The last three films in the 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition all involve musicians, beginning with Morgan Neville’s TROUBADOURS, a look back at the emergence of the singer-songwriter in the 1970s LA music scene.
Category Archives: Film
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: TROUBADOURS
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Special Screening: CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Monday, January 10: CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER
Prolific documentarian Alex Gibney first screened his profile of the disgraced New York Governor as an untitled work-in-progress at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, making it one of the hottest tickets of the event. The completed film had its official world premiere at Toronto, and was brought to VOD and theatres by Magnolia in October and November, respectively.
Gibney, working with his collaborator from ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, author Peter Elkind, takes on the challenge of finding the story that stretches beyond the highly public call girl scandal which saw the powerful and feared politician resign from office in 2008. While the film provides insight into the bust of the Emperors Club escort agency, where Spitzer was identified as “Client #9,” securing critical interviews with club employees, the truly juicy material comes less from the salacious aspects of the scandal and more from the detailed history of Spitzer’s earlier political career as New York State Attorney General and the enemies he made along the way. Interviews with Spitzer himself and even with some of those adversaries provide a rich context in which to understand what might have significantly contributed to his fall from grace.
Director Alex Gibney will be in attendance at STF for a Q&A following the film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: HOT COFFEE
Next up, US Documentary Competition title HOT COFFEE, Susan Saladoff’s searing indictment of the influence of corporate America on our civil justice system.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: CONNECTED
Tiffany Shlain’s US Documentary Competition title, CONNECTED, serves, as its tagline tells us, as “a declaration of interdependence.”
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Top Ten List(s) of 2010
Just a quick pointer to indieWIRE‘s annual list of editorial and industry Top Ten Lists, which includes my own selections at the top of the second page. These kinds of lists are fairly arbitrary, I realize – in the ever-changing landscape of distribution, what counts as a film that’s been release, for example? The constraints here were feature-length films that received a theatrical release in the 2010 calendar year, so this doesn’t take into account films that premiered online without going the theatrical route, or films that have only screened at festivals. As a programmer who sees a huge volume of films each year, the problem is compounded – some of the titles on my 2010 list were films I saw in 2009 during programming or at festivals, while films that I absolutely loved that I saw this year will have to wait to potentially make the 2011 list – if they get a theatrical, that is.
In any case, despite these issues, I wholly recommend checking out any and all of the films that made my Top Ten(s). Check out the article and lists here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: BUCK
Next up in the 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition is Cindy Meehl’s BUCK, which profiles real life horse whisperer Buck Brannaman.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
In the Works: LONG WAY HOME: THE LOVING STORY
Nancy Buirski, the Founder and initial Director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, is at work on her directorial debut, LONG WAY HOME: THE LOVING STORY, a feature documentary on Richard and Mildred Loving, who were at the heart of the landmark 1967 Loving v Virginia Supreme Court case that led to the federal legalization of interracial marriage. She’s currently running a Kickstarter campaign with just two weeks to hit her target of $15,000, so if you’re interested in supporting it, consider making a donation soon to specifically support the licensing fees anticipated for the archival heavy project.
I’m especially intrigued by the archival cinema verité footage of the couple that Buirski describes on her Kickstarter page – with a project like this one that is likely at least known in broad strokes by the general public, having access not only to the subjects but to rich period footage can go a long way to creating a sense of immediacy and relevancy for a present-day audience. With the continued debate over same-sex marriage keeping a focus on legislation dictating when and where love between two consenting individuals is permitted, and who those individuals have to be, LONG WAY HOME also has the potential to influence current opinion by providing much-needed context about past attempts to legislate the institution of marriage. Keep an eye out for Buirski’s film on the festival circuit in 2011.
Filed under Documentary, Film, In the Works
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: MISS REPRESENTATION
Like PAGE ONE, the next film in the 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition takes a look at the media: Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s MISS REPRESENTATION, an examination of the impact of the objectification of women in film, TV, and advertising.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES
The second half of my spotlight on the 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition titles begins with Andrew Rossi’s PAGE ONE: A YEAR INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES, whose subtitle makes this one pretty self-explanatory.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
2011 Sundance Docs in Focus: IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT
This look at the 2011 Sundance US Documentary Competition reaches the halfway mark with Director Marshall Curry and Co-Director Sam Cullman’s exploration of activism outside the law, IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
