Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to POV tonight, Monday, October 21:
BLOWIN’ UP

Director:
Stephanie Wang-Breal

Premiere:
Tribeca 2018

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, AFI Docs, DMZ Docs, Camden, Big Sky Doc, Hot Springs Doc, Antenna Doc, New Orleans, AFI Fest, San Diego Asian, Martha’s Vineyard

About:
A look at a unique NYC courtroom that assists sex workers and trafficked women.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres and to Netflix today, Friday, October 18:
TELL ME WHO I AM

Director:
Ed Perkins

World Premiere:
Telluride 2019

Select Festivals:
London, Hamptons

About:
After a teenager loses his memory following a motorcycle accident, his twin brother selectively retells their past.

In 1982, 18-year-old Alex Lewis woke from his motorcycle crash with his memory wiped, only recognizing his identical twin, Marcus. He remembered nothing else – not his strange parents, girlfriend, or any details of the past. Returning to their unsettling, sprawling home, Alex depended on Marcus to fill in the blanks. Soon, Marcus realized this presented an opportunity to edit their shared history, to benefit them both. In Ed Perkins’ film – which follows a 2013 book by the same name – Alex and Marcus speak directly to the camera, separately for the first two sections, then together for the emotionally cathartic third, relating this singular situation. Very well constructed as a mystery, and in some ways mirroring Alex’s own experiences of having to reconstruct the past based on only partial information, the film contains extremely disturbing surprises that are best experienced with no foreknowledge.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 18:
SERENDIPITY

Director:
Prune Nourry

World Premiere:
Berlin 2019

Select Festivals:
Tribeca, Doc Fortnight, Mill Valley

About:
A personal reflection of the filmmaker/artist’s work after a breast cancer diagnosis.

Prune Nourry is a multidisciplinary French artist, based in NYC, whose work in sculpture, performance, and photography has focused on gender, women’s rights, reproduction, and their intersection with science. Her feature film debut is part of a multiplatform project that included a Paris solo show and book, and is informed by a breast cancer diagnosis. Before beginning chemotherapy, she has her eggs harvested and frozen for potential future use. This eerily echoes projects she has completed in the past following other women going through the same procedure, and serves as the lead-in to a meditation on other past work, as well as her artistic response in the present, going hand-in-hand with activities related to her treatment. It’s a precarious balance between artistic survey and personal chronicle of a life-threatening disease, and, to Nourry’s credit, she manage this for the most part.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 18:
THE CAVE

Director:
Feras Fayyad

World Premiere:
Toronto 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, London, Hamptons, Camden, Double Exposure, Mill Valley, Heartland, Tallgrass, Virginia

About:
A female doctor defies patriarchal expectations to lead an underground hospital in Syria.

The film screens as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
THE CAVE takes us to a subterranean landscape that feels akin to the post-apocalyptic world of MAD MAX. Warlords have made the earth’s surface uninhabitable in Syria, so medical workers led by Dr Amani Ballor, a female pediatrician, have created a hospital underground the city of Ghouta, near Damascus. Oscar®-nominated Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad spent two years capturing the resilience, dedication, and love that keeps them going.

Coming to Showtime tomorrow, Friday, October 18:
SID & JUDY

Director:
Stephen Kijak

World Premiere:
Frameline 2019

Select Festivals:
Outfest, London, LGBT fests in Seattle, Chicago, Austin

About:
A look at the legendary Judy Garland through the eyes of her husband and manager, Sid Luft.

Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Garland’s death, Stephen Kijak’s biopic is a well-paced look back at the beloved performer, focused largely on the comeback that cemented her as an icon. Based on Luft’s recently released memoir, the film traces Garland’s career after her split from MGM, which had controlled her career for her entire adult life, as he helped shepherd her through a remake of A STAR IS BORN, nabbing an Oscar nomination in the process, and a series of wildly popular concerts. While their marriage was not to last, Luft offers a unique perspective on Garland, bringing a deeply personal touch to this dramatic period in her life, and also offering commentary on how her demons claimed her after they parted ways.

Coming to HBO tomorrow, Thursday, October 17:
LIBERTY: MOTHER OF EXILES

Directors:
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

World Premiere:
HBO (October 2019)

About:
A tribute to the Statue of Liberty.

133 years ago, the iconic Statue of Liberty was dedicated on NYC’s Bedloe’s Island, later renamed Liberty Island. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato trace the statue’s history, led to a large extent by its unofficial “godmother,” fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, who has long felt a personal connection to Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi masterwork and here helps in fundraising efforts for a Liberty Island museum. In addition to following von Furstenberg’s efforts, the film revisits the origins of the statue as a joint US/French monument to US independence, while also profiling ordinary individuals who have connections to Liberty Island or the statue, from magician David Copperfield, who famously made the statue “disappear,” and restoration workers to factory workers who produce souvenir replicas and activists who have used the site to protest the current administrations regressive immigration policies. While by its nature an episodic survey – and a positive one at that, eliding some more complex and inconvenient history – the film succeeds in forming a satisfying whole in its focus on the symbolic importance of the Statue of Liberty, and serves as a worthwhile reminder of how welcoming America should be.