Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to 13 cities nationwide beginning next Monday, December 31 and running through Monday, January 21: Oscars® Spotlight: Documentary Feature Shortlist

This fantastic new initiative by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Future of Film Committee offers public audiences in the following cities the opportunity to see all 15 of the official Documentary Feature shortlisted titles in theatres: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, NYC, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Seattle, and Washington DC. This is particularly important for the handful of this year’s contenders that qualified by winning awards at international festivals rather than taking the traditional route of theatrical release.

My previous coverage of the shortlist may be found here.

Earlier today, Indiewire posted the top ten lists of film and television from various film industry respondents, including mine. You may find my picks as well as the full list here.

As noted there, I’ve restricted my list to non-fiction as a counterbalance, since most of these sorts of year-end rankings tend to only begrudging include one or two documentaries and otherwise heap praise on fiction films. My picks are also limited to official releases in 2018.

Here are pointers to what I’ve written about my top ten feature and episodic nonfiction of 2018 on what (not) to doc previously. These are unranked and in alphabetical order, followed by a list of additional notable titles.

Top Ten:

306 HOLLYWOOD

AMERICA TO ME

BISBEE ’17

DISTANT CONSTELLATION

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING

MINDING THE GAP

SHIRKERS

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS

WILD WILD COUNTRY

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

Plus ten more notable docs of 2018:

BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY

FREE SOLO

GOOD LUCK

THE LAST RACE

LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE

LOVE, GILDA

MAKALA

OF FATHERS AND SONS

PICK OF THE LITTER

THE ROAD MOVIE

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 25:
SACRED

Director:
Thomas Lennon

Premiere:
Tokyo 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, IDFA, Sebastopol Doc, RiverRun, Cleveland, Ashland, Montclair

About:
A look at spirituality around the world.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 21:
THE LAST RESORT

Directors:
Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch

Premiere:
Miami Jewish 2018

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Virginia, Key West, Jewish fests in Toronto, Rochester, and Cleveland

About:
A revealing revisitation of Jewish life in 1970s Miami.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Escaping the harsh winters of the Northeast for the perpetual sun of Florida, Miami Beach became a regular vacation destination for New York’s Jewish community after WWII. By the 1970s, many retired there, transforming Miami Beach into a veritable shtetl. Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch’s film revisits this sunburned paradise through the ambitious and captivating work of Andy Sweet and Gary Monroe, two young photographers who captured this aging population for a decade, even as Miami transformed around them.

TAKE LIGHT

Director:
Shasha Nakhai

Premiere:
Cleveland 2018

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Atlanta, Durban

About:
A ground-level look at Nigeria’s electricity crisis.

Despite its status as the largest producer of electricity in Africa, Nigeria struggles to provide power to more than half of its population, and, even for those with access, it’s severely limited and undependable. While the citizenry grows angry, blaming corruption and using illicit means to grab their share of energy at no cost, the government points to limitations in their infrastructure, making it impossible to keep up with the demand of the nation’s 200 million consumers. Nakhai capably if somewhat too cursorily explores this challenge of development and resources through several profiles of individuals connected to the issue, including an electrician who survived a dangerous electrocution, a bill collector faced with the unpleasant task of having to cut power to disgruntled customers who can’t or won’t pay their bills, and a pair of Youtubers known as Two Angry Men, who humorously complain about the state of affairs.

New to DVD this week:
TRANSFORMER

Director:
Michael Del Monte

Premiere:
Austin 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Big Sky Doc, Hot Springs Doc

About:
A portrait of a champion powerlifter as she struggles with body image issues during her transition to female.

For most of her life, Janae Marie Kroczaleski lived as Matt Kroc, achieving fame within the bodybuilding world with a world record in powerlifting before being publicly outed as transgender. Having bulked up to a 250-lb hypermasculine ideal, however, has left Janae conflicted about her ability to meet society’s standards of what a woman should look like, and what space there is for her in the sport to which she has devoted so much of her time and energy. This ambivalence around Janae’s physical transition – together with the refreshingly open and supportive relationship she shares with her teenage sons – helps differentiate Del Monte’s likeable project from the numerous overly familiar stories of transition that have emerged over the past couple of decades.