Category Archives: Film

Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, March 18: THE BRAINWASHING OF MY DAD

Jen Senko’s investigation into the obsessive appeal of right-wing media made its debut at Cinequest earlier this month, following a work-in-progress screening at Traverse City last Summer. It’s slated to screen at Sarasota, Beverly Hills, and San Luis Obispo fests in addition to one-off and limited theatrical exposure, plus a day and date VOD release on iTunes and other platforms.

As signaled by its title, Senko’s film found its origins and ostensible focus in the personal – after decades as a liberal Democrat, the filmmaker’s aging father inexplicably became an acolyte of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and their culture of conservative outrage and bombast. In practicality, Senko’s father actually plays a rather minor role in her project, which instead becomes more broad-based as it examines the roots of the rise of American extremism. Unsurprisingly, she locates this in the form of Nixon aide and later Fox chairman Roger Ailes’ cagey understanding of the use of media to manipulate public opinion, and follows this progression through the elimination of the fairness doctrine in broadcasting, paving the way for punditry to erupt on the airwaves. This history lesson, while coming with its own political bias, is by far the most interesting element of the otherwise often roughly-made doc – though the Bill Plympton cartoons provide brief escapes from a string of talking heads, Senko’s unnecessary on-camera appearances, and repetitive anecdotal testimony from other random folks who have gone through similar experiences with “brainwashed” loved ones.

New to VOD this week: WE LIKE IT LIKE THAT

Mathew Ramirez Warren’s ode to Latin boogaloo made its bow at SXSW last year. The doc also screened at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision, Ambulante California, Urbanworld, San Diego Latino, and In-Edit Spain and Chile, among other events. It now comes to VOD platforms, including iTunes.

If general audiences aren’t quite sure what Latin boogaloo even is, it’s understandable, given the music genre’s relatively short life, spanning the mid- to late-1960s and spawning only a few still familiar crossover hits. Originating within New York City’s teenage Puerto Rican and Cuban communities, boogaloo fused a variety of music styles, from R&B and doo-wop to their parents’ mambo, while also eschewing Spanish language for English or a mixture of both. In its reflection of 1960s social upheaval and changing conceptions of American identity, boogaloo served as a bridge between an earlier immigrant generation’s traditions and the wider youth culture their offspring embraced. As a result, as argued by several participants in Ramirez Warren’s scrappy if somewhat too insider project, the genre “saved” Latin music from fading away – at least until boogaloo ran its course, or, if some are to be believed here, was deliberately destroyed in favor of the coming of more traditionally-friendly salsa.

Now on VOD: PURGATORIO: A JOURNEY INTO THE HEART OF THE BORDER

Rodrigo Reyes’ exploration of life on the border debuted at Guadalajara in 2013. It went on to screen at Los Angeles, New Orleans, Ann Arbor, San Diego Latino, Chicago, Documentary Fortnight, and Traverse City, among other fests. The doc now comes to VHX.

I previously wrote about the doc here.