Coming to DVD via the Criterion Collection today, Tuesday, December 13:
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND
Director:
Todd Haynes
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
New York Film Festival, Telluride, San Sebastian, Zurich, BFI London, Chicago
About:
An exploration of how The Velvet Underground became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, December 12:
LET THE LITTLE LIGHT SHINE
Director:
Kevin Shaw
World Premiere:
True/False 2022
Select Festivals:
Black Star, Full Frame, Doc 10, Minneapolis-St Paul, Doclands, Freep, Milwaukee, Ashland
About:
A high-achieving elementary school near downtown Chicago is a lifeline for Black children – until gentrification threatens its closure.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 9:
HIDDEN LETTERS
Director:
Violet Du Feng
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2022
Select Festivals:
BFI London, Hot Springs Doc, Adelaide, Bergen, Heartland, DocEdge
About:
In modern-day China, two women strive to preserve Nushu, an ancient secret language that bonded generations of Chinese women together through centuries of oppression.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, December 9:
TO THE END
Director:
Rachel Lears
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Doclisboa, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Ji.hlava, Hawai’i,
About:
Stopping the climate crisis is a question of political courage, and the clock is ticking. Over three years of turbulence and crisis, four remarkable young women of color fight for a Green New Deal, igniting a historic shift in US climate politics.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to OVID today, Wednesday, December 7:
WESTERN
Directors:
Bill Ross, Turner Ross
World Premiere:
Sundance 2015
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, San Francisco, Full Frame, Sarasota, Dallas, Ashland, Maryland, Montclair
About:
Towns on both sides of the Rio Grande face the threat of drug cartels.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to DVD this week:
THE INVADERS
Director:
Prichard Smith
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015
About:
Filling in a lost chapter of civil rights history, a look at the generation of radicals that emerged in Memphis in 1967.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, December 6:
YOUNG PLATO
Director:
Neasa Ní Chianáin, Declan McGrath
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2021
Select Festivals:
Dublin, Thessaloniki Doc, Biografilm, CPH:DOX
About:
A visionary headmaster at a Catholic primary school in Belfast teaches ancient Greek wisdom as an antidote for pessimism, violence and historical despair.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to OVID this week:
BIG SONIA
Directors:
Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday
Premiere:
Napa Valley 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Seattle, Cleveland, Sun Valley, Big Sky Doc, Milwaukee, Durban, Jewish fests in San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Palm beach, Charlotte, Kansas City, Southampton, and Miami
About:
An intimate and at times humorous portrait of an unstoppable Holocaust survivor.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 2:
TANTURA
Director:
Alon Schwarz
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, It’s All True, Cleveland, Docaviv, Hong Kong, Hot Springs Doc, Doclisboa, Philadelphia
About:
In 1948, when the State of Israel was established, hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed, with their inhabitants killed or exiled. The film focuses on one village: Tantura, bringing to light Israel’s founding narrative and its society’s inability to come to terms with its dark past.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 2:
2ND CHANCE
Director:
Ramin Bahrani
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
SXSW, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Thessaloniki Doc, Santa Barbara, Tokyo, Nantucket
About:
An exploration of the rise and fall of Richard Davis, the charming and brash inventor of the modern-day bulletproof vest who shot himself 192 times to prove his product worked.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
what (not) to doc 