Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente, or BAFICI, begins this Wednesday, April 10 and runs through Sunday, April 21. The event is among the largest in South America, drawing over 350,000 to its film screenings and other events. Of the more than 400 features and shorts in its lineup, more than a quarter are feature documentaries, appearing throughout the various sections of the festival. While I’ve sadly never had the opportunity to attend, I’m impressed by the range of selections and especially by the commitment the organizer have shown to champion their national cinema. If I were heading to Argentina, the following films, broken down section-by-section, are ones that I’d seek out: Continue reading
Category Archives: Film
Buenos Aires 2013: Documentary Overview
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
On DVD: THE LAST FLIGHT OF PETR GINZ
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9: THE LAST FLIGHT OF PETR GINZ
Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts’ creative recounting of one boy’s experience of the Holocaust has screened at a number of Jewish film festivals over the past year, including Atlanta, Toronto, Zagreb, Cleveland, Hong Kong, Warsaw, UK, Washington, Houston, and Miami. The film has also screened at the Czech Republic’s Zlin children’s fest, and picked up a special award at last year’s Jerusalem International Film Festival.
Dickson and Roberts’ film tells the story of a young Polish Holocaust victim through his surviving diaries and imaginative drawings and stories, produced while he was held at the Terezin concentration camp before his murder at Auschwitz at the age of sixteen. His journals, and his sister’s narration, relate the harsh reality of life in Poland under the Nazi occupation, but it is in Ginz’s fictional writing and artwork that he let his imagination free him from his bonds. Inspired by Jules Verne and other science fiction writers, the young man wrote numerous novels, including a thinly-veiled indictment of the Nazis in the form of mechanical monsters trying to enslave the world, and, most remarkably, a secret underground literary journal co-produced with fellow camp prisoners. His experiences structure this film, with animated segments in different styles reflecting both his real-life and fictional flights of fancy. While some of the storytelling and journal recital sequences overstay their welcome, the filmmakers have made a concerted effort to produce a very different kind of Holocaust narrative – one that celebrates life, creativity, and defiance even in the direst of circumstances – and in that they have decidedly succeeded.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On VOD: LA SOURCE
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 9: LA SOURCE
Patrick Shen’s profile of the efforts to bring clean water to a Haitian village made its world premiere at Silverdocs last year. It went on to screen at DocuWeeks, DocuWest, Big Sky, Palm Springs, and the Arclight Doc fest, where it picked up an award. It comes to VOD on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, CinemaNow, and other platforms.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
In Theatres: NO PLACE ON EARTH
Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 5: NO PLACE ON EARTH
Janet Tobias’ exploration of how Ukrainian Jews survived WWII by hiding in caves premiered at Toronto last year. Its fest circuit has included the Hamptons, IDFA, Martha’s Vineyard, and Miami, among others.
I included the doc in my Toronto roundup here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
In the Works: HOTLINE
An exploration of the need for human connection through the anonymity of telephone hotlines.
Once ubiquitous in the pre-Internet era, hotlines served to connect strangers for a multiplicity of purposes – some for profit, others for the public good – from the titillation of phone sex to the potential lifesaving of a suicide prevention line. While they may not be quite as common today, when people are more apt to Google their way to porn or online forums for their needs, there are still hundreds of hotlines still in operation, serving many of those same roles. Director Tony Shaff explores what motivates individuals to reveal personal details about their lives in conversations with faceless strangers, and how it affects those hotline operators. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
On Cable: 50 CHILDREN: THE RESCUE MISSION OF MR & MRS KRAUS
Coming to HBO this Monday, April 8: 50 CHILDREN: THE RESCUE MISSION OF MR & MRS KRAUS
Steven Pressman’s film about a Jewish American couple’s heroic efforts has previously screened, under its earlier title, TO SAVE A LIFE, as part of the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival’s New Filmmaker Weekend. It makes its official debut via HBO Documentary Films, in commemoration of Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus were an affluent, secular Jewish couple from Philadelphia who managed to navigate a series of bureaucratic hurdles to rescue fifty Jewish children from Austria in the Spring of 1939. Narration by Alan Alda and Eleanor’s enacted journal entries detail the particulars, aided by interviews with Kraus offspring and the surviving rescued children: In the early days of the European conflict, before America was at war, Jews were permitted to leave Nazi controlled areas – but rampant anti-Semitism meant that they typically had few options for asylum, with strict quotas preventing many from entering the US and other European nations. Hearing of the Kindertransport that saved many Jewish children’s lives, the Krauses wondered if they could help establish foster families for other Jewish youths. Learning that some visas issued to Austrians went unclaimed after the Anschluss, they hatched a plan to allot those visas to fifty children, provided they could secure foster families in Philadelphia and the permission of children’s parents in Vienna, who they visited in the heart of Nazi territory, at the risk of their own safety – in the end saving not only the children, but in many cases later enabling their parents to join them, avoiding the Holocaust. The story will be perhaps most revelatory for some audiences in its underlining of how many more lives could have been saved were it not for the discriminatory policies that literally left Jewish people with nowhere to go. Despite being largely conventional in approach and structure, and drowning in narration and journal recitals, Pressman’s film is often affecting, telling a little-known story of determination, samaritanship, and sacrifice in more than challenging circumstances.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Special Screening: THE LIST
Coming to NYC’s Bronx Documentary Center this Saturday, April 6: THE LIST
Beth Murphy’s exploration of the fate of Iraqi US collaborators made its debut at Tribeca last year. It’s had an extensive festival run, including slots at the IFF Boston, Nantucket, Little Rock, Camden, Hot Docs, Abu Dhabi, and Woods Hole, where it picked up an Audience Award.
I previously wrote about the doc out of Tribeca here.
Note: The screening will include a Q&A with the film’s protagonist, Kirk W Johnson, as well as Saad Saaed, an Iraqi who formerly worked with the US government, moderated by New Yorker‘s George Packer.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
On TV: GOING BLIND
Coming to PBS this coming Monday, April 8: GOING BLIND
Joe Lovett’s exploration of vision loss through his personal story, as well as that of other sight-impaired individuals, had a limited theatrical release in 2010. It has screened extensively at various medical conferences, schools, and community screenings since. It will be broadcast on public TV in top markets including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas, and Atlanta, among scores of others. For a full list, click here.
I wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
On TV: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN
Coming to PBS’ Independent Lens next Monday, April 8: THE HOUSE I LIVE IN
Eugene Jarecki’s searing indictment of America’s failed war on drugs premiered at Sundance last year, where it won the US documentary grand jury prize. It’s gone on to screen at Los Angeles, Vancouver, Melbourne, and Minneapolis St Paul, among others. Shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar, the film enjoyed a limited theatrical release as well as a VOD release.
I wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Sarasota Film Festival 2013: Documentary Overview
Celebrating its 15th edition this year, the Sarasota Film Festival begins this Friday, April 5 and runs through Sunday, April 14. Screening over 200 films, Sarasota is one of the largest regional festivals in the US, presenting some of the year’s standout films for Florida audiences and visiting industry. I’ve never been to the festival, but industry colleagues who have attended have raved, and its Director, Tom Hall, is one of the most liked figures in the indie film community. Its feature lineup includes more than fifty documentaries, including two Sundance alums in key Gala slots – Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s BLACKFISH screens as the fest’s Closing Night film, while Barbara’s Kopple’s RUNNING FROM CRAZY is one of two Centerpieces. Other newer docs that perhaps haven’t had as big a spotlight yet include the following: Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
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