Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres today, Friday, February 21:
ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND

Director:
Daniel Roher

World Premiere:
Toronto 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, IDFA, Boulder, Miami Jewish, Calgary

About:
A candid recounting of the history of the legendary music group.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
The Band got started as a group of musicians backing up Bob Dylan on tour, but grew into a legend in their own right, starting with the 1968 album Music from the Big Pink (recorded in Woodstock) and culminating in their 1976 farewell concert filmed by Martin Scorsese for THE LAST WALTZ. In the aftermath, The Band members went their separate ways, battling addiction and broken friendships, never recapturing their original bonds.

Filmmaker Daniel Roher focuses on The Band’s founder Robbie Robertson, who started opening up in his candid book TESTIMONY: A MEMOIR. Robertson gives an emotional account of The Band’s history, artistry, and the tensions that divided fellow members Garth Hudson and the now-deceased Levon Helms, Rick Danko, and Richard Manuel. We hear other testimonies from the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, and Scorsese (also the film’s executive producer) who decode the magic of The Band’s haunting songs such as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

Even for casual listeners, this film is eye-opening for its portrayal of the magical years when The Band shared a deep brotherhood and created music that left a lasting mark.

New to DVD this week:
SCANDALOUS

Director:
Mark Landsman

World Premiere:
Hamptons 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Austin, Kansas, Denver

About:
An exploration of the influential tabloid, the National Enquirer.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s AfroPoP tonight, Monday, February 17:
TWELVE DISCIPLES OF NELSON MANDELA

Director:
Thomas Allen Harris

World Premiere:
Toronto 2005

Select Festivals:
Thessaloniki Doc, Africa in the Picture, Pan African, Bermuda

About:
The story of the first wave of black South Africans who fought for freedom in exile.

After the death of his stepfather, Benjamin Pule Leinaeng, filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris sets out to tell not only Leinaeng’s story, but that of his close friends and fellow freedom fighters, in total a dozen young men who grew up under apartheid, supported the African National Congress, and, eventually, had to leave their homeland to try to garner support for their cause in the international community. For his part, Leinaeng resettled in New York City, where he met Harris’ mother, and, together, created a central hub of sorts for the movement. Reflections from the surviving Mandela “disciples,” as well as Harris and his family, are combined with dramatic re-enactments and film shot by Leinaeng to trace the freedom fighters’ often surprising and sometimes dangerous activities, intimately revealing both the costs and joys of their three decades of work conducted in exile.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 17:
WE BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS

Directors:
Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross

World Premiere:
San Francisco 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, AFI Docs, St Louis, Hot Springs Doc, Woods Hole, Sidewalk, Southern Circuit, Rocky Mountain Women’s, Virginia

About:
An exploration of the influence of American creationism through Kentucky’s contentious Ark Encounter museum.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
In rural Kentucky, a creationist group builds a life-size, $120 million Noah’s Ark museum – replete with animal, human, and dinosaur models – in an attempt to affirm the factuality of the Biblical story. Standing against this attempt to co-opt history and science are a local geologist, an atheist activist, and a former creationist. Throw in a tax scheme that funnels public funds into the Ark at the expense of local economic sustainability, and the result is an outlandish tale that must be seen to be believed.

New to DVD this week:
MCCARTHY

Director:
Sharon Grimberg

World Premiere:
American Experience (January 2020)

About:
A comprehensive account of the rise and fall of notorious Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to OVID.tv last week:
RAW HERRING

Directors:
Leonard Retel Helmrich and Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2013

Select Festivals:
Hamburg, Nederlands

About:
A look at a peculiarly Dutch fishing tradition.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Tribeca here.