Category Archives: Recommendations

On VOD this week:
FIRE AT SEA

Director:
Gianfranco Rosi

Premiere:
Berlin 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Toronto, Telluride, New York, DocAviv, Sydney, Melbourne, It’s All True, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, New Zealand, Reykjavik

Notable Recognition:
The doc has been nominated for the Academy Awards.

About:
An intimate portrait of Lampedusa, an island at the heart of Europe’s migration crisis.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to VOD this Friday, February 17:
NATIONAL BIRD

Director:
Sonia Kennebeck

Premiere:
Berlin 2016

Select Festivals:
Tribeca, San Francisco, Sheffield, Sydney, Melbourne, Camden, Hamburg, Zurich

About:
A profile of several whistleblowers who have spoken out against the US drone program.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s American Experience tonight, Tuesday, February 14:
RUBY RIDGE

Director:
Barak Goodman

Premiere:
American Experience (February 2017)

About:
The story of a tragic standoff between US marshals and a separatist family.

A companion piece that grew out of Goodman’s fellow American Experience project, OKLAHOMA CITY, this is a harrowing account of the deadly 192 confrontation between Randy Weaver and government forces that contributed to the motivations for the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. While the subject of media fascination at the time, Ruby Ridge is less remembered today, making this hourlong chronicle a worthwhile primer, particularly given the present tenor of political dissatisfaction. Weaver and his wife Vicki, driven by apocalyptic beliefs and economic hardship, left Iowa to live off the grid and raise their family on a mountaintop in northern Idaho. Seeking some social contact, they began to attend gatherings at a nearby Aryan Nations compound, despite not fully embracing white supremacist beliefs. There, Weaver, seeking some extra cash, agreed to illegally saw off shotguns, leading to an attempt by an ATF agent to turn him into an informant. Refusing, Weaver instead hid out in his home for the better part of a year and a half, refusing to appear in court to deal with his weapons charge – and instigating the standoff that was to follow. Faced with a fugitive from justice, US marshals will called in to arrest Weaver, but the confluence of his remote home, tendency to carry arms, association with the Aryan Nations, and a fear he might harm his wife and children led to grave missteps that ultimately cost lives on both sides of the confrontation – and fomented anti-government sentiment in the process. In addition to other participants, including a US marshall and James “Bo” Gritz, who helped mediate Weaver’s eventual surrender, Goodman most affectingly relates this tragic episode through the perspective of Sara, the Weavers’ eldest child.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14:
TOWER

Director:
Keith Maitland

Premiere:
SXSW 2016

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Seattle, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Melbourne, Fantasia, the Hamptons, BFI London, Sitges, Mill Valley

Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.

About:
An animated re-telling of a sniper’s attack on school campus in 1966.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, February 10 and to HBO this coming Monday, February 13:
EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: NOS AMIS (OUR FRIENDS)

Director:
Colin Hanks

Premiere:
Palm Springs 2017

About:
The band returns to Paris just months after the 2015 terrorist attack at their concert which cost 89 people their lives.

Hanks provides an intimate profile of the titular band as they face the aftermath of the November 13, 2015 concert in Paris’ Bataclan theatre, one of several sites that night subject to a coordinated terrorist attack that ultimately resulted in 130 deaths and 368 injuries throughout the city. While the band, and several fans who survived the attack, offer chilling accounts of that evening, the doc wisely refrains from sharing any footage of the massacre and largely avoids speculation about the terrorists or their motivations. Aside from a particularly difficult interview conducted for French television with band frontman Jesse Hughes, there’s a distinctly apolitical stance taken here, and instead the focus falls on the deeply felt relationship between Hiughes and his longtime friend and bandmate Josh Homme. Hanks charts this special, brotherly bond from their childhood through the attack – while the latter’s commitments to other bands, including Queens of the Stone Age, kept him from attending the Bataclan performance, he has been instrumental in helping Hughes process the experience – and details their belief in the healing power of music as they prepare to perform in Paris again at the invitation of U2.