Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, July 10:
GETTING NAKED: A BURLESQUE STORY

Director:
James Lester

Premiere:
Venice 2017 (Venice Days)

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Cleveland, Newport Beach, Berkshire, Greenwich, Florida, SF DocFest

About:
An inside look at the lives of several contemporary burlesque performers.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10:
THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH

Director:
Trisha Ziff

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Duabi, Raindance, Morelia, AFI Docs, San Francisco Latino, St Louis, Ambulante

About:
An exploration of the work of a noted Mexican crime scene photographer.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Even as a child, Enrique Metinides was obsessed with images, photographing car accidents in his Mexico City neighborhood and snapping pictures at the local morgue. Tabloids soon started publishing his photos, beginning his three-decade career as a crime photographer. Through Metinides’ compelling work, which often captures not only gruesome scenes of human tragedy but also the curious reactions of onlookers, Trisha Ziff explores our morbid fascination with death and accidents.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10:
SUPERGIRL

Director:
Jessie Auritt

Premiere:
Hamptons 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Big Sky Doc, Cucalorus, Slamdance, Doc Edge, Cleveland, Sarasota, RiverRun, Florida, Montclair, Annapolis, Milwaukee, Woods Hole, Jewish fests in Philadelphia, Palm Beach, Hartford, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, and London

About:
A portrait of the world’s strongest girl.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 6:
WHITNEY

Director:
Kevin Macdonald

Premiere:
Cannes 2018

Select Festivals:
Edinburgh, Sydney, Munich, Biografilm

About:
A candid exploration of the rise and fall of Whitney Houston.

Kevin Macdonald’s film on Houston is the second within a year, following the compelling WHITNEY. “CAN I BE ME” by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal. While the latter drew largely from interviews with friends and associates of the late singer, as well as intimate backstage footage, this latest, heartbreaking biography has the participation of Houston’s family and close confidantes, and through them an archive of early recordings of Houston. In the tragedy of the celebrated but troubled singer’s life, there’s ample room for both films, and, to Macdonald’s credit, he hasn’t created a bowdlerized version of Whitney’s story to placate the family. Elements that one might have feared would be excised in a semi-authorized film remain, such as a consideration of the performer’s same-sex relationship with Robyn Crawford, even if given less import or space as in the previous film, and with the homophobic resentment displayed by one of Houston’s brothers left unexplored. The helmer also is provided with a bombshell of childhood sexual abuse suffered by Whitney (and at least one sibling) by a family member, a charged revelation that unfortunately is not unpacked enough and instead is left to linger menacingly and somewhat irresponsibly in the background. While Macdonald’s treatment of Houston’s rise puts to the fore the influence of family members on the development of her talent and career, correcting the long-propagated myth that Clive Davis “created” her, the director seems far more interested in exploring the singer’s sad decline and tragic death at 48 – as well as the even sadder fate of her neglected, troubled daughter soon after. Perhaps fittingly, Whitney is felt more as an absence than a presence as this aspect of her story develops, with only occasional moments of her singing coming through to remind us of what was lost.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 6:
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA

Director:
Stephen Nomura Schible

Premiere:
Venice 2017

Select Festivals:
IDFA, CPH:DOX, Tokyo, Tribeca, Belgrade, Singapore, Stockholm, Seattle, Dallas, Nashville, IFF Boston, Berkshire

About:
An intimate portrait of the Oscar-winning composer.

Filmed over a five-year period, Schible’s subdued but engaging profile quietly captures the musician, exploring his history, creative process, and social activism, while he reckons with a diagnosis of throat cancer. At 65, forced to confront his own mortality after his health scare, Sakamoto reflects on a long and varied career, gaining acclaim as an electronic music performer before composing score for films as varied as MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE, THE LAST EMPEROR, and THE REVENANT, as well as a disparate series of influences. While avoiding a strict chronological recitation of his biography, the film presents an appropriate sampling, interwoven with revealing scenes of the master at work, demonstrating his creative process, and, tellingly, how his activism is often intertwined with this creativity, from environmental awareness to the war on terror.