Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres and to VOD via iTunes tomorrow, Friday, February 10:
SPEED SISTERS

Director:
Amber Fares

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Global Visions, Sheffield, Melbourne, EBS Doc, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Calgary, Rio, CPH:DOX, Santa Barbara, If Istanbul, Athena, Glasgow, One World, Atlanta, Cleveland, Palestine fests in Toronto, Atlanta, Boston, DC, Chicago, and Houston

About:
A portrait of an unlikely group of race-car athletes.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Demolishing stereotypes while avoiding wrecking their cars, the Speed Sisters are the Middle East’s first all-female race-car team. Demonstrating high-octane talent, and the marketing savvy to draw attention to their camera-friendly lineup, this diverse, engaging group competes in Palestine’s makeshift motor sports circuit across the West Bank, overcoming Israeli checkpoints and restrictive societal expectations to become role models for a new generation of young Arab women in the process.

New to VOD via iTunes this week:
GARY NUMAN: ANDROID IN LA LA LAND

Directors:
Steve Read and Rob Alexander

Premiere:
SXSW 2016

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Helsinki, CIMMFest, East End

About:
A portrait of the legendary British synthpop musician as he relocates to Los Angeles to record a new album.

Read and Alexander eschew a career overview for the once chart-topping Numan, best known for the songs “Cars” and “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?,” to more firmly focus on the present day. The film finds the performer in the midst of a difficult transition, moving with his adoring fan-turned-wife Gemma and their three young daughters to Los Angeles, and working on his 2013 comeback album, “Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind).” As referenced in the film’s title, Numan was known for his robotic stage presence – a demeanor eventually attributed to Asperger’s. While the film addresses formative issues like this, as well as his ambivalence towards fame and other personal matters, in far too cursory a manner, Numan himself comes off here as so disarmingly vulnerable that he easily wins over the viewer regardless.

Coming to theatres and to VOD this Friday, February 10:
LEFT ON PURPOSE

Director:
Justin Schein

Co-Director:
David Mehlman

Premiere:
Woodstock 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Leeds, Big Sky Doc, Boulder, Thessaloniki Doc, Cleveland, Maryland, Florida, Newport Beach, DOXA, SF Jewish

About:
A filmmaker faces off against his determined subject.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
This project began as a portrait of the life of Mayer Vishner, an antiwar Yippie activist. In the midst of filming, the aging radical informs director Justin Schein that, having had his fill of solitude and depression, he intends instead to make the project about his death – and he wants his suicide captured on camera. Forced to break down the barrier between filmmaker and subject, Schein struggles with the ethics of intervening in the literal life-or-death story unfolding before his eyes.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 7:
DON’T LOOK DOWN

Director:
Daniel Gordon

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
Newport

About:
Sir Richard Branson attempts to cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via hot air balloons.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to VOD via Microsoft this week:
SHADOW WORLD

Director:
Johan Grimonprez

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
Edinburgh, San Francisco, Encounters, Durban, Guanajuato, New Zealand, Dokufest Kosovo, Vancouver

About:
An exploration of the dark connection between political power and the global arms trade.

I previously wrote about the doc here.