Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 10: MISS REPRESENTATION
Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s corrective to media’s objectification of women made its premiere at Sundance last year. It played at additional fests, including hometown San Francisco, and has hosted extensive community and educational screenings throughout the US and internationally. It made its broadcast premiere as part of Oprah’s Documentary Club.
I wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases, Sundance
Screening as part of a retrospective of Thom Andersen’s works during the Whitney’s 2012 Biennial tomorrow Wednesday, April 4 through Saturday, April 7: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF
Andersen premiered his essay on the cinematic Los Angeles at Toronto in 2003. The film screened extensively at other major festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Marseille, Karlovy Vary, and CPH:DOX.
Clocking in at nearly three hours, Andersen’s ambitious project is a masterful dissection of the various ways the city of Los Angeles has been depicted in film, and what these (mis)representations say about the real city and how the general public sees it. Divided into three sections, Andersen’s essay film explores the city as background, character, and subject, respectively, through clips from a remarkable number of films and a cogent narration, which, while essentially a lecture, is always engaging. By focusing on a city that is at the heart of the creation of illusions, the project holds a mirror to the undeniably influential film industry that has called it home for nearly its entire existence, and how it has been instrumental in creating and continuously reinventing a mythical version of Los Angeles – its geography, history, culture – that has been exported beyond the city limits to the rest of the world. The film is at once a piece of film criticism, an excavation of urban archaeology and anthropology, and a love letter to Andersen’s home since the age of seven.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema as part of “Street Views,” a new series exploring connections between individuals and their environments, this Thursday, April 5: HU ENIGMA
Pedro Urano and Joana Traub Csekö’s unique exploration of Brazilian architecture and politics made its world premiere last November at CPH:DOX. Since then it has also screened at Brazilian fest Tiradentes, where it took home an award, and at Toulouse.
The titular puzzle of Urano and Csekö’s film is an unusual, imposing university hospital in Rio de Janeiro. As is quickly established, the behemoth building which houses the hospital is only partially occupied – the other half, referred to colloquially as the “lame leg,” has never been completed. A sort of cousin to Cuba’s National Art Schools project, as featured in UNFINISHED SPACES, politics too had their role in the building’s ultimate fate. End cards and interviews with individuals connected to the hospital reveal the history of the structure as a utopian modernist project dating back to the 1950s, but it’s in the film’s striking imagery of the ruined side, sometimes shown in splitscreen, juxtaposed with the hospital activities in its better half, that its schizophrenia comes alive. The filmmakers’ exploration of both halves of the space is imbued with a deliberate, lyrical rhythm that builds to a surprisingly dramatic conclusion.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
With Passover and Easter on the horizon, my latest Indiewire curation for Hulu documentaries looks at films that explore various facets of Jewish and Christian life. View all of the films now for free!
For more information about the selections, see my Indiewire article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 3 and to PBS’ Independent Lens next Thursday. April 5 and Monday, April 9: BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY
Constance Marks has been wowing audiences and juries with her portrait of Kevin Clash since the film’s premiere at Sundance last year. The film picked up a Special Jury Prize in Park City, and followed with awards from Traverse City and Nantucket, as well as audience acclaim at Hot Docs and Seattle, among others. It had a limited theatrical release last Fall.
I wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 30: BULLY
Lee Hirsch premiered his doc on young bullying victims (under the original title THE BULLY PROJECT) at Tribeca last year. It was picked up for distribution by The Weinstein Company, and has had a healthy festival life, screening at notable events like Hot Docs, the Hamptons, Silverdocs, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film gained a publicity boost when the backwards-thinking, out-of-touch MPAA gave it an R rating, effectively cutting off the younger viewers who would most benefit from it. Despite an appeal by the Weinsteins and a petition, the MPAA has not backed down from their rating, citing language concerns. As a result, the Weinsteins announced earlier this week that the film will be released unrated.
I included the film in my Tribeca coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Released on DVD/VOD earlier this month: A SECOND KNOCK AT THE DOOR
Christopher Grimes’ investigation of friendly fire deaths made its premiere on the festival circuit last Fall, screening at a handful of events and picking up awards at East Lansing, Sycamore, and Vegas Cine Fest. It has received a DVD/VOD release through Cinema Libre.
Grimes’ debut documentary explores the affecting stories of a number of families of US military accidentally slain by their fellow or allied combatants. The film effectively traces the recent history and changing perception of so-called “friendly fire,” including alterations to military notification policies intended to be more sympathetic to survivors. However, as illustrated through the stories of Sgt Lee Todacheene, PFC Jesse Buryj, and PFC David Sharrett II, among countless others, some cases of friendly fire remain either deliberately or unintentionally unreported and undisciplined, resulting in confusion, anger, and extended grief for the families. While the film demonstrates some roughness and a tendency to talking heads, there are also very effective, and disturbing, sequences from actual footage of friendly fire that bring the point very much home. Together with the heartfelt and passionate testimony of the profiled family members, this makes the film a valuable addition to the library of films exploring the US military.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Cinema Village this Friday, March 30 and LA’s Laemmle’s Music Hall on April 13: SCENES OF A CRIME
Blue Hadaegh and Grover Babcock premiered their gripping examination of questionable police interrogation practices at Full Frame last year. It picked up the Grand Jury Award at both Full Frame and Doc NYC, as well as the 2011 IFP Gotham Award for Best Film Not Playing At A Theatre Near You.
I wrote about the film out of Silverdocs here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD via iTunes by Sunday, April 1: PARIS IS BURNING
Jennie Livingston’s classic doc examining Black and Latino drag ball culture made its debut in 1990 in Toronto, and won awards at both Sundance and Berlin the next year, as well as a distribution deal with Miramax.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS’ Independent Lens this Thursday, March 29: YOU’RE LOOKING AT ME LIKE I LIVE HERE AND I DON’T
Scott Kirschenbaum’s intimate exploration of the life of a woman with Alzheimer’s made its premiere last fall at Camden. It has also screened at Big Sky, in addition to universities and senior program centers.
Lee Gorewitz suffers from Alzheimer’s and tries to make sense of her daily life in a nursing home in this smart, sensitively-drawn verité portrait. Fittingly, Kirschenbaum’s filmmaking and structure seem to approximate Lee’s experiences – there’s an unusual sense of stasis to the pacing, mimicking the Alzheimer’s patient’s inability to understand or remember the passage of time. The result is a film that is strangely, compellingly watchable, but also often somewhat frustrating – but that’s not a complaint, as it’s wholly appropriate and engenders a tangible feeling of empathy for Lee’s plight. In hand with this are the attempts of the filmmaker to interview Lee – a largely futile, but at the same time revelatory experience for the audience. Throughout the film, the viewer is simultaneously placed in her position, but is also made aware of the voyeurism that’s at play in watching her, heartbreakingly summed up by the film’s title.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
