Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 6: HOCKNEY
Randall Wright’s artist profile premiered at BFI London in 2014. Screenings followed at BAFICI, Doc Aviv, Minneapolis St Paul, Brighton, Vancouver, Palm Springs, and St Louis, among other festivals.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV this coming Monday, September 5: THE BIRTH OF SAKÉ
Erik Shirai’s exploration of the making of the distinctive Japanese beverage debuted at Tribeca last year. Additional screenings included Seattle, Dokufest Kosovo, San Sebastian, Milan, ZagrebDox, Philadelphia, Chicago, Antenna, Mar del Plata, Sidewalk, Palm Springs, Tallinn Black Nights, and Goteborg, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Serving as a bellweather for the upcoming awards season and a celebration of the love of film, the annual Telluride Film Festival kicks off today, Friday, September 2. Keeping with tradition, the beloved event’s lineup was just revealed yesterday, and is now available online via its program guide. Through its wrap on Monday, September 5, the 43rd edition will showcase nearly 40 new and recent features, with nonfiction representing more than half its offerings. Among these are the following:
Twelve documentary programs are included in the main slate, Show. These include: Errol Morris’ THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, about the celebrated oversized Polaroid photographer and her work; Werner Herzog’s INTO THE INFERNO, which follows the work of a leading volcanologist; Angus Macqueen’s THE END OF EDEN, about the impact of modern civilization on a hitherto undisturbed remote Brazilian tribe; Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani’s THE IVORY GAME, on attempts to protect African elephants from poachers; Ryan Suffern’s FINDING OSCAR, which follows the forensic detective work to discover what happened to the survivors of a brutal Guatemalan massacre; Doug Nichol’s CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER, a love letter to a typewriter repair store and to those who still cherish the not-quite obsolete writing implement; and John Scheinfeld’s CHASING TRANE (pictured), on the legendary John Coltrane.
Additional nonfiction appears in sections devoted to films about films and tributes to filmmakers and performers, Backlot and Frontlot/Backlot. Among these are María José Cuevas’ BEAUTIES OF THE NIGHT (pictured), a portrait of aging Mexican showgirls; Janus Køster-Rasmussen’s COOL CATS, a portrait of American jazz musicians in Denmark after jazz fell from favor in America; and Steven Okazaki’s MIFUNE: THE LAST SAMURAI, a celebration of the Japanese actor best known for his classic collaborations with Akira Kurosawa.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to VOD today, Thursday, September 1: CITY 40
Samira Goetschel’s clandestine profile of a secret Soviet-era city debuted at Hot Docs earlier this year. Other fest engagements have included Sheffield and Antenna. It now becomes available worldwide via Netflix.
Before 1994, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ozersk didn’t exist – or at least it was never permitted to appear on maps. It wasn’t even known as Ozersk during the Soviet era, but instead as “City 40,” a fittingly bureaucratic and vaguely mysterious name that underscored its secretive purpose: housing the families of scientists, engineers, and workers who worked on the USSR’s classified nuclear program. Convinced they were doing their patriotic duty as Mother Russia’s “nuclear shield,” the residents traded their freedom – generally cutting off outside contact – for a seemingly idyllic existence of relative plenty and harmony. Where other Soviet cities reckoned with food shortages or lack of resources at times, City 40 kept its population well-fed, cared for, and entertained. However, as those who provide testimony in this portrait attest, the true cost of their residency also included cancer, rare medical conditions, premature death, and living within an irradiated and polluted environment. Goetschel, who was aided by locals in smuggling in film equipment, speaks to ordinary citizens as well as a local journalist, nuclear scientists, and a human rights attorney advocating for justice for those maltreated by the Russian state, providing a compelling inside look at a fascinating, once-invisible “closed city.”
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Bronx Documentary Center Women’s Film Series this Friday, September 2: JACKSON
Maisie Crow’s look at the battle over abortion in Mississippi debuted at Los Angeles this Summer. Screenings followed at Human Rights Watch, San Francisco Doc, GlobeDocs, Marfa, Sidewalk, and the upcoming New Orleans fests.
The third of three feature-length docs to debut this year following Dawn Porter’s Sundance winner TRAPPED and Tracy Droz Tragos’ Tribeca title ABORTION: STORIES WOMEN TELL, Crow’s film offers another look at the impact of restrictive laws against clinics designed to essentially circumvent Roe v Wade and make abortion illegal. The setting here is denoted by her film’s title, Jackson MS, where a single remaining abortion clinic faces a ticking clock towards closure unless the courts invalidate one such law. In the meantime, clinic director Shannon Brewer, doctors, and staff continue their work despite constant harassment from anti-abortion advocates, including an act of vandalism caught on security camera. Not too far away, Barbara Beavers champions her own cause at the Center for Pregnancy Choices, one of a series of pro-life funded clinics often located in poorer neighborhoods that doggedly tries to convince pregnant woman that abortion is never the answer. April Jackson, a young single mother of four, visits the center, unclear about its political leanings and ultimately decides to keep her fifth child despite the financial hardship. While Beavers serves as something of a mentor for April, the former’s insistence on abstinence as the only acceptable form of birth control sees predictable results by the film’s end. Largely keeping her focus to this microcosm, Crow crafts an empathetic portrait of a seemingly unending debate and the lives it affects.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to DVD this Friday, September 2: WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?
