This year’s World Cinema Documentary Competition reaches the halfway point: From the Russian Federation/UK, Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER, a look at the controversial trial of the radical feminist activists.
Category Archives: Film
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: PUSSY RIOT – A PUNK PRAYER
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
In Theatres: WELCOME TO THE MACHINE
Coming to Brooklyn’s reRun Theater this Friday, January 11: WELCOME TO THE MACHINE
Avi Zev Weider’s directorial debut had its world premiere last year at SXSW. Since then, it has also screened at Hot Docs, Sarasota, and Woodstock, among other fests.
After Weider and his wife have trouble conceiving, their turn to in vitro fertilization results in triplets, born prematurely, and thus initially dependent on machines to keep them healthy. This utilization of science for both the conception and sustenance of his children’s lives serves as the launching pad for a far-ranging meditation on the omnipresence and importance of technology in human’s lives. To gain insight on such a huge topic, Weider elicits the opinions of experts like singularity proponent Ray Kurzweil and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier, and demonstrates some of the practical applications of their insights through the stories of a blind man using an artificial retinal implant to see again and Army soldiers remote-piloting unmanned aerial vehicles. In an attempt to explore an extreme anti-technology viewpoint, Weider seeks comment from Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber, but instead has to make due with one of his would-be victims and a Unabomber scholar. Taking a broad approach, the doc offers an introduction to a subject that should prove thought provoking, stimulating long conversations about how viewers’ lives are themselves affected by the increasing merging of man and machine.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE MOO MAN
Wrapping up today’s look at the World Cinema Documentary Competition: From the UK, director Andy Heathcote and co-director Heike Bachelier’s THE MOO MAN, a portrait of a small-scale British dairy farm.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE MACHINE WHICH MAKES EVERYTHING DISAPPEAR
Next in Sundance 2013’s World Cinema Documentary Competition: From Georgia/Germany, THE MACHINE WHICH MAKES EVERYTHING DISAPPEAR, in which director Tinatin Gurchiani offers a glimpse at contemporary Georgian life inspired by audition interviews.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: GOOGLE AND THE WORLD BRAIN
Continuing my spotlight on this year’s World Cinema Documentary Competition: From the UK/Spain, Ben Lewis’ GOOGLE AND THE WORLD BRAIN, about the international controversy behind the Internet giant’s quest to copy the world’s books.
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In the Works: WHO TOOK JOHNNY
The makers of BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN profile a determined mother who searches for her missing son – more than thirty years after his disappearance.
On September 5, 1982, twelve-year-old Johnny Gosch went on his regular newspaper delivery route in West Des Moine, IA. He was never seen again – except as the first missing child whose photo appeared on the side of a milk carton. His mother, Noreen, facing inadequate action from the authorities, began a personal mission to find out what happened to Johnny – a quest that continues to today. In the face of strange theories and unconfirmed sightings, Noreen persists in her work, not only for her son, but for other missing children, helping to save other parents from the pain she has endured for decades. The filmmakers behind Rumur – David Beilinson, Suki Hawley, and Michael Galinsky – tell Noreen’s story, with the goal of shedding light on Johnny’s fate. Continue reading
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: FIRE IN THE BLOOD
Next up in Sundance’s 2013 World Cinema Documentary Competition: From India, Dylan Mohan Gray’s FIRE IN THE BLOOD, on the battle to secure affordable treatment for AIDS in the developing world.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: FALLEN CITY
Moving over to the 2013 World Cinema Documentary Competition: From China, Qi Zhao’s FALLEN CITY, a meditation on the aftermath of the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: VALENTINE ROAD
Today’s Sundance doc profiles open with the sixteenth and final film in the 2013 US Documentary Competition: VALENTINE ROAD, Marta Cunningham’s insightful investigation into a fatal school shooting.
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2013 Sundance Docs in Focus: TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM
Wrapping up today’s profiles is the penultimate film in the 2013 Sundance US Documentary Competition: Morgan Neville’s TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM, a celebration of music’s largely unheralded backup singers.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
what (not) to doc 