Category Archives: Film

September 30, 2010 · 12:05 PM

DOC NYC: Initial Line-Up

The newest documentary festival on the block, Thom Powers and Raphaela Neihausen’s DOC NYC, has announced the first half of its line-up. The pair, who are also behind the Stranger Than Fiction series, have expanded their initial plans for the inaugural event by a couple of days, giving New Yorkers more of a chance to check out their offerings.

Of the 18 titles released today, half just screened earlier this month at Toronto – fittingly, of course, since Powers is that festival’s doc programmer. These include the event’s two Galas, Werner Herzog’s CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS and Errol Morris’ TABLOID – I’ve seen and enjoyed CAVE and am very much looking forward to TABLOID.

The two competitions – Viewfinders, focused on established and emerging filmmakers, and Metropolis, focused on NYC based films – sound like a diverse group of films. I’ve already written about my admiration for ARMADILLO and SOUND OF MUMBAI, and the other TIFF titles (here and here), but can also highly recommend both KATI WITH AN I and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MCKINLEY NOLAN.

The first DOC NYC runs November 3-9.

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September 29, 2010 · 1:33 PM

In Theatres: FREAKONOMICS

Opening this Friday, October 1: FREAKONOMICS

Producers Chad Troutwine, Chris Romano, and Dan O’Meara assembled a veritable dream team of documentary directing all-stars to tackle their film adaptation of Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s bestselling book. The film premiered at Tribeca earlier this year and is being released by Magnolia this weekend, hoping to capitalize not only on the six directors’ followers, but on the rabid fanbase of the popular book, which combines pop culture with an incentives-focused view of economics.

Adapting notable examples from the source material, each director (or director team in the case of Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing) taking on a different chapter of the film. Like most omnibus projects, some segments are stronger than others. Eugene Jarecki’s exploration of the possible explanation for the unexpected drop in the crime rate in the 1990s, narrated by Melvin Van Peebles, is arguably the strongest. Grady & Ewing also deliver an entertaining, if light, look into a scheme to pay ninth graders to improve their grades. A light approach is also taken by Morgan Spurlock in his satirical musing on the impact of baby names, which, while well done, doesn’t go too far below the surface. The opposite extreme is found in Alex Gibney’s investigative journalism-like report on sumo wrestling corruption – much like its subjects, the segment is far too weighty compared to the rest of the film, and drags it down. Seth Gordon connects these episodes together with clever interstitials featuring Levitt and Dubner, perhaps the second best aspect of the project after Jarecki. While it be a mixed bag, the film is worthwhile for its basic concept – applying out-of-the-box economic approaches to make sense of human behavior.

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September 28, 2010 · 1:31 PM

Special Screening: AMERICAN SPLENDOR

Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, October 5: AMERICAN SPLENDOR

STF pays tribute to underground comic book artist Harvey Pekar, who died this summer, with a special screening of this narrative/documentary hybrid by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, an adaptation of his long-running comic series. Premiering at Sundance in 2003, the film claimed the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and went on to screen at scores of additional festivals, winning prizes at Cannes, and numerous guild and critics’ nods after its theatrical release.

Drama/doc hybrids are often awkward creatures – neither fish nor fowl, they at times miss the mark when considered as examples of either form, or emerge as interesting experiments but ultimately unsatisfying. Luckily, however, AMERICAN SPLENDOR just works. It might be because of the nature of the already explicitly autobiographical source material – it’s not a far stretch to accept the real-life Pekar breaking the fourth wall and directly addressing the audience as a narrator or Greek chorus commenting on the sequences enacted by Paul Giamatti. I wouldn’t want to see a lot of imitators attempting to copy this formula though – it does seem very specific to this project, and it does frankly lean more towards narrative than documentary in the end. Still, despite being an unusual choice for STF, it’s definitely an appropriate one, and I’ll be curious to hear how a documentary-specific audience responds to the film in this context.

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September 27, 2010 · 3:29 PM

On Cable: WAR DON DON

Coming to HBO this Wednesday, September 29: WAR DON DON

After premiering in competition at SXSW, where it claimed a Special Jury Award, Rebecca Richman Cohen’s debut feature went on to a successful festival run, claiming additional awards at the Independent Film Festival of Boston (Karen Schmeer Documentary Editing Award) and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (Cinereach Award).

Set in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the film focuses on the special trial of the controversial Issa Sesay, for some a war criminal, for others a hero who was instrumental in bringing peace to the war-torn African nation. Granted incredible access into the workings of a unique international court, Cohen is able to present a comprehensive and at times contradictory view of the accused and of the underlying issues that kept the civil war raging for years. There are no simple answers, and the film doesn’t aim for them – instead it accepts the conflicting nature of its subject, and lays it bare for audiences to debate.