Liz Garbus’ portrait of the iconic performer made its bow at Sundance last year. Screenings followed at Nantucket, DOC NYC, True/False, San Francisco, Hot Docs, and Montclair, among other events. The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to CNN this Thursday, September 1: HOLY HELL
Will Allen’s reflection of life in a cult premiered at Sundance this year. Its fest circuit also included Hot Docs, Nashville, Montclair, Minneapolis-St Paul, DocAviv, Martha’s Vineyard, and Biografilm, among others.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 30: COWBOYS IN INDIA
Simon Chambers’ self-effacing investigation of a small Indian town made its debut at IDFA in 2009. It also screened at True/False, Planete Doc Review, London Doc, CinemaAmbiente, Planet in Focus, and Reel Earth fests, among others.
I previously wrote about the film out of True/False, saying:
A film that puts the filmmaker/subject relationship in sharp relief, Chambers’ intended exposé of the environmental and human rights abuses of a Western company in India instead becomes a humorous exploration of his own relationship with his local guides. Though he initially suspects that his guide and driver may be both literally and figuratively taking him for a ride, he comes to recognize the impact his presence has on them, their safety, and their livelihood. Their cross-cultural exchange calls into question documentary intent and the relationship between the developed and developing world.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, August 30: MIRAGE MEN
John Lundberg’s exposé of UFO conspiracies and disinformation premiered at Sheffield in 2013. Screenings also included Seattle, Fantastic Fest, Canberra, DOXA, Stockholm, and Sebastopol Doc, among other events.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
This Wednesday, August 31 kicks off the 73rd Venice Film Festival, which runs until Sunday, September 10. Positioned at the start of Fall, the oldest film fest in the world is once again being eyed as a launchpad for awards season hopefuls, together with Telluride and Toronto. Among its more than a hundred feature offerings are nearly three dozen new feature documentaries, spread throughout most of its programming sections and in the autonomous Venice Days lineup:
The competitive sections remain overwhelmingly fiction-focused, with only two works of nonfiction represented in Venezia 73 – Terrence Malick’s VOYAGE OF TIME: LIFE’S JOURNEY and Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti’s elemental “visual sympathy,” SPIRA MIRABILIS – and three in the innovation-oriented Orizzonti: Bill Morrison’s excavation of a long-lost cache of early films, DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME (pictured); Wang Bing’s look at the challenges for migrants in East China, BITTER MONEY; and Federica Di Giacomo’s modern-day exorcism profile, LIBERAMI.
There’s more parity in the Out of Competition strand, with docs making up nearly half of the 19 features, including: Sergei Loznitsa’s AUSTERLITZ (pictured), a meditation on Holocaust memorials as tourist attractions; Ulrich Seidl’s SAFARI, which follows European tourists on African hunting safaris; Charlie Siskel’s AMERICAN ANARCHIST, about the haunted writer of THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK; Kasper Collin’s I CALLED HIM MORGAN, on a noted jazz musician who was shot by his wife during a performance; and Bruno Chiaravalloti, Claudio Jampaglia, and Benedetta Argentieri’s OUR WAR, a profile of three Westerners battling ISIS alongside embattled Kurdish fighters.
Documentary’s primary home at Venice, like at Cannes, is in the Classics sidebar, where films about filmmaking appear alongside restored classics. Among the docs here are: Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, and Rick Barnes’ DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE, wherein the celebrated filmmaker discusses his artistic practice and history; Nick Ebeling’s ALONG FOR THE RIDE (pictured), an overview of Dennis Hopper’s career via his enigmatic, ever-present friend; Claire Simon’s LE CONCOURS, an intimate look at the admission process of the pre-eminent Paris film school, La Femis; and Michael Palm’s CINEMA FUTURES, about the impact on archives of cinema’s digital transition.
Rounding out the official selection, Cinema nel Giardino offers local fare, including Francesco Carrozzini’s FRANCA: CHAOS AND CREATION (pictured), a portrait of the director’s mother, Italian Vogue‘s editor-in-chief; and Michele Santoro’s ROBINÙ, a profile of young Mafia heads; while one documentary appears in the festival’s Final Cut in Venice works-in-progress program, Soudade Kaadan’s OBSCURE.
Of the two autonomously programmed sidebars, International Critics’ Week again includes no nonfiction, while Venice Days offers seven works of its 22 feature selections, including both opening and closing selections: Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon’s THE WAR SHOW, a personal chronicle of Syria’s descent into civil war; and Paola Piacenza’s THE WAR WITHIN, which follows a war correspondent back to the Syrian jail where he was held for five months. Among the other docs presented are Thierry Demaiziere and Alban Teurlai’s ROCCO, a profile of legendary Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi; and Enrico Caria’s L’UOMO CHE NON CAMBIÒ LA STORIA (pictured), about an anti-Fascist Italian professor who plotted to kill Mussolini and Hitler.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
what (not) to doc 