Coming to Al Jazeera America Presents tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday, November 12: THE TEAM
Patrick Reed’s exploration of the social impact of a soap opera in Kenya debuted at IDFA in 2010. It went on to screen at Full Frame, Hot Docs, Tallinn Black Nights, Human Rights Watch, London Doc, Kenya, and Silverdocs, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc out of Silverdocs here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Currently in theatres and coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 12: MEDORA
Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart’s high school basketball underdog story made its debut earlier this year at SXSW. It went on to screen at Sarasota, Full Frame, Woods Hole, Sidewalk, Raindance, and Woodstock, among others. The doc opened in NYC and LA last weekend, and expands to several other cities this Friday and through the end of the year. FilmBuff makes the film available via iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, PlayStation, and XBOX.
Indiana is famed for its obsession with basketball, but in smalltown Medora, the sport, like the town, has seen better days, as demonstrated in Cohn and Rothbart’s appealing microcosmic study. Once again, the Medora Hornets are well on their way to another winless high school season. As varsity players are profiled over the course of the year, it’s clear that victory on the court represents so much more than a game for not only these charismatic young underdogs, but also for their struggling community. Like its thematic antecedent, UNDEFEATED, the doc uses high school athletics to reveal a larger story – here about the recession and its impact on smalltown communities – rather than simply being content with telling a story about winning and losing a game.
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Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 12: DOIN’ IT IN THE PARK: PICK-UP BASKETBALL, NYC
Kevin Couliau and Bobbito Garcia’s chronicle of urban hoops debuted at the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Additional stops on the fest circuit included Urbanworld, Philadelphia Awesome Festival, New Jersey, and Toronto’s Regent Park, as well as limited theatrical engagements.
I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
While I wasn’t responsible for programming Doc-A-Thon, DOC NYC‘s panel series, this year, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Each day is focused on a different part of the filmmaking process, and includes four masterclasses or special discussions with leading documentary filmmakers and industry representatives, all taking place between 10:30am-5:00pm at the IFC Center, beginning next Monday, November 18.
Monday’s Day 1 begins with the essentials of production: Continue reading
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Coming to Logo’s WHAT!? doc series tonight, Monday, November 11: ANIMISM: PEOPLE WHO LOVE OBJECTS
Bill Spahic’s exploration of people who develop feelings for objects made its world premiere on Canadian television in September. The Logo airing marks its US debut.
Spahic’s subjects identify as Objectum-Sexuals, an unfortunately clunky-sounding term that has helped to unite a small subculture of individuals who manifest strong emotional and romantic attraction to inanimate objects. Like Angela Tucker’s (A)SEXUAL, which deals with people who express no sexual desire at all, this doc in some part serves the purpose of trying to validate this still relatively obscure population to the mainstream. Unlike the earlier film, what Spahic’s lacks is a strong central figure, so what results is basically a meandering survey that never gets particularly deep, following five figures: a woman who repairs and marries a carnival ride, a man who has sex with his car, a woman in a long distance relationship with the Statue of Liberty, a priest excommunicated for loving his soundboard, and a woman who married the Eiffel Tower, but finds herself falling for the Berlin Wall. While genuinely curious, the doc profiles too many characters for its limited running time, and skirts close to the exploitative edge in that the viewer is never given much of a chance to understand these people as anything but OS. Still, it’s clearly a sympathetic portrait that successfully engages the audience to learn about something that they otherwise might not encounter.
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The second DOC NYC shorts program I curated this year explores the bonds that exist between people and their pets, livestock, or zoo animals.
DOC NYC Program Description:
MAN & BEAST:
Saturday, November 16 at 1:45pm
People and their animals. A Bedouin sheepherder contemplates moving his family to the city in FACES (Jordan, 16 min., Said Najmi). HERD IN ICELAND (USA, 28 min., Lindsay Blatt & Paul Taggart) chronicles the annual roundup of the country’s purebred horses, after a summer roaming free. OF COWS AND MEN (USA, 4 min., Emily Fraser) follows a dairy farmer during difficult economic times. Man and bird unite in the deserts of Pakistan in DISARMING FALCONS (USA, 15 min., Wendy Johnson & Annie Nocenti). PAST THEIR PRIME (USA, 23 min., Becca Friedman) explores the lives of geriatric zoo animals. (86 min. total)
Why You Should Attend:
Who doesn’t love animals? Beyond cats and dogs, these films offer insight into the rapport we share with the wild kingdom, from birds of prey to aging rhinos and apes.
More Info:
To purchase tickets, follow the link from the program page by clicking on the program title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Like last year, I’ve once again curated six collections of short films for DOC NYC in my role as Senior Programmer. This first program looks at interactions between individuals and their habitats, from stories of underground living to the efforts of city dwellers to work with nature.
