Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 6:
WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS

Director:
Jon Kasbe

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2018

Select Festivals:
Sheffield, New Orleans, Mountainfilm, Denver, Zurich, Planet in Focus, San Diego, Movies That Matter, Docs Against Gravity, Budapest Docs, Wild & Scenic, Washington DC Enviro, Philadelphia Enviro, Indie Grits

About:
A complex exploration of ivory hunting, from the perspectives of ranger and poacher.

Set in Kenya, director Jon Kasbe’s well-constructed film offers a remarkably insider look at the ivory trade, focused on an ivory dealer called X and his cousin, Asan, a former poacher turned ranger tasked with preventing poaching. Embedding with both men, the filmmaker demonstrates the unforgiving economic reality that sustains the illegal killing of elephants. While X is an unlikable figure, disingenuously attempting to elide his role in the slaughter of animals by noting that his colleague, Lukas, is the one who shoots them while he only supervises, it’s made evident that X seems to have few options. He was born into this detestable profession and there are few ways to support his family – a situation facing Asan, who has worked unpaid for months, and faces the moral dilemma of helping his cousin with his illegal activities. Kasbe’s observational approach provides no easy answers or judgement, which will rankle some viewers, but it makes for an impressive and distinct portrait of a well-covered topic.

Coming to VOD this Sunday, December 1:
5B

Directors:
Dan Krauss and Paul Haggis

World Premiere:
SFFILM Doc Stories 2018

Select Festivals:
Cannes

About:
At the dawn of the AIDS crisis, nurses and caregivers defied fear and stigma to establish the world’s first AIDS hospital ward.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, November 27:
63 UP

Director:
Michael Apted

World Premiere:
ITV (British TV, June 2019)

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, New York, Telluride, Mill Valley, Vancouver, Heartland

About:
The latest installment of the longest-running documentary project in history.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
This longitudinal project started out by filming a group of seven-year-old British children representing a range of the country’s class system. Every seven years, director Michael Apted has returned to the same participants for a poignant inquiry into the arc of their lives, through births, deaths, marriages, and divorces – chronicling all their highs and lows. Apted, now in his late 70s, has suggested this ninth installment may be the last.

Coming to PBS tonight, Monday, November 25, and tomorrow, Tuesday, November 26:
COLLEGE BEHIND BARS

Director:
Lynn Novick

World Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2019

Select Festivals:
Harlem Doc Fest

About:
A four-part chronicle of incarcerated individuals seeking higher eduction degrees while serving time.

In New York State, a number of correctional facilities have partnered with Bard College to offer a college education to inmates. The Bard Prisoner Initiative is a competitive program using the same educational standards employed at the Annandale-on-Hudson campus, and offers associate and bachelor’s degrees. Director Lynn Novick profiles several inmates enrolled in the program, both male and female, as they study everything from calculus and classical literature to Mandarin and debate, culminating in sizeable senior thesis projects. Over several years, the series explores the impact of BPI on these individuals, how they succeed and fail at navigating their dual existence as students and prisoners, and the freedom and opportunity for not only advancement but in some cases redemption afforded by their participation. The multi-hour format serves the project well, allowing Novick to explore the complexity of her subjects, including the crimes they have committed and in some cases the heartbreaking setbacks they face due to the vagaries and harshness of the prison environment. The series is also able to address – to a limited extent – the controversies around prison education programs, including the shortsighted elimination of federal funding under the Clinton administration due to complaints that felons should be punished rather than given a free education – a sentiment that persists and is even voiced by the mother of one of the participants – despite the clear linkage between rehabilitative programs like BPI and lower recidivism rates. As a whole, Novick’s series is an affecting, humanistic exploration of the power of hope and second chances to turn lives around.