New to VOD this week: DO NOT RESIST
Craig Atkinson’s look at the nationwide militarization of the police force had its world premiere at Tribeca this year, where it picked up the Best Documentary award. Screenings also included Hot Docs, Traverse City, AFI Docs, DOXA, Human Rights Watch, Telluride Mountainfilm, Bergen, Zurich, Dokufest, and Camden. The film now comes to iTunes.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Several additional titles have just been announced for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival:
DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES:
BENDING THE ARC
Directors: Kief Davidson & Pedro Kos / USA
This powerful epic is about the extraordinary doctors and activists—including Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl – whose work 30 years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all. World Premiere
LONG STRANGE TRIP
Director: Amir Bar-Lev / USA
The tale of The Grateful Dead is inspiring, complicated and downright messy. A tribe of contrarians, they made art out of open-ended chaos and inadvertently achieved success on their own terms. Never-before-seen footage and interviews offer this unprecedented and unvarnished look at the life of the Dead. World Premiere
FROM THE COLLECTION:
DESERT HEARTS
Director: Donna Deitch, Screenwriter: Natalie Cooper / USA
Nevada, 1959: Vivian Bell arrives to get a divorce and finds herself increasingly drawn to Cay Rivvers, a self-assured lesbian. The emotions released by their developing intimacy combined with Vivian’s insecurities are played out against a backdrop of rocky landscapes and country and western songs. The Festival will screen a new digitally restored version by the Criterion Collection and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute and Outfest UCLA Legacy Project.
RESERVOIR DOGS
Director and screenwriter: Quentin Tarantino / USA
They were perfect strangers, assembled to pull off the perfect crime. Then their simple robbery explodes into a bloody ambush and the ruthless killers realize one of them is a police informant. But which one? Miramax provided a brand-new 35mm print for this special 25th anniversary screening, which will be followed by an extended Q&A with Tarantino and producer Lawrence Bender.
These lineup additions join the Day One Documentary Premieres and New Climate title which was announced last Friday, an as-yet untitled follow-up to AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk.
Earlier lineup announcements include the US and World Cinema Documentary and Dramatic Competitions, plus NEXT; New Frontier; Premieres, Documentary Premieres, Midnight, Spotlight, Kids, and Special Events; and Shorts.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, December 13: FAKE IT SO REAL
Robert Greene’s look at the lives of aspiring pro wrestlers debuted at True/False in 2011. Screenings followed at Sarasota, Camden, Rooftop Films, Maryland, and CPH:DOX.
I wrote about the doc out of True/False
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 13: HOOLIGAN SPARROW
Nanfu Wang’s look at the persecution faced by a Chinese activist had its world premiere at Sundance this year. Screenings followed at Nantucket, Hot Docs, Full Frame, Sheffield, Cleveland, Human Rights Watch, Dallas, One World, Thessaloniki Doc, Los Angeles Asian Pacific, Documenta Madrid, Encounters, and Traverse City, among other events. The doc has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 9: SOLITARY
Kristi Jacobson’s exploration of longterm solitary confinement made its debut at Tribeca this Spring. It went on to screen at IDFA, Denver, Philadelphia, Stockholm, Human Rights Watch, AFI Docs, Sheffield, and Traverse City, among other fests.
Jacobson’s film is set within Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, one of more than 40 American supermax prisons where inmates are often kept in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours each day. Having broken general population prison rules through violence, escape attempts, or other disruptive behavior, the men profiled in this sobering project find their reality reduced to eight-by-ten cells for an indefinite period of time, only able to communicate with passing guards or occasionally via vents with neighboring inmates. Jacobson spends a year at Red Onion, and is able to speak with several of the incarcerated men – all of whom have committed serious, violent crimes, including murder – about their experiences in isolation. They speak of boredom, frustration, anger, and suicidal ideation, underscoring the impact of such punishment on their mental well-being. Without sugar-coating their dark pasts and criminal activity that led to their incarceration, Jacobson presents an eye-opening look at the excesses of a prison system that values punishment over rehabilitation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 9: ON THE MAP
Dani Menkin’s look at Israeli basketball through a Cold War lens made its debut at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival earlier this year. Screenings followed at DOC NYC, Gold Coast, and Jewish fests in Boston, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, and Virginia, among other events.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, December 9: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Raoul Peck’s adaptation of James Baldwin’s unfinished book on race in America debuted at Toronto this Fall. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, New Orleans, New York Film Festival, the Hamptons, Chicago, Virginia, AFI Fest, and Philadelphia, among other events. The film was announced this week as part of the Oscars shortlist. While the film’s primary release will take place in early February, its awards-qualifying run commences this weekend.
