Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, April 8:
THE PROVIDERS

Directors:
Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green

Premiere:
Full Frame 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, AFI Docs, SF DocFest, DOClahoma, DocUtah, GlobeDocs, United Nations Association, Virginia, Rocky Mountain Women’s, Big Sky Doc, Sebastopol Doc, Cleveland,

About:
A portrait of healthcare workers who serve a rural community facing serious challenges.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Northern New Mexico: An area hard hit by the opioid crisis and still reeling from the 2008 recession. Exploring a community with few public resources and a depressed population, Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green’s film profiles three healthcare providers working for El Centro, a safety-net clinic network covering 22,000 square miles that serves those without agency, health insurance, or financial resources. Each healthcare practitioner has his/her own very personal encounters with addiction that fuels a fervent desire to help others combat illness. Their superhuman actions form both an uplifting story about the capacity for human kindness and a stark reminder of the healthcare crisis in rural America and beyond.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 5:
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.

Judge Toko Serita presides over the Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Court, a courtroom that offers counseling rather than punishment, recognizing that, for many women, coercion has played a key role in their involvement in sex work. Taking a largely observational approach, Wang-Breal drops the viewer in the midst of the courtroom activity without any immediate context, making for an initially disorienting experience that in some ways matches the perspective of the largely undocumented Asian defendants that face Serita’s bench. Soon enough, it’s clear that the film will be focusing on the women who make the courtroom work, rather than on individual defendants – though brief testimony and counseling sessions with the latter are heard. The bulk of the doc’s time is spent within the court with Serita and other dedicated figures, including Assistant District Attorney Kim Affronti and, most notably, Eliza Hook, a counselor from partner organization GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) as they serve a truly positive and effective role in trafficked women’s lives as the latter try to leave the life (the meaning of the film’s title). If the film makes a slight misstep, it’s in following some of these subjects outside of the court, such as an extended thread involving Serita’s sick father, as a means to round them out further, something that, while admirable, ultimately feels unnecessary and too disconnected from the film’s true focus. Beyond that minor issue, Wang-Breal crafts a compelling and largely inspiring portrait – though the spectre of a newly-elected Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants late in the film tempers the mood somewhat.

New to VOD via Vimeo on Demand this week:
HELLO HELLO HELLO : LEE RANALDO : ELECTRIC TRIM

Director:
Fred Riedel

Premiere:
Montclair 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Doc’n Roll

About:
A behind-the-scenes look at a musician’s collaborative creative process.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Legendary Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo embarks on the recording of a new experimental concept album with a little help from some friends, including Spanish producer Raül Refree and acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem, serving here as lyricist. Recording sessions immerse the audience in his thrillingly creative process, allowing full access to his studio collaborations with guest artists including Nels Cline (Wilco), Sharon Van Etten, Alan Licht, Kid Millions (Oneida), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth).

Coming back to theatres tomorrow, Friday, April 5:
AMAZING GRACE

Realized and Produced by:
Alan Elliott

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2018

Select Festivals:
Berlin, SXSW, True/False, AFI Fest, Full Frame, Pan African

About:
A landmark Aretha Franklin music concert film is released over forty years after it was filmed.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to DVD and VOD this week:
AMERICAN RELAPSE

Directors:
Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt

Premiere:
Rhode Island 2018

Select Festivals:
Cleveland, Orlando, Anchorage, Montana

About:
A candid look at America’s heroin epidemic through the perspective of recovering addicts helping others navigate rehab.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, April 1:
TRE MAISON DASAN

Director:
Denali Tiller

Premiere:
San Francisco 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Cleveland, IFF Boston, Montclair, AFI Docs, Rhode Island, Heartland, Raindance, Cucalorus, Big Sky Doc, Thessaloniki Doc, NewportFilm

About:
A profile of three young boys whose parents are in prison.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
While his father serves a prison sentence, Tre, 13, has his own run-ins with the law. Maison, a hyperactive 11-year-old with Asperger’s, is raised by his grandmother while his beloved dad is behind bars. Finally reunited with his mother, six-year-old Dasan must confront the truth behind her time away. This compelling portrait of growing up with absent role models poses raw and meaningful questions about justice and the cultural, societal, and economic implications of mass incarceration.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, March 29:
AMERICAN RELAPSE

Directors:
Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt

Premiere:
Rhode Island 2018

Select Festivals:
Cleveland, Orlando, Anchorage, Montana

About:
A candid look at America’s heroin epidemic through the perspective of recovering addicts helping others navigate rehab.

Focused on the “rehab capital of America,” Delray Beach FL, McGee and Linkenhelt’s eye-opening and at times harrowing film profiles Allie and Frankie, two longtime heroin addicts in recovery who have devoted themselves to helping others get clean. As these two advocates quickly reveal, they are part of a growing, and, for some, lucrative industry that has developed to deal with the heroin epidemic. While some so-called junkie hunters have exploited this situation, working the health insurance system to profit off of users’ cycles of recovery and relapse, Allie and Frankie are not in it for the money. Throughout this compelling and wisely tightly contained doc, which roughly covers about 3 days, they attempt to help other addicts – including one of Allie’s friends – into rehab, with varying levels of success, all while risking their own sometimes tenuous relationship to sobriety.