Coming to NYC’s reRun Gastropub Theatre for a one-week run this Friday, March 9: CONVENTO
Jarred Alterman premiered his fascinating film about a former monastery and its eccentric inhabitants at SXSW last year. It went on to screen at Edinburgh, Camden, Rooftop Films, Maryland, and the Independent Film Festival Boston, where it won a special jury prize. It comes to NYC in a special extended cut.
I wrote about the film out of SXSW here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres this Friday, March 9: JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
David Gelb premiered his portrait of an octogenarian sushi masterchef at Tribeca last year. Other stops on the fest circuit have included Berlin, Jerusalem, AFI Fest, and Stockholm. Magnolia brings the film to NYC this weekend before expanding around the country.
I included the film in my Tribeca coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, March 6: HOLY ROLLERS: THE TRUE STORY OF CARD COUNTING CHRISTIANS
Bryan Storkel’s documentary debut about a team of Christian blackjack players made its world premiere at last year’s Seattle International Film Festival. Since then it’s appeared at more than two dozen additional fests, including (fittingly) Las Vegas, Sidewalk Moving Picture, San Diego, Raindance, Denver, Oxford, and Big Sky, picking up seven awards along the way. DVD and VOD are being handled by Warner Bros Digital and Gravitas Ventures, with DVDs available via the the film’s website. and VOD through iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Blockbuster, Vudu, Xbox, AT&T, Verizon, DirecTV, Time Warner, and other providers.
The concept seems incongruous – young Christians, including a number of pastors, working together to form the “Church Team,” a professional card counting group with the aim of winning ridiculously huge sums of money from casinos by playing high stakes blackjack. And incongruous it is – reconciling gambling for a living with the strictures of their faith is something that is addressed and readdressed throughout Storkel’s engaging, fast-paced film. While some of the affable team members have found some way to rationalize their participation – one teammate is convinced blackjack is his calling, and uses Bible verses to remind himself that God is responsible for his winnings and losses – others find themselves ultimately unable to come to grips with leading a Christian life and taking advantage of a system to win money. While initially wildly successful, the Church Team soon faces serious growing pains, and potentially bankrupting losses, leading to soul-searching, speculation about how much they trust one another, and even a startling confession before the film, and potentially the team, runs its course.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’ Independent Lens this Thursday, March 8: BHUTTO
Duane Baughman and Johnny O’Hara premiered their portrait of Benazir Bhutto at Sundance in 2010. It went on to screen at Hot Docs, Stockholm, and a number of other festivals, picking up a special jury prize at the Sonoma International Film Festival.
While the assassinated Pakistani leader and her political family dynasty are at the core of Baughman and O’Hara’s film, their engrossing doc is actually as much about the history of her nation. Taking a comprehensive approach to Bhutto’s life, they present the story of how the daughter of Pakistan’s first democratically elected president – also tragically assassinated – was groomed to continue her father’s legacy, becoming, in the process, one of the most polarizing individuals in the Muslim world, and the first woman in history elected to lead an Islamic nation. Interviews with family and friends at the same time humanize and sanctify her, indicative of her enduring legacy as a national symbol of resistance and hope. While the film perhaps takes on too much and verges at times on hagiography, it nevertheless offers an engaging profile of a complex and fascinating figure.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Anthology Film Archive as part of their “Internationalist Cinema for Today” series this Wednesday, March 7: BURMA VJ: REPORTING FROM A CLOSED COUNTRY
Anders Østergaard premiered this taut exploration of journalism under a totalitarian regime at CPH:DOX in 2008 before screenings at IDFA, Sundance, and scores of other events. It received awards at CPH:DOX, IDFA, Sundance, Full Frame, and Berlin, among others, and was nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar after its theatrical release in 2009.
Østergaard focuses on the courageous, but by necessity anonymous, citizen journalists who have risked arrest and torture by surreptitiously documenting human rights abuses in Burma, which at the time of filming, had been under military rule for 45 years. Their footage, smuggled out of the country, has been instrumental in bringing international attention to the plight of the Burmese people. The film follows “Joshua,” a young video journalist who becomes a de facto leader of the rest of the reporters, as he captures the massive nonviolent protest organized by Buddhist monks against the military regime and tries to evade their intelligence agencies, who seek to stop this dangerous undermining of the official propaganda. The film plays like a real life thriller, with the viewer rooting for Joshua and his team to keep one step ahead of the government. It makes for a gripping, emotional, and thought-provoking watching experience.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, March 6: SENNA
Asif Kapadia’s doc on Formula One’s Ayrton Senna made a splash at Sundance last year, winning the World Cinema Audience Award. It was released in theatres last Summer and on VOD this Winter.
I wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Recognizing the role modern technology had in the conception of his triplets, a filmmaker contemplates its impact and interrelationship with our sense of being.
Having turned to in vitro fertilization after difficulty getting pregnant, filmmaker Avi Zev Weider and his wife became the parents of triplets. From their conception to their neo-natal care, their children owed their existence to technology, leading the filmmaker to huge questions around our increasingly complex interdependence with machines. In exploring these questions, Weider seeks the input of thinkers with wildly divergent perspectives, while also exploring his own story and those of others dramatically changed by technology. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
Released on DVD/VOD earlier this week: SHADOW OF AFGHANISTAN 1959-2012
Director Jim Burroughs and Co-Director Suzanne Bauman premiered their comprehensive survey of a half century of Afghanistan’s tumultuous history at Tribeca in 2006. It went on to screen at IDFA and DOCNZ. Additional material has been added since then to bring the film up to date.
Burroughs and Bauman’s film is at once both a crash course in the history of a country that has been significantly tied to the US since the Cold War and a self-reflexive examination of wartime documentary journalism. Incorporating the work of independent journalists who were killed covering the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, and drawing from the experiences of others who survived, the doc serves as a testament to those who have sought to illuminate the truth. While normally I might take issue with the film’s over-reliance on narration, beyond proving largely necessary to keep track of so much information, this instills a directorial presence – one that reminds the viewer of the dangerous work that the filmmakers, and those who came before them, have undertaken. Even more compelling is the participation of Wakil Akbarzai of the National Islamic Front, and Fatima Gailani, of the Afghan Red Crescent, filmed over two decades, as they reflect on the way their nation has been hijacked to serve different agendas, and how its people have suffered as a result.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
SXSW opens in a week, and I’m happy to be attending once again. I’m honored to be serving as a juror for the fest once again, this time for the documentary short competition, and I’ll also be participating on the very first film panel, Beginners Guide to SXSW Film, on Friday, March 9 at 2pm.
With great weather, a fun atmosphere, a welcoming staff, and fantastic programming, SXSW has quickly become one of my favorite festivals after just a few years of attending, and a trip I look forward to every year. The documentary programming is diverse, spread throughout the various sections of the festival, and reflects a freewheeling mix of portraiture, social advocacy films, music docs, and everything in between. While my trip this year is slightly truncated so that I can also attend the Thessaloniki Documentary festival in Greece, I’m hoping to catch as many of the festival’s lineup of nearly 60 feature documentaries as I can while I’m in Austin. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Released on DVD earlier this week: ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE
Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath premiered this personal look at the crimes of the Khmer Rouge at IDFA in 2009. It came to North America at Sundance in 2010, winning the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Prize. The film also claimed awards at Full Frame, the Human Rights Watch, Santa Barbara, and Hong Kong, and enjoyed a limited theatrical release.
I wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
