Category Archives: Recommendations

New to VOD via Vimeo on Demand this week:
THE LEGEND OF SWEE’ PEA

Director:
Benjamin May

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015

Select Festivals:
Milwaukee, Flyway, Portland, deadCENTER, Maryland

About:
The story of a talented basketball player’s unusual road to the NBA.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Lloyd Swee’ Pea Daniels was a legend on the highly competitive playground basketball courts of NYC, and one of the top college basketball recruits of the late 1980s. Before he was able to play a single game at UNLV, a drug bust ended his college career. But this was far from the end of his story. Benjamin May recounts the unexpected twists and turns in the life and career of the flawed but ever-charismatic sports prodigy in this engaging portrait.

Coming to theatres today, Thursday, March 9:
UNCERTAIN

Directors:
Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands

Premiere:
Tribeca 2015

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Seattle, AFI Docs, Tempo Doc

About:
A Southern Gothic study of three residents of a small Texan town.

Named after the Texas/Louisiana bordertown, population 94, McNicol and Sandilands focus their attention on three distinct stories centered on three men at different ages, all in some way haunted by past or present concerns: 74-year-old Henry, a recently widowed fisherman and tour guide; middle-aged Wayne, a former addict with a prison background, currently on a quest to kill his sworn enemy, a wild boar named Mr Ed; and 21-year-old Zach, a diabetic heavy drinker who recently had his troubled mother committed. Their stories slowly play out against a shared background portending a greater existential threat – an aquatic weed is wreaking havoc with the fragile ecosystem of the community’s lake, potentially destroying the town’s only real source of livelihood. Capturing their setting with evocative lensing and an unhurried pace, the filmmakers deftly craft a humanistic, and surprisingly hopeful, portrait.

New on VOD via Google Play and VUDU this week:
THE SWIRL (EL REMOLINO)

Director:
Laura Herrero Garvín

Premiere:
Ambulante 2016

Select Festivals:
Locarno, Camden, Washington DC Environmental, DocsMX, Oaxaca, Morelia

About:
A trans farmer and her sister navigate life in an oft-flooded Chiapas village.

The small community of El Remolino – literally translated as “the swirl” – annually faces extreme flooding, located as it is along a raging river in Chiapas, Mexico. Trying to maintain their precarious existence here are Esther, a mother who documents her life via camcorder, and Pedro, her openly MTF transgender sister, a farmer. Garvín’s observational slice-of-life portrait is well made, presenting her subjects as fleshed out individuals while also taking on larger social issues that have an ongoing impact on their lives, from climate change to gender and sexuality.

Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, March 7:
THE C WORD

Director:
Meghan O’Hara

Premiere:
Hamptons 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Cleveland, Martha’s Vineyard, Napa Valley, Traverse City, Newport

About:
A personal battle with cancer prompts a reconsideration of the way Western society approaches the disease.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, March 6:
THE MUSIC OF STRANGERS: YO YO MA & THE SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE

Director:
Morgan Neville

Premiere:
Toronto 2015

Select Festivals:
Berlin, True/False, San Francisco, Montclair, DocAviv, Los Angeles, Sydney, Provincetown, Biografilm

About:
A profile of the acclaimed cellist and the collective of international musicians he founded to explore crosscultural creativity.

I previously wrote about the doc here.