Category Archives: Film

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, December 19: RISKY DRINKING

Ellen Goosenberg Kent’s exploration of alcohol abuse makes its debut as part of HBO’s original documentary slate this month.

Hewing closely to an awareness-raising approach, Kent’s film, presented with the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, offers four case studies of individuals demonstrating problem drinking, with talking heads experts and stats popping up to offer analysis and further information. Profiles include a range of ages, but, sadly, a distinct lack of racial diversity, all struggling with excessive drinking that results in inappropriate behavior, negative repercussions to work and family relationships, and, in an extreme case, potentially life-threatening health concerns. While the message here is admirable, its presentation makes it feel distinctly educational.

New to DVD this week: LANDFILL HARMONIC

Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley’s portrait of an impoverished children’s orchestra debuted at SXSW last year, where it picked up an audience award. It went on to screen at Sheffield, New Zealand, Vancouver, Cleveland, DocAviv, and AFI Fest, among several others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, December 14: GHOSTLAND

Simon Stadler’s chronicle of Kalahari bushmen’s experience of the West debuted at Thessaloniki Doc earlier this year. Its festival circuit also included SXSW, Ambulante, Atlantic, Bergen, Flahertiana, Durban, Rio, and Vancouver, among other events.

For more than 25 years, the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen of Namibia have been barred from hunting the wildlife that has sustained them for millennia. In response they have had to adapt to a capitalist system and depend on the tourism industry, entertaining Europeans with staged dances and demonstrations, and selling them handmade crafts. Stadler, a German filmmaker, seeks to privilege the perspectives of the Ju/’hoansi in their interactions with these outsiders, representing them as knowing participants in an awkward but necessary exchange rather than the stereotyped “savages” that visitors likely assume they are observing. When the setting changes from Namibia to Frankfurt, however, owing to an invitation to four of the Bushmen to travel as part of a cultural exchange, the film struggles, opting instead for a less complex fish out of water approach. While Stadler transforms the Bushmen from the object of the gaze to the gazers themselves, these new tourists’ observations of Western culture are presented in consistently unsurprising and simplistic terms, noting that Germans and their city are too large, anonymous, and noisy. The result is a mildly amusing role reversal from the initial scenes of the film, but one handled with too broad a stroke to be particularly complex or revealing.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, December 13: THE HOLLYWOOD SHORTIES

Ryan Steven Green’s history of a little person sports team had its premiere at SXSW earlier this year. The doc went on to screenat Sidewalk, Chagrin Doc, Carmel, BendFilm, Hell’s Half Mile, and San Francisco DocFest, among other events.

I previously wrote about the doc