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September 27, 2010 · 12:32 PM

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Director-As-Subject

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Every time you’re on camera, your doc drags. Why are you IN your film? Focus on your subjects.

I wish I knew where this trend was coming from, but there has been an increasing number of docs in the past few years where the filmmaker has decided s/he needs to be on camera, even if the film is not a personal one. The worst of these place the director in the position of an on-camera subject and/or host, and usually end up distracting the viewer from the film’s true topic, becoming instead all about the filmmaker, leading the audience through his/her filmmaking journey. Let me state this emphatically – unless the film is about you as a central protagonist, or unless your absence would severely jeopardize your project, you don’t belong in it.

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September 24, 2010 · 3:29 PM

On Cable: TEENAGE PAPARAZZO

Coming to HBO this Monday, September 27: TEENAGE PAPARAZZO

Adrian Grenier’s film (his second doc following SHOT IN THE DARK) premiered at this year’s Sundance before being acquired by HBO, whose ENTOURAGE helped turned Grenier into a household name.

Focused on the young star’s unusual relationship with Austin, a 14-year-old celebrity photographer who he turns the tables on to document instead, TEENAGE PAPARAZZO becomes a surprisingly intimate and intricate exploration of celebrity, media, and the symbiotic/parastic connection which exists between them. Initially intrigued by Austin’s youth to explore the role of the paparazzi, Grenier expands his project further to question the nature of fame and his own influence on his young subject, leading to thought-provoking role-reversals, revealing as much about himself as it does about his young friend.

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September 24, 2010 · 12:05 PM

On DVD: RACING DREAMS

Released on DVD earlier this week: RACING DREAMS

Director Marshall Curry’s follow up to the Academy Award nominated STREET FIGHT with this coming of age profile of three young go-kart racers, which won over audiences at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and also claimed the festival’s Best Documentary Award. It went on to claim additional jury and audience awards on its tour of the festival circuit since then. While the doc had only a limited theatrical run, DreamWorks hopes to tap into a larger potential audience through a dramatic feature adaptation that’s in development by the writers of the revitalized STAR TREK franchise.

Recognizing that the best sports documentaries are never just about the sport, Curry found three distinctive and engaging young subjects whose clearly-stated and understood goals are easy for a wide audience to connect with. Far from only appealing to niche fans, by positioning its 11-13-year-olds as Everymen facing a pivotal time when they must prove they have what it takes to take their juvenile hobby into an eventual professional adult career, the film transcends its apparent specificities to relate to any viewer who’s ever pursued a dream, whatever the context.

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September 23, 2010 · 2:56 PM

Special Screening: MARWENCOL

Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, September 28: MARWENCOL

Jeff Malmberg’s critical and audience favorite debuted at SXSW earlier this year, where it won the Documentary Competition. Since then, it’s gone on to win additional awards at the numerous festivals it’s screened, and also been picked up for theatrical distribution by Cinema Guild, opening next month. Before that happens, New York’s signature documentary series, STF, officially kicks off its Fall season with the film next Tuesday.

I’ve been a fan of and champion for this film since before its world premiere. There’s a pure joy to discovering the surprises in this story of a man who turns to his unique form of art therapy to deal with the lasting effects from a brutal beating. The film’s subject, Mark Hogencamp, constructs a 1/6th scale World War II-set Belgian village, the titular “Marwencol,” populated by GI Joes and Barbies representing avatars of himself and people in his life. He documents an elaborate, creative, continuing adventure through a series of shockingly intimate photographs, working through his own traumas through this fictional space. To say much more wouldn’t ruin the film, but it would take a lot of the surprise out of it – suffice it to say, if you like documentaries, you will love this film, and you must see it. Easily my favorite doc of the year – it was secretly my favorite of last year!

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September 23, 2010 · 12:23 PM

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: Noise

Dear Documentary Filmmakers: If there are disruptive kids/pets around, you may want to reschedule your shoot.

This one is pretty basic, I’ll admit, but it still bears consideration. WC Fields famously offered the following advice: “Never work with animals or children.” I wouldn’t go quite so far as to ban them completely from your films, but, seriously, if you’re trying to get an interview with an important subject, you want your audience to be able to concentrate on what s/he is saying, not on the dog barking in the next room, or the precocious brat competing for his parent’s (or the camera’s) attention. Unless you’re a one-man crew and your subject is alone, there must be someone else around to distract the loveable little moppet and puppy, right? Otherwise, maybe consider filming that interview when Junior’s at school or walking the dog…

While I can understand to some extent if you’re capturing verité footage, even in that case, you will still want to be able to include something useable in your film – ie, something that audiences can properly understand. If noisy verité footage is not pivotal, you shouldn’t use it – it will be too disruptive to have the impact you want it to have anyway.