The third of three films in the World Cinema Documentary Competition that also screened at IDFA, Leonard Retel Helmrich’s POSITION AMONG THE STARS, from The Netherlands, concludes his three-film portrait of a poor Indonesian family and how they are coping with modernization.
Category Archives: Film
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: POSITION AMONG THE STARS
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE
The World Cinema Documentary Competition heads to San Francisco, care of Australian director Matthew Bate, with his SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE, the behind-the-scenes story of a worldwide viral audio cult phenomenon.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: FAMILY PORTRAIT IN BLACK & WHITE
The next film in the World Cinema Documentary Competition comes from Canada – Julia Ivanova’s exploration of an unusually large Ukrainian foster family, FAMILY PORTRAIT IN BLACK & WHITE.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE FLAW
The second half of this spotlight on the World Cinema Documentary Competition begins with David Sington’s THE FLAW, from the UK, which offers a comprehensive analysis of the US financial crisis.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Special Panel: Programming Documentary Festivals at UnionDocs
If you’re based in the NYC area or planning on being in town this coming Sunday, January 16 at 7:30pm, I’m taking part in a panel at UnionDocs, an organization that presents innovative documentary film and panel programming in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The panel, entitled “Why Festivals? Doc Film Fest Programmers Discuss,” examines the role of film festivals in bringing films to audiences and to the wider distribution landscape, and specifically addresses the programming process. I’m joined by Sky Sitney (Silverdocs), Charlotte Selb (RIDM – Montreal International Documentary Festival), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), and Sally Berger (The Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight), with UnionDocs’ Artistic Director/Founder Christopher Allen and Programmer Steve Holmgren moderating.
Read more about the panel and participants here.
Note: This post has been edited to reflect Sally Berger’s recent inclusion as a panelist.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
In Theatres: I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE
Opening in NYC next Wednesday, January 12: I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE
Veteran documentary director/producer Michel Negroponte is perhaps best known for 1995’s JUPITER’S WIFE, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and won Best Documentary Feature at Vancouver later that year; and for 2005’s METHODONIA, which premiered at the New York Film Festival. His latest film premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2009, receiving a special mention from the international jury. It went on to be included in Doc/Fest’s Best of the Fest Tour in the spring of last year, and also screened at Stranger Than Fiction and Hot Docs, among other festivals and series.
I’M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE focuses on former drug addict and alcoholic Dimitri Mugianis, who became clean and sober through the use of the illegal hallucinogen ibogaine, which comes from Africa and is used in shamanistic rituals. Like the protagonists in Negroponte’s other films, Mugianis is decidedly an outsider, intentionally breaking the law by using the drug to help detox other addicts. Like the experimental treatment he uses, and goes through himself in order to confront his own inner demons, the film is dark and intense, exploring what drives a man on a personal crusade, and how far he is willing to go.
For more information and to purchase tickets to screenings at the IFC Center, click here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975
This film-by-film look at the World Cinema Documentary competition reaches the halfway point with Göran Hugo Olsson’s Swedish/US co-production, THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975, an astute condensation of pivotal years in the movement from a non-American viewpoint.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: THE GREEN WAVE
The second of three IDFA titles to compete for the World Cinema Documentary jury prize is Ali Samadi Ahadi’s story of the Iranian political revolution of 2009, THE GREEN WAVE, a German/Iran co-production.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
In the Works: A GIRL AND A GUN
First time director Cathryne Czubek is working with producer Jessica Wolfson (TRUST US THIS IS ALL MADE UP, CRAZY SEXY CANCER) on a promising documentary project about women who own guns, A GIRL AND A GUN. The filmmakers recently successfully completed a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign, but tax-deductible contributions can still be made – more information is available on the page, as is a link to the Facebook page and mailing list sign-up to keep you updated on future developments.
The character-driven documentary focuses on four individuals with complex relationships to guns – their pro-gun beliefs seem more informed by personal histories touched by violence against their families or themselves than by Second Amendment NRA dogma. Given the statistics about rape and violence against women, this sadly makes their stories instantly relatable to a large portion of a potential female audience. They also serve as a counterpoint to pop culture’s glorification of violence, and women’s role as, alternately, helpless victim or Lara Croft heroine. A GIRL AND A GUN looks poised to intelligently engage in a dialogue that intersects feminism, civil liberties, violence against women, women’s self-empowerment, and media portrayals of women and of violence.
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
indieWIRE @ Hulu Docs: Sundance Flashback, Part One
Since before the end of the year, this blog has been counting down to Sundance – so when it came time to curate another round of selections for Hulu’s Documentaries page for indieWIRE, I decided to look backwards to past films that screened in Park City. For the next two weeks or so, you can enjoy a varied collection of Sundance alumni docs for free!
For more information about the selections, take a look at my iW article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations, Sundance
