Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to Netflix tomorrow, Friday, October 2:
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD

Director:
Kirsten Johnson

World Premiere:
Sundance 2020

Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, Doc10

About:
The filmmaker approaches her father’s mortality with inventiveness and dark humor.

My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.

New to DVD/VOD this week:
URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD: INTO HER OWN

Director:
Daniel Traub

World Premiere:
Vancouver 2019

Select Festivals:
Berkshire, Architecture Design Art, Hamptons Doc

About:
A portrait of the noted sculptor.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 29:
HELMUT NEWTON: THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL

Director:
Gero von Boehm

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (cancelled)

About:
A portrait of the often controversial fashion photographer.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 29:
JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE

Director:
Dawn Porter

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (cancelled)

About:
A wide-ranging look at the life, activism, and political career of the esteemed civil rights icon.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29:
I’M LEAVING NOW (YA ME VOY)

Directors:
Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, DocsMx, Morelia

About:
An undocumented Mexican immigrant faces the limits of self-sacrifice.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, September 28:
OUR TIME MACHINE

Directors:
S Leo Chiang and Yang Sun

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, IDFA, CAAMFest, Palm Springs, Doc Edge, Guth Gafa, LA Asian Pacific, Salem, Indie Street

About:
An artist constructs an elaborate puppet play to explore his father’s fading memories.

As his father, Ma Ke, struggles with memory loss due to Alzheimer’s, Shanghai artist Maleonn begins an autobiographical artistic collaboration with both of his parents. Though they suffered from the Cultural Revolution, both had successful careers in the arts – Maleonn’s mother, Zheng Wei Tong, as an actress, and Ma Ke as an opera director for prestigious institutions in both Beijing and Shanghai. In his own practice, Maleonn fuses a range of disciplines, from remarkably lifelike, life-sized puppets and shadow theatre to mechanical engineering and photography, to create an ambitious project conceived as a “time machine” to revisit moments from his father’s past. With sensitivity, filmmakers S Leo Chiang and Yang Sun follow the parallel, interconnected stories of the development of the project, with all of its behind-the-scene dramas and problems, and Maleonn’s personal drive to connect with his father before Ma Ke’s disease robs them of that ability.

Coming to CNN this Sunday, September 27:
JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE

Director:
Dawn Porter

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (cancelled)

About:
A wide-ranging look at the life, activism, and political career of the esteemed civil rights icon.

I previously wrote about the doc here.