Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, October 25: ADVANCED STYLE

Lina Plioplyte’s look at aging in style had its premiere at Hot Docs in 2014. Screenings followed at Montclair, Melbourne, Milwaukee, Calgary, Vancouver, and Atlantic, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Discovery tomorrow, Saturday, October 22: RATS

Morgan Spurlock’s look at the titular rodents around the globe debuted at Toronto last month. It has also screened at Camden and Fantastic Fest.

Wisely eschewing his signature on-camera presence here for a change, Spurlock remains behind the scenes as he takes viewers through an often disturbing survey of rat infestations that has been conceived of as a horror film in documentary form. Full of shock cuts, skin-crawling sound design, and more scenes of extermination than anyone would likely ever want to witness again, the doc unapologetically presents rats as a pestilence that needs to be wiped out, save for one segment, late in the film, which visits a Hindu temple dedicated to the rodents, its 35,000 rat residents lovingly viewed as reincarnated loved ones. Leaving aside the images of pilgrims praying to the scurrying critters, the remainder of the film details how invasive, ubiquitous, disease-ridden, and resistant to death rats are – this is not for animal lovers or the faint at heart. Spurlock’s main thread consists of an interview with Ed Sheehan, a veteran exterminator who looks like he’s straight out of central casting, smoking a cigar in a dark cellar and sharing his hard-fought wisdom about his longtime nemeses. Woven around his disturbing revelations are segments detailing efforts to combat or study the vermin, from a New Orleans research team documenting the disgusting parasites carried in their bodies and a Vietnam eatery that specializes in rat cuisine to a British rat terrier hunting party and a Mumbai night patrol that tries to keep infestation manageable by killing the rodents with their bare hands. While broad in its shock tactics, the film has undeniable, visceral impact as it successfully taps into the viewer’s primal repulsion to the nocturnal creatures.

Coming to PBS’s Doc World this Sunday, October 23: WAITING FOR AUGUST

Teodora Ana Mihai’s verité study of a Romanian teen’s life had its world premiere at Visions du Réel in 2014. Screenings followed at Hot Docs, Karlovy Vary, Dokufest Kosovo, Moscow, Camden, Bergen, Vancouver, DMZ Docs, IDFA, and BFI London fests, among other events.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres this Friday, October 21: FIRE AT SEA

Gianfranco Rosi’s meditation on the European refugee crisis made its debut at Berlin, where it became the first documentary ever to win the Golden Bear. Its extensive festival circuit has also included Toronto, Telluride, New York, DocAviv, Sydney, Melbourne, It’s All True, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, New Zealand, Reykjavik, and the upcoming DOC NYC, where it appears on the Short List.

Set on the Italian island of Lampedusa, already the subject of other films about refugees given its proximal location to North Africa, Rosi’s observational project captures the activities of residents and newcomers alike, though focuses his camera primarily on Samuele, a twelve-year-old Italian boy who spends his days exploring, constructing a slingshot, and playing with a friend. In contrast to his seemingly idyllic existence, there are reminders of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy all around, with footage of search and rescue operations, radio reports of refugee arrivals, and the warnings of the local doctor who tends to the most urgent health emergencies. Somehow able to convey an urgency through a build up of mostly quiet images, Rosi’s film demonstrates the indelible mark the crisis is leaving in this microcosm, even if Lampedusa is only a temporary stop on the refugees’ way to larger Sicily.