Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
QUEEN OF LAPA

Directors:
Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat

World Premiere:
Maryland 2019

Select Festivals:
Göteborg, RiverRun, Antenna Doc, NewFest, San Francisco IndieFest, Sidewalk, Rhode Island, Oxford, Philadelphia Latino

About:
A portrait of a legendary Brazilian sex worker activist.

Nearing sixty at the time of filming, unforgettable trans cabaret performer and activist Luana Muniz has been a sex worker since age eleven. More than two decades ago, she created a hostel in the seedy Lapa district of Rio de Janeiro to provide a safe space for other trans sex workers in a society mired by transphobia and corruption. Filmmakers Theodore Collatos and Carolina Monnerat train their camera on the outspoken, larger-than-life Luana, highlighting her no-nonsense relationships with her surrogate daughters, and capturing the atmosphere of the community they’ve created with a relaxed familiarity. The result is a refreshingly nonjudgemental immersion into Luana’s world, made all the more poignant when it’s revealed that the house mother has since passed away.

Coming to virtual theatrical tomorrow, Friday, June 19:
MY DARLING VIVIAN

Director:
Matt Riddlehoover

World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (online)

About:
A portrait of Johnny Cash’s first wife, long misrepresented in the performer’s mythology.

Johnny Cash struggled to win over his demons of addiction with the selfless love and devotion of his true love, June Carter, following a difficult marriage to the mother of his four daughters – or so goes the Cash legend, as immortalized in the Oscar-winning biopic WALK THE LINE. Director Matt Riddlehoover’s respectful doc aims to serve as a corrective, rehabilitating the image and understanding of Vivian Liberto, Cash’s long-suffering first love and first wife. As signaled by its title, the film foregrounds the deep love between Liberto and Cash, revealed here not only through interviews with their children, but through a trove of letters showing just how besotted The Man in Black was over the Italian beauty he met in 1951 while still an Air Force cadet. At the same time, Riddlehoover details Liberto’s side of the story in the eventual demise of the relationship after he found fame – a mix of neglect compounded by Cash’s troubles with drugs and affair with June Carter, as well as the racist fallout of Liberto being mistaken for being African American by the media. In the ensuing years, Cash and Carter’s worldwide platform allowed them to revise history, which eventually led to Liberto being reframed as a harridan and often erased from the story entirely. While distractingly overscored, this thoughtful profile benefits from absolute candor from the Cash daughters and from a rich archive, helping to illuminate Vivian in all her fullness.

New to VOD this week:
MY FATHER THE SPY

Director:
Jaak Kilmi and Gints Grube

World Premiere:
Sheffield 2019

Select Festivals:
Jihlava, Riga, Cinema Verite, EBS International Doc

About:
A woman explores the impact of her father’s life as a Soviet double agent.

Ieva Lešinska-Geibere was born in Soviet Latvia during the Cold War. In 1978, at the age of 20, a rare visit to the US to visit her father irrevocably changed her life. Ieva discovered that her father, who worked for Soviet mission at the United Nations, was not only a KGB spy, but that he was planning to defect. Ieva was offered the choice of joining him, leaving her mother and life in Latvia behind to live under a new identity in the US, or of protecting herself by heading to the Soviet embassy. Now a translator and journalist, Ieva recounts this transformative time in her life, revisiting locations and speaking to former federal agents who played a role, while also trying to make sense of her fraught relationship with her parents as a result of these Cold War spy games. Filmmakers Jaak Kilmi and Gints Grube enliven an already fascinating story with the clever use of stylized photographic re-enactments, adding another layer to Lešinska-Geibere’s unusual tale of secrets and lies.

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, June 16:
WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL

Director:
Rob Garver

World Premiere:
Telluride 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Berlin, Edinburgh, Karlovy Vary, Thessaloniki Doc, Miami, Cleveland, Montclair, Seattle, Docs Against Gravity, Transilvania, New Zealand, Vancouver, Mumbai, Rio, Docaviv

About:
A portrait of controversial and influential film critic Pauline Kael.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16:
MAE WEST: DIRTY BLONDE

Directors:
Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi

World Premiere:
PBS broadcast (June 2020)

About:
A portrait of the trailblazing film icon.

While Mae West long ago became part of the Hollywood pantheon that makes her unforgettable, over time she’s been reduced to something of a caricature, remembered more for a catchphrase than for specific roles. Surprisingly, Sally Rosenthal and Julia Marchesi’s PBS documentary corrective is the first notable documentary about the controversial entertainment powerhouse, who ruled pre-Code Hollywood. They spruce up a conventional biography format with fantastic archival footage and numerous clips from her films, as well as commentary from historians, friends, and celebrity admirers. What emerges is an intriguing profile of a self-assured woman who insisted on controlling her own image and career, and who was particularly savvy about using controversy to her benefit. While some of the arguments presented about her films’ intersection with race and class matters are perhaps overstated, the documentary succeeds in reclaiming West’s revolutionary appeal and will inspire viewers to seek out her body of work.

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, June 16:
LITTLE MISS WESTIE

Directors:
Joy E Reed and Dan Hunt

World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2018

Select Festival:
Southern Circuit, BendFilm, LGBT fests in Palm Springs, London, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Ft Lauderdale, and Melbourne

About:
A young trans girl is coached through her first pageant by her trans brother.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
If Ren could go back in time before she was four, she would tell her parents that she wasn’t happy living as a boy. Now, Ren is about to take part in a rite of passage for their community in West Haven, CT as the first out transgirl to compete in the Little Miss Westie Pageant. Coaching her through the competition: Her older brother Luca, who previously took part in the pageant when he lived as a girl. Gender dynamics evolve in front of the viewer’s eyes while two transgender siblings explore who they are in this intimate portrait.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, June 15:
RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT

Director:
Matt Wolf

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, AFI Docs, London, New Orleans, Melbourne, Montclair, Maryland, SF DocFest, Sidewalk, Heartland, Antenna

About:
The story of a woman who recorded television news around the clock for thirty years.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Showtime tonight, Friday, June 12:
RINGSIDE

Director:
André Hörmann

World Premiere:
Berlin 2019

Select Festival:
DOC NYC, New Orleans, Sydney, Hot Springs, Chicago

About:
A longitudinal portrait of two young boxers in Chicago.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Two young men strive to define their destiny in Chicago’s South Side in this poignant chronicle. Kenny and Destyne dream of boxing greatness, charting very different paths towards their shared goal. Kenny quickly moves into the pressure cooker of semi-pro competitions, while Destyne is imprisoned for a petty crime. Filmed over the course of eight years with incredible access and stirring intimacy, Ringside is a complex, emotional portrait of two youths on the brink.

Coming to virtual theatrical today, Friday, June 12:
IN MY BLOOD IT RUNS

Director:
Maya Newell

World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Sydney, AFI Docs, Durban, New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, DocsMX, Warsaw

About:
A portrait of a young Aboriginal Australian boy.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Dujuan Hoosan, a 10-year-old Australian boy, lives in two worlds. During the day he must speak English at school and conform to the modern world. Elsewhere, he is a vital member of the Arrernte tribe as a respected healer and advocate for Aboriginal rights. The confluence of these two realities overwhelms Dujuan, leading to trouble with the police and child services. Maya Newell’s evocative and shrewd profile of this singular child bursts with hope and imagination.