Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 5: OF MEN AND WAR
Laurent Bécue-Renard’s raw exploration of the impact of PTSD on veterans debuted at Cannes in 2014. Screenings followed at IDFA, Göteborg, DocPoint, Documentary Fortnight, ZagrebDox, True/False, Full Frame, Visions du Réel, Documenta Madrid, San Francisco, DOXA, Sydney, AFI Docs, Human Rights Watch, and DOK.Fest Munich, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 5: HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Jerry Rothwell’s look at the early days of Greenpeace made its bow at Sundance last year, where it picked up the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. Its fest circuit has also included Nantucket, Hot Docs, True/False, DOXA, San Francisco Green, Sebastopol Doc, Sydney, and Telluride Mountainfilm, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5: CHILDREN OF THE ARCTIC
Nick Brandestini’s coming-of-age portrait of Alaskan teens debuted at Zurich in 2014. Its festival circuit has also included Santa Barbara, Big Sky, Cinequest, Salem, Guam, Anchorage, Available Light, and Oxford, among other events.
In Barrow AK, the northernmost community in the US, four Inupiat and one transplanted Eskimo feel the pull of both traditional Native ways and of modernity as they transition from teenagers to young adults. High school seniors Flora and Josiah make plans to marry and temporarily relocate to Fairbanks to attend university but find themselves drawn back to smalltown Barrow and family ties. Samuel, Josiah’s younger brother, learns traditional hunting and whaling skills from their grandfather, but worries about the latter’s increasing senility. Ace excels in school, but finds himself torn between community expectations and his own desires for self-improvement. Finally, transplant Maaya tries to connect with her Native roots and to remove the stigma of discussing the prevalence of suicide in the community. Brandestini has crafted a work of strong, if reserved, portraiture that reveals how these young people navigate the delicate balance between the different worlds they inhabit, while also facing the impact of climate change on Barrow’s traditional ways.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5: WHO TOOK JOHNNY?
David Beilinson, Suki Hawley, and Michael Galinsky’s investigation of a mother’s decades-long search for her missing son debuted at Slamdance in 2014. The doc also screened at Big Sky, Brooklyn, Maryland, Chicago Underground, and Newport Beach, among other events. FilmBuff now releases the film on VOD platforms.
Noreen Gosch has been searching for her son Johnny since the then twelve-year-old vanished from his Des Moines neighborhood during his paper route in 1982. Despite being the first missing child whose photo was featured on the side of a milk carton, Johnny was never found. Hampered by regulations that necessitated a 72-hour wait period, authorities turned up no clues and instead suspected he ran away, angering Noreen and setting her on a life-long quest to discover what happened. While sensitively exploring the toll of her mission on the still-grieving mother, the filmmakers also carefully detail the prevailing theory on Johnny’s fate – a disturbing conspiracy that suggests he, and other missing children, were the victims of a human trafficking ring catering to well-connected pedophiles. At the same time, a late revelation from Noreen introduces an intriguing ambiguity that colors the entire film, calling to mind other 1980s-era scares around child abduction and abuse – day-care hysteria, Satanic ritual panic – that have nevertheless left a lasting impact on parents of irrational fear and distrust.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, April 5: MONSIEUR LE PRESIDENT
Victoria Campbell’s profile of Haiti post-earthquake made its world premiere at DOC NYC in 2014. It went on to screen at the Martha’s Vineyard and Hot Springs Doc fests.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Volunteering in Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, Victoria Campbell encounters Gaston, a charming voodoo priest who shows leadership during the emergency, and later manages to open a small, much-needed medical clinic with the support of a foreign funder. He becomes a local hero, a symbol of ingenuity in defiance of the failure of conventional relief efforts. Over three years, he also becomes the filmmaker’s close friend – until an unexpected development causes Victoria to re-examine her entire experience in Haiti.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to VOD today, Monday, April 4: ONLY THE DEAD
Michael Ware and William Guttentag’s first-hand portrait of war premiered at Sydney last year. Other festival engagements have included Melbourne, New Zealand, Adelaide, Telluride, and IDFA, while its recent HBO broadcast was under the longer title ONLY THE DEAD SEE THE END OF WAR. The doc now comes to iTunes.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, February 4 and to theatres this Friday, April 8: MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES
Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey’s look back at the impact of the controversial photographer’s work had its world premiere at Sundance earlier this year. The doc went on to screen at Berlin, BFI Flare, and Miami.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 4: WELCOME TO LEITH
Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K Walker’s exploration of a white supremacist’s plan to takeover a community debuted at Sundance last year. Screenings followed at Nantucket, New Orleans, SXSW, IDFA, Hot Docs, Dallas, Cucalorus, Montclair, Sydney, AFI Docs, New Zealand, Melbourne, Docville, RIDM, and DMZ Docs, among many other events.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 1: MARINONI: THE FIRE IN THE FRAME
Tony Girardin’s portrait of an acclaimed bicycle craftsman made its debut at Hot Docs in 2014. It has since screened at other Canadian events, including the Global Visions fest.
Girardin relates the story of Giuseppe Marinoni, an Italian cyclist who came to Canada for a race and decided to stay, transitioning from competitive cycling to a successful career manufacturing racing bikes, most notably building the cycle used by Jocelyn Lovell, the winningest Canadian cyclist in history who later became paralyzed. Now 75, the curmudgeon decides to challenge himself to set a record in his age class in a race held in his Italian hometown, using Lovell’s legendary bicycle. While Marinoni’s crotchetiness makes him watchable, Girardin maintains far too much of a presence in the project through excessive narration and conversation, making it feel padded, and there’s only so much interest this decidedly-niche-oriented film can generate for non-cyclists.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 1: THE FLIGHT FANTASTIC
Tom Moore’s tribute to the art of the flying trapeze made its bow at Australia’s Byron Bay fest last year. The doc also screened at the Sarasota and Louisiana fests and the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera series.
Moore’s focus is on the Flying Gaonas, a family act that headlined Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1960s and ’70s, and the Big Apple Circus in the ’80s, but who count relatives in the Mexican circus dating back to 1891. The film generally sticks to the careers of four children of Victor Gaona Murillo however: Tito, Armando, Chela, and Richie. Much is made of Tito’s attempts to successfully complete a quadruple somersault during a performance, but the doc otherwise follows a meandering, anecdotal path – additionally hampered by an excessive, distracting score – as it recounts the act’s storied heights and gradual fall from popularity, leading the family to run trapeze schools in the present day for sick children and for curious adults, and making this primarily of interest to circus history fans more than a general audience.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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