Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 13:
UNSEEN SKIES
Director:
Yaara Bou Melhem
World Premiere:
San Francisco 2021
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Sydney, Docs Against Gravity
About:
American artist Trevor Paglen, who uses the most advanced technology to map surveillance, data flows, and the state’s monitoring of our lives, is about to launch the most ambitious project of his career.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
WE ARE THE THOUSAND
Director:
Anita Rivaroli
World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne, Docs Against Gravity, Thessaloniki Doc
About:
An uplifting, inspiring, and emotional music documentary about a seemingly impossible plan to record a song by the Foo Fighters with a thousand musicians.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
FUTURA
Director:
Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
Toronto, New York, IDFA, Vienna
About:
A collective exploration of what youth think about the future, through a series of interviews filmed during a long journey across Italy.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
HOLD YOUR FIRE
Director:
Stefan Forbes
World Premiere:
Toronto 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Palm Springs
About:
Captives, cops, and robbers in New York City’s longest hostage siege reflect in this suspenseful and enlightening take on an event long misunderstood.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, September 13:
FROM WHERE THEY STOOD
Director:
Christophe Cognet
World Premiere:
Berlin 2021
Select Festivals:
Jihlava, Thessaloniki Doc, FID Marseille, Jerusalem, Indielisboa, Open City Doc
About:
A handful of prisoners in WWII camps risked their lives to take clandestine photographs and document the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. In the vestiges of the camps, director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to the Criterion Channel this week:
SEARCHING FOR MR RUGOFF
Director:
Ira Deutchman
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019
Select Festivals:
Palm Springs, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Galway, Mill Valley
About:
A look back at the outsized personality behind legendary art house distributor Cinema 5.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13:
UNFINISHED SPACES
Director:
Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray
World Premiere:
Los Angeles Film Festival 2011
Select Festivals:
Camden, Denver, Havana, Palm Springs, Cinequest, Miami, Sebastopol Doc, Full Frame, Buenos Aires, New Orleans filmOrama
About:
An exploration of Cuba’s National Art Schools never-completed utopian architectural project.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID today, Monday, September 12:
KATE BORNSTEIN IS A QUEER & PLEASANT DANGER
Director:
Sam Feder
Select Festivals:
Outfest, Athena, Northside, Translations, TranScreens, Hot Springs Doc
About:
A portrait of the pioneering gender outlaw, visionary trans author and performer Kate Bornstein.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to OVID today, Monday, September 12:
BOY I AM
Director:
Sam Feder, Julie Hollar
World Premiere:
NewFest 2006
Select Festivals:
Outfest, Frameline, LGBT fests in Tucson, Seattle, Budapest
About:
An exploration of provocative issues rarely touched upon in films portraying trans male subjects.
The film screened at NewFest, for which our program notes read:
It is only in recent years that transgender people and their issues have gained significant visibility within the larger LGBTQ community. But visibility has not translated into instant acceptance or understanding from everyone. For some within the lesbian community, the act of FTM transitioning is viewed at best as a naive social trend, or, at worst, an anti-feminist rejection of butchness and female power in favor of male privilege. Sam Feder and Julie Hollar’s timely and balanced documentary uses the engaging stories of three NYC-based FTMs, as well as interviews with a number of activists and scholars, to explore this controversy and get to its historical and cultural roots.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID today, Monday, September 12:
THE TRANSFORMATION
Director:
Carlos Aparicio, Susana Aikin
Select Festivals:
Frameline
About:
In this follow up to THE SALT MINES, Sara, in the wake of an HIV+ diagnosis, accepts help from a group of born again Christians who, in exchange, demand her complete transformation: from female to her born gender of male, and from queer to straight.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 