:
Matthew Salleh

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Sydney

About:
Barbecue traditions around the world.

Salleh’s film profiles several locations and local customs around grilling meat on fire, including South Africa, Japan, Australia, Mongolia, Sweden, the Philippines, Uruguay, Armenia, Syria/Jordan refugee camps, Texas, Mexico, and New Zealand. Almost uniformly, participants note the importance of community, coming together, sharing stories as they share food, while also revealing some detail about their specific traditions, from Texan dry rub slow indirect cooked brisket to Swedes’ love of prepackaged picnic ready disposable personal grills. While well-shot, this hopelessly overscored project also is far too long and repetitive, having made its point about the commonality and sociability of the practice within its first few scenes, only to repeat them again and again at each new picturesque location.

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, July 12:
I AM THE BLUES

Director:
Daniel Cross

Premiere:
IDFA 2016

Select Festivals:
SXSW, Hot Docs, Pan African, Raindance, Salem, Docs Against Gravity, IndieBo

About:
An ethnomusicological tour of the American South.

As signaled by his film’s title, Canadian filmmaker Cross explores the enduring legacy of the blues, not by offering a comprehensive history of the distinctly American genre, but instead by focusing on the aging musicians who are still performing, and, in so doing, keeping their artform alive. Traveling throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, the filmmaker profiles several old-school African-American musicians, many in their 80s, who grew up with the blues by playing the Chitlin’ Circuit, usually barely eking out a living. While Cross offers audiences a showcase of their talents in several demonstrations of their performances – too many in a film nearing two hours – the project’s survey structure and a surfeit of subjects results in a lack of deep exploration or any strong story-driven thread. Still, music fans will likely find much to enjoy in this loving tribute.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 11:
MY LIFE IN CHINA

Director:
Kenneth Eng

Premiere:
San Diego Asian Film Festival 2014

Select Festivals:
Florida, St Louis, Bahamas, and Asian/Asian American fests in Dallas, Boston, and Seattle

About:
A personal look at the sacrifices made by the filmmaker’s father, an immigrant to the US from China.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 11:
CONTEMPORARY COLOR

Directors:
Bill Ross and Turner Ross

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, New Orleans, San Francisco, Montclair, Seattle, Sydney, Bonnaroo, AFI Docs, Guanajuato, Melbourne, Sidewalk, Camden, Denver, St Louis, Indie Memphis, Sound Unseen

About:
A chronicle of a one-night-only musical collaboration conceived by David Byrne celebrating color guard.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 11:
HOTEL DALLAS

Directors:
Livia Ungur and Sherng-Lee Huang

Premiere:
Berlin 2016

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Dallas, Docaviv, Maryland, Docs Against Gravity, Sidewalk, Raindance, Hot Springs Doc, Ann Arbor

About:
A hybrid portrait of a Romanian father/daughter duo obsessed with the 1980s American nighttime soap opera.

Drawn from her upbringing in 1980s Cold War-era Romania, Ungur, working with husband Huang, sort of tells the story of the unintended aspirational consequences of allowing Western television programs to infiltrate the Romanian consciousness. Unlike the far more straightforward CHUCK NORRIS VS COMMUNISM, here the idea is used as a launching pad into a phantasmagorical reverie that is far more experimental narrative/art project than documentary, encapsulating the possibly true story of the replica of Southfork built by Ungur’s father, a sunflower oil magnate; narration by a character played by DALLAS’s Patrick Duffy; and disturbing re-enactments by child actors dressed as Communist youth of scenes from both the soap opera and Romania’s troubled past. It’s frankly largely a headscratcher, likely to irritate many viewers with its deliberate obfuscation and quirkiness even as its freeflowing creativity might delight others.