Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to VOD today, Wednesday, February 1:
MOTHER WITH A GUN

Director:
Jeff Daniels

Premiere:
Antenna Doc 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Atlanta Jewish

About:
A portrait of the Jewish Defense League, through the lens of its current, unlikely leader.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC, saying:
Founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City in 1968, the Jewish Defense League advocates any means necessary to stop antisemitism. Once considered the most active terrorist organization in the United States for its use of armed response and preventative violence, the JDL is currently led by Shelley Rubin. With candor, Daniels’ film charts Rubin’s path to extremism, relaying how an archetypal good Jewish girl defied family and community expectations for love and purpose – at a deep personal cost.

Coming to ESPN tomorrow, Thursday, February 2:
THIS WAS THE XFL

Director:
Charlie Ebersol

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2016

About:
An entertaining reappraisal of the much-hyped but disastrous alternate to the NFL.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
The kind of sports story even non-sports fans will love, Charlie Ebersol’s doc chronicles the ill-fated history of the XFL, the no-holds-barred brainchild of NBC’s Dick Ebersol and WWE’s Vince McMahon. Launched to fanfare in 2001, the extreme football league lasted only a single season, making up rules – and breaking them – as it went along. Ebersol’s son Charlie directs this wild look back at what went wrong with the XFL and its role in redefining broadcast sports.

Coming to VOD today, Wednesday, February 1:
FROM THIS DAY FORWARD

Director:
Sharon Shattuck

Premiere:
Full Frame 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, AFI Docs, Hot Docs, Framline, Outfest, Camden, Traverse City, Frameline, Outfest, LGBT fests in Seattle, North Carolina, Milwaukee, and Austin

About:
A portrait of the filmmaker’s father, who transitioned from male to female.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to VOD on iTunes today, Tuesday, January 31:
MIRIAM: HOME DELIVERY

Director:
Juliet Jordan

Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015

Select Festivals:
Ambulante

About:
A portrait of a modern-day midwife.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Juliet Jordan offers an inside look at what some consider to be the world’s second-oldest profession: midwifery. As a homebirth midwife, Miriam performs a service once commonplace, but now increasingly rare as the process of childbirth firmly moved to a hospital setting. The filmmaker immerses viewers in Miriam’s mission, driving along with her across NYC as she assists expectant mothers, from her clients among the Orthodox Jewish community to the dramatic home birth that falls during the Hurricane Sandy blackout.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 31:
DANNY SAYS

Director:
Brendan Toller

Premiere:
SXSW 2015

Select Festivals:
London, San Francisco Jewish, Provincetown, Sound + Vision, Big Sky, Montclair, Melbourne, CPH:DOX, Athens

About:
A portrait of an unsung music world impresario.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, January 31:
SEVEN SONGS FOR A LONG LIFE

Director:
Amy Hardie

Premiere:
Scotland (October 2015)

Select Festivals:
SXSW, Margaret Mead, Aspen, DOXA, GlobeDocs, Guth Gafa, EBS, Documentary Edge, DocPoint

About:
Hospice patients confront mortality through music.

Set in Strathcarron Hospice in Scotland, Hardie’s film follows nurse Mandy Malcomson, whose love of singing has encouraged a music therapy program for the residents, and six of her charges. Not a musical in a strict sense, the doc instead intermittently weaves in a number of songs, supplementing both observational and interview-based footage of the institution, its patients, and their caregivers. Some songs are performed impromptu by patients, like the Sinatra crooning Tosh and amateur opera singer Dorene, while others are more elaborate, produced in a music-video style, such as nurse Mandy and patient Nicola’s poignant duet of REM’s “Everybody Hurts.” Hardie wisely shows restraint here, preventing the proceedings from becoming either too twee or too dour, and ultimately focuses on the powerful impact this community support has on dealing with the complex reality of terminal illness and mortality.