Category Archives: Recommendations

Now available on the New York Times as part of their Op-Docs:
LONG LIVE BENJAMIN

Directors:
Jimm Lasser and Biff Butler

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2016

Select Festivals:
IDFA

About:
A poignant and funny six-part docuseries about a man and his monkey.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC, saying:
While visiting his wife’s homeland of Venezuela in 1997, noted portrait artist Allen Hirsch unexpectedly fell in love. The object of his affection? A deathly ill, orphaned newborn Capuchin monkey named Benjamin. Nursing Benjamin back to health and sneaking him into New York City, Allen would find his life – and his sense of self – forever changed by his adopted simian son.

Coming to the World Channel’s Reel South series this Sunday, March 5:
SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN: THE BLUES ACCORDING TO FRED MCDOWELL

Directors:
Joe York

Select Festivals:
Southern Circuit, Oxford, Raindance

About:
The story of a legendary Mississippi bluesman.

McDowell, who was best known as Mississippi Fred McDowell, emerged in the late 1950s/early 1960s as part of the blues revival that saw a newfound appreciation for American music, particularly African-American musicians in the American South. While McDowell supported himself as a sharecropper, he had performed locally in Mississippi, but it wasn’t until noted ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax and British folk singer Shirley Collins discovered his work in 1959 that the musician was able to reach a larger audience through album recordings and festival and other live performances. York’s loving profile details McDowell’s origins, as well as his standing as a pioneer of a distinctive Mississippi sound known as the north hill country blues style, showcasing his talent through choice archival performance footage and with particularly compelling commentary from Bonnie Raitt, who was mentored by the musician before his death in 1972.

New to VOD this week:
A NEW HIGH

Directors:
Samuel Miron and Stephen Scott Scarpulla

Premiere:
Los Angeles 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Seattle, Salem, Twin Cities, Illuminate

About:
A group of Seattle addicts attempt to climb Mt Rainier to conquer their demons.

Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission provides counseling and shelter for men and women in need, including individuals struggling with addiction. One of its recovery programs, led by Mike Johnson, a former Army Ranger, trains participants in mountain climbing over a year, with a select few qualifying for the biggest challenge: attempting the summit Mt Rainier. Miron and Scarpulla follow Mike and several of his charges as they challenge themselves, working under the simple idea that developing the strength to take on a mountain also gives them the tools to face their addiction head on and stay clean and sober. Not all of them make it through the program, whether because of relapse or physical limitations, but they find themselves changed by the experience, as captured with candor and immediacy in this engaging chronicle.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 3:
THE FREEDOM TO MARRY

Director:
Eddie Rosenstein

Premiere:
Frameline 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hawaii, Savannah, Big Sky Doc, Sebastopol Doc, Jewish fests in SF, Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia, LGBT fests in Houston, Austin, Durham, Atlanta, Melbourne, and Seoul

About:
A behind-the-scenes look at the fight to legalize same-sex unions in America.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
After more than three decades of struggle, the same-sex marriage movement concluded one of the most successful civil rights campaigns in the world with a Supreme Court victory in June 2015. At its center was Evan Wolfson, the outspoken founder of advocacy organization Freedom to Marry. Eddie Rosenstein’s inspirational film follows Wolfson and attorney Mary Bonauto as the clock counts down to the Supreme Court decision, while recalling the victories – and setbacks – that set the stage for the landmark case.

New on VOD this week:
KOKO: THE GORILLA WHO TALKS

Director:
Jonathan Taylor

Premiere:
British TV (2016)

About:
The story of the famed female gorilla who has been taught sign language over the past several decades.

I previously wrote about the doc here,