DOC NYC Program Description:
PEOPLE & PLACES:
Saturday, November 16 at 11:30am
Unexpected environments. A BEAUTIFUL WASTE (USA, 6 min., Jon Kasbe) explores NYC’s vibrant sewer system, while men reflect on their time living in the tunnels under LOST VEGAS (USA, 24 min., Steve Birnbaum). WHITE BLAZE (USA, 22 min., Brian Bolster) profiles a trail angel who helps Appalachian Trail hikers. An artist becomes walking artwork to add color to grey NYC in ON BLOOMING ART (USA, 6 min., Cathryne Czubek). NEW YORK TIMES (USA, 12 min., Dana O’Keefe) is a city symphony in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Urban farming takes to the rooftop in BROOKLYN FARMER (USA, 27 min., Michael Tyburski).
Why You Should Attend:
There’s an element of surprise and discovery to these films, sometimes disarming, other times more understated. Together, they present a focus on spaces and how we respond to them and in them.
More Info:
To purchase tickets, follow the link from the program page by clicking on the program title above.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
The eighth edition of the Rome Film Festival begins tonight, Friday, November 8, and runs through next Sunday, November 17. In its relatively brief existence, the event has seen more than its fair share of growing pains as it tries to carve out a space for itself in the European festival scene that already includes such heavy hitters as Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Locarno. Beholden, like so many Italian cultural events, to larger political power struggles within the country, the festival has tried to balance being a distinctive cinema event with appealing to segments of its audience that might be more concerned about celebrities and a party atmosphere than in discovering groundbreaking new work. Among its approximately 120 feature length films, there are just over two dozen documentaries on offer, the majority world premieres.
While a couple of docs appear in the official Out of Competition section, that and the main Competition are decidedly fiction-focused. Significantly more nonfiction is part of CinemaXXI, an international strand exploring innovative new filmmaking. By my count, 14 of the 25 features here are docs or hybrids, including: ZimmerFrei’s HOMETOWN/MUTONIA (pictured), a portrait of an experimental outsider community; Vincenzo Marra’s THE ADMINISTRATOR, a microcosmic look at Naples through the activities of an apartment building manager and the tenants he deals with; Jan Soldat’s THE INCOMPLETE, about a 60-year-old gay German man who embraces his desire to become a slave; Vincent Dieutre’s ROLAND WOUNDED, an exploration of modern Sicily through the conceit of a number of abandoned theatre puppets; and Gustavo Fontán’s THE FACE, an experimental film following an Argentine back to the island where he was born.
Rome’s documentary slate also includes a national cinema sidebar, Prospettiva Doc Italia, which features nine features. Among these are: Elisa Amoruso’s OFF ROAD, about the relationship between a MTF racing champion and the Romanian nurse she marries; Valentina Pedicini’s FROM THE DEPTHS (pictured), an exploration of the life of Italy’s only female miner, filmed entirely underground; Romano Montesarchio’s RITRATTI ABUSIVI, a portrait of the squatters of an Italian seaside slum that’s scheduled for redevelopment; Ermanno Cavazzoni’s SEASIDE HOLIDAYS, a playful anthropological chronicle of Italian summer via home movie footage; Marco Antonio Pani and Paolo Carboni’s HEADS AND TAILS, THE REASONS OF THE SHEPHERDS, a profile of the shepherds of Sardinia, who have had to protest in recent years to negotiate fair prices for their work; and Roberto Naccari and Stefano Bisulli’s THE OTHER FELLINI, an investigation into the famous director’s not-so-famous filmmaking brother.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to the Village East today, Friday, November 8: THE GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINE
Liz Marshall’s exposé of the plight of animals in modern society made its debut at Hot Docs this Spring. It went on to screen at DOXA, Planete+ Doc, DMZ Docs, and the upcoming IDFA and Planet in Focus fests, among others. It expands to Los Angeles’ Laemmle’s Music Hall next week.
I previously wrote about the doc out of Hot Docs for Indiewire saying:
The “ghosts” in Liz Marshall’s film are various animals, used by humans for food, clothing, or research, as captured by documentary photographer Jo-Anne McArthur as part of her advocacy work to force us to confront our beliefs about animal sentience and rights. Making her way, often clandestinely, into factory farms and other sites of what she views as animal exploitation, McArthur bears witness through the haunting still photographs she takes of deplorable conditions and frightened creatures – but she faces an uphill battle to find a mass audience for her work, since it is too disturbing for most magazine editors. That’s exactly her point, to provoke the viewer into empathizing with the various species on display – from dairy cows condemned to death after just a couple of years of milking, to minks raised in sparse cells for their fur. As a needed counterpoint in an often disturbing film, Marshall shows McArthur in more peaceful surroundings in a farm sanctuary in upstate New York which takes in abused animals and often saves others from unnecessary death. Marshall succeeds in creating a portrait of a driven activist that shies away from outright polemics to perhaps preach beyond the converted.
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Coming to EPIX tomorrow, Friday, November 8: FILTHY GORGEOUS: THE BOB GUCCIONE STORY
Barry Avrich’s portrait of the late porn publishing mogul had its world premiere at Toronto this Fall. Notably, its broadcast premiere will be followed by CALIGULA, the notorious production detailed in the documentary.
I previously wrote about the doc out of Toronto here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 