Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to Ovid tomorrow, Thursday, September 15:
SEX AND BROADCASTING: A FILM ABOUT WFMU

Director:
Tim K Smith

World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2014

Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, Salem, Montclair

About:
A portrait of a maverick radio station.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
New Jersey’s WFMU has occupied a unique position as an independent, commercial-free, listener-supported radio station since its inception in the late 1950s. At its heart is the dedicated station manager Ken Freedman, committed to an unstructured, free-form broadcasting model which has won WFMU acclaim as the best – and perhaps weirdest – radio station in the tristate area, if not the country. Facing a budget crisis, can Ken rally both his volunteer staff and his listeners to keep the station afloat?

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
WE ARE THE THOUSAND

Director:
Anita Rivaroli

World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (unscreened)

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne, Docs Against Gravity, Thessaloniki Doc

About:
An uplifting, inspiring, and emotional music documentary about a seemingly impossible plan to record a song by the Foo Fighters with a thousand musicians.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
HOLD YOUR FIRE

