Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 6:
GOOD LUCK

Director:
Ben Russell

Premiere:
Locarno 2017

Select Festivals:
Toronto, New York, Rotterdam, Vancouver, CPH:DOX, Mar del Plata

About:
An immersion into the worlds of miners in Serbia and Suriname.

Explicitly structured in two mirrored halves, Russell’s visually striking 16mm-shot project begins and ends with an alchemical symbol of the Earth, a bisected sphere representing above and below. In between, the first half follows Serbian miners as they descend into a government-owned copper mine, while the second explores the illicit operations of an above-ground gold mine in the jungles of Suriname. Russell creates an enveloping, almost hypnotic effect as he plunges viewers within these realms for over two hours, a durational, experiential immersion that allows the audience to bear witness to the conditions of toil and to the camaraderie and commonalities between the workers despite their geographical and cultural separation.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 3:
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, LOU DIMAGGIO?

Director:
Brad Kuhlman

Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2017

Select Festivals:
Nashville, Beverly Hills, Woodstock Comedy

About:
A former stand-up comedian attempts a comeback.

I previously wrote about the doc <a href="https://whatnottodoc.com/2018/03/15/on-vod-where-have-you-gone-lou-dimaggio/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener"here

Coming to VOD via Netflix this Sunday, April 1:
SWIM TEAM

Director:
Lara Stolman

Premiere:
Hot Springs Doc 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Napa Valley, Oxford, Glasgow, Big Sky Doc, Boulder, Reel Abilities, SXSWedu, San Diego Latino, Sarasota, RiverRun, Nashville, Montclair, Berkshire, Greenwich, SF Docfest

About:
A portrait of three teenage swimmers, all on the autism spectrum.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Showtime this Saturday, March 31:
OPERATION ODESSA

Director:
Tiller Russell

Premiere:
SXSW 2018

Select Festivals:
Miami

About:
An outrageous caper in the Miami drug underworld.

Named for the federal task force investigating Russian gangsters in the Miami drug trade, Tiller Russell’s entertaining film takes viewers back to the heyday of that scene in the 1980s and ’90s, and introduces them to some of its major players as they relate a stranger than fiction story of the excesses of the time. At the core is a Russian gangster known as Tarzan, a Floridian luxury car dealer, and a self-made millionaire Cuban drug trafficker. Together, they weave an outrageous story of chutzpah and hubris that culminates in a plan to buy a post-Cold War Soviet nuclear submarine for a Colombian drug cartel. While the film could be criticized for glorifying criminality to some extent, it fits the nature of the colorful characters it explores and the milieu in which they operated until their activities caught up with them.

New to DVD this week:
RAISING BERTIE

Director:
Margaret Byrne

Premiere:
Full Frame 2016

Select Festivals:
Sarasota, Bentonville, AFI Docs, Atlanta Docufest, Chicago, Citizen Jane, Cucalorus, Big Sky Doc

About:
An observational coming-of-age portrait of three African-American teenagers in rural North Carolina.

I previously wrote about the doc here.