Category Archives: Film

Coming to theatres and to VOD this Friday, June 7: ÉVOCATEUR: THE MORTON DOWNEY JR MOVIE

Daniel Miller, Seth Kramer, and Jeremy Newberger’s chronicle of the unlikely rise and crushing fall of the trash-talking late-night host debuted at Tribeca last year. It went on to screen at IDFA, Montclair, TromaDance, and Denver, among other fests.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Tribeca here.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 4: A GOOD DAY TO DIE

David Mueller and Lynn Salt’s exploration of Native American activism premiered at deadCENTER in 2010, picking up a best documentary prize. Other fest screenings have included Hot Springs, Denver, and imagineNATIVE. FilmBuff releases the doc on iTunes and XBOX today.

I wrote about the film upon its DVD release last week here.

Coming to theatres via Cinedigm’s Docurama Festival initiative today, Tuesday, June 4: LONDON: THE MODERN BABYLON

Julien Temple’s tour of 20th and 21st century London made its debut at Toronto last year. It has screened at IDFA, Göteborg, Tampere, and Torino, among other fests, and was nominated for best doc for both the European Film Awards and the British Independent Film Awards. The film wraps up Cinedigm’s seven-film program bringing feature documentaries to theatres weekly in up to fifteen US markets, including NYC, LA, Pasadena, Encino, San Diego, Palm Desert, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Hartford, New Haven, Ithaca, Richmond, and Helena. The films are also available for additional theatrical-on-demand screenings via Tugg. In NYC, Cinema Village will screen the doc today, Thursday, and Saturday.

Temple, working with editor Caroline Richards, has crafted a remarkable chronicle of a city, moving from before the first World War through to 2012 as London prepares for the Olympics. Packing more than a hundred years of history into just over a two hour film, it’s surprising how comprehensive, yet still impressionistic, it all comes off. Although there are some present-day interviews, the vast majority of the project is a quick-fire collage of often fascinating archival footage, covering not only the familiar aspects of British history – WWII’s Blitz, 1960s’ Swinging London, 1980s’ Thatcherism – but also touching on other intriguing facets of the sociocultural development of the metropolis, from the suffragette movement to the influx of immigrants from former British colonies and the xenophobia that resulted. By the project’s nature, Temple doesn’t stick with any one person or time period for very long, keeping an energetic pace that carries the viewer like a rollercoaster ride through the dense expanse of the past century, straying from a strictly linear path with an occasional time displaced flash forward juxtaposition cleverly connecting the distant past with more recent developments that speak to similar concerns. This, combined with the doc’s driving soundtrack and a recurring visual motif of the crowd (or mob at times), reflect Temple’s punk sensibility – a welcome approach that lends a distinctive and youthful energy to the project that keeps it from ever becoming a dry, academic exercise.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, June 4: BROOKLYN CASTLE

Katie Dellamaggiore’s look at a junior high school chess team took home an audience award at its premiere at SXSW last year. Its festival circuit has included Cleveland, Hot Docs, and Silverdocs, among others, and, after a limited theatrical release, has also been available on demand since February.

I included the doc in my SXSW coverage here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 31: TRIUMPH OF THE WALL

Bill Stone’s meditation on art, work, and life had its world premiere – under its original title WORK IN PROGRESS – at RIDM in 2011. Since then, it has screened at Victoria, picked up a prize at Les Rendez-vous du Cinema Quebecois, and has been released in theatres in Montreal.

Simply put, Stone’s is an unusual film. After filming for others’ projects, Stone was seeking inspiration for his own documentary film, but noted he didn’t really have a grasp on or perhaps much interest in dramatic situations, preferring to film the rhythms of nature. When he met novice stonemason Chris Overing and learned of his plan to spend the summer building a 1000-foot dry-stone wall – one with no cement – in rural Quebec, the aptly named Stone decided he had found a cut-and-dried subject for his debut. Fast forward eight weeks, and Overing is only eight percent of the way done. Over the next several years, Stone would return to film Overing and various assistants who would join the charismatic man on his seemingly unhurried mission. Along the way, Stone muses about the documentary director/subject relationship, work vs art, the nature of life, and if Overing’s wall – and his own film – would ever be completed. As signaled by both of the film’s titles, it seems the wall, not the men, win – it’s not clear by the end of the film that the project has been completed – but at least for Stone, he’s come to some kind of conclusion despite that. As an endurance contest of a sort for the audience, the act of watching the film approximates the long path taken by both Stone and Overing, accompanied by similar self-questioning: Should they stick it out to the end? Will it, in fact, ever end? What’s it all mean? For a doc that in ordinary circumstances shouldn’t work – featuring as it does a certain amount of filmmaker self-indulgence, a great deal of narration, an eye-rolling focus on “big questions,” and an on-the-surface boring premise that would seem just a notch above watching paint dry – it’s surprisingly successful more often than it isn’t. While never laugh out loud funny, there’s enjoyment to be had from some of Stone’s deadpan and self-aware commentary, and two assistant builders provide an added dose of levity for one stretch. It’s certain not to be to everyone’s taste but as a piece of meta-commentary about the creative process and about documentary filmmaking specifically, there’s something definitely worthwhile here for some viewers.