Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to HBO this coming Monday, February 12:
ATOMIC HOMEFRONT

Director:
Rebecca Cammisa

Premiere:
AFI Docs 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, St Louis, DocuWest, Hot Springs Doc

About:
Ordinary citizens uncover the atomic secrets of St Louis.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV this coming Monday, February 12:
DO NOT RESIST

Director:
Craig Atkinson

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Traverse City, AFI Docs, DOXA, Human Rights Watch, Telluride Mountainfilm, Bergen, Zurich, Dokufest, Camden

About:
An exploration of the militarization of America’s police force.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Photo: Ron Pownall

Director:
Lili Fini Zanuck

Premiere:
Toronto 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Camden, IDFA

About:
An intimate, revealing musical odyssey on the life and career of the guitar legend, told by those who have known him best.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, February 9:
THE PEACEMAKER

Director:
James Demo

Premiere:
Full Frame 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, Sheffield, DOXA, IFF Boston, Woods Hole, Guth Gafa, St Louis, Salem, Sebastopol Doc, Cleveland, Belfast, Florida, SF Doc, Galway

About:
An Irish mediator of divided societies struggles with his inner demons.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Padraig O’Malley is legendary among the international human rights community for being a negotiator in crisis zones from Northern Ireland to Kosovo to Iraq. He funds his efforts as the co-owner of a bar in Cambridge MA – but he also struggles with addictions to alcohol and work. We meet Padraig in the third act of his life as he strives to find salvation in conflict zones, his personal relationships, and within himself.

New to DVD this week:
BIG CHARITY: THE DEATH OF AMERICA’S OLDEST HOSPITAL

Director:
Alexander Glustrom

Premiere:
New Orleans 2014

Select Festivals:
Atlanta, Louisiana

About:
The story of corruption that brought down the longest operating hospital in the US.

Glustrom’s project is at once a requiem to a New Orleans institution and an investigation into its controversial closing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Charity Hospital served the city for nearly three centuries, providing health care for the poor when other institutions wouldn’t. During Katrina, staff and patients weathered the storm without food, water, or power, but in its aftermath, questionable decisions motivated by political forces led to Charity’s demise. Despite its truncated length, Glustrom’s film remains compelling, and speaks to broader issues around health care, economics, and class that extend far beyond Louisiana.

Coming to theatres and VOD today, Friday, February 2:
THE CAGE FIGHTER

Director:
Jeff Unay

Premiere:
True/False 2017

Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Sheffield, AFI Docs, Camden, San Francisco, Seattle, Palm Springs, Milwaukee, Sidewalk

About:
A man risks his family and safety to return to the mixed martial arts arena.

Using an appealing, strictly direct cinema approach, Unay draws the audience into the life of Joe Carman, a Washington state husband, father, and would-be MMA champion. Never particularly successful in the ring, and certainly not able to provide for his family through it, the working man is nevertheless inexorably pulled back to the cage time and time again, telling his family that it’s the only thing that makes him proud of himself. In the eyes of his concerned daughters and ill wife, he just can’t keep his promises to give up fighting, threatening the family’s happiness and stability. A film of quiet moments punctuated with brutal fight scenes, Unay’s portrait explores themes of masculinity, fatherhood, and the desire to make ones mark, accompanied by a remarkable degree of vulnerability.