Before his death in 1987, author and public intellectual James Baldwin had planned to complete REMEMBER THIS HOUSE, a personal reflection on race through the stories of three men he knew well, martyrs of the civil rights movement Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. Peck has taken Baldwin’s 30 completed pages and crafted a masterwork examining the complex and contentious history of black lives in this country. While still focused on Baldwin’s intended main subjects, Peck’s cogent, gripping essay broadens the scope to include the author himself, represented in powerful archival interviews as well as through Samuel L Jackson’s recital of his writing, and takes on a sad, ever-present topicality, addressing the continued violence against African Americans signified by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Thursday, December 8: OFF THE RAILS
Adam Irving’s look at a public transit-obsessed man had its premiere at Full Frame this Spring. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Hot Docs, Sarasota, RiverRun, Newport Beach, San Francisco Doc, Provincetown, Sidewalk, Woods Hole, DocUtah, Hot Springs Doc, Savannah, Denver, and St Louis, among other events. It now comes to VOD via Sundance Now.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD and VOD this week: OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE
Deborah Riley Draper’s chronicle of African American athletes at the 1936 Olympics made its debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival this Summer. Other screenings include the American Black Film Festival, BronzeLens, Cucalorus, Hot Springs Doc, Traverse City, Chicago, St Louis, and Washington Jewish. It is now available on DVD as well as VOD platforms including iTunes and Amazon.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The 13th Dubai International Film Festival begins today, Wednesday, December 7, and runs through next Wednesday, December 14. The Gulf State event ups its nonfiction offerings this year slightly, presenting 23 documentary features compared to last year’s slim 17. Among these are the following:
Documentaries in competition include a single entry in the Muhr Emirati category, Nujoom Alghanem’s HONEY, RAIN & DUST (pictured), about three individuals involved with apiary and honey collection; as well as several in the Muhr Feature section, such as: Laurent Aït Benalla’s TERRA FIRMA, a study of a French harbor and its traffic with north Africa and the Middle East; Mohamed Rashad’s LITTLE EAGLES, in which the Egyptian filmmaker explores 1970s political activism while contemplating his career; Iman Kamel’s EGYPTIAN JEANNE D’ARC, an experimental meditation on present-day Egyptian women’s lives; Eliane Raheb’s THOSE WHO REMAIN, a portrait of a Christian Lebanese farmer and restaurateur; Hady Zaccak’s 104 WRINKLES, about the filmmaker’s centenarian grandmother; and Alfoz Tanjour’s A MEMORY IN KHAKI, which shares story of refugees from Syrian repression.
Nonfiction screening out of competition has largely been covered on this site at other events. Of note are several titles from the Arab world, showcased in the Arabian Nights section: DOC NYC alum BEZNESS AS USUAL (pictured), Dutch director Alex Pitstra’s personal reckoning with his Tunisian father; THE WAR SHOW, Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard’s exploration of Syrians set against the Arab Spring and exile; ZAINEB HATES THE SNOW, Kaouther Ben Hania’s chronicle of a Tunisian girl’s coming to terms with life in Canada; THE CHALLENGE, Yuri Ancarani’s impressionistic portrait of falconry in Arab culture; and GAZA SURF CLUB, Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine’s look at surf culture in the isolated occupied land.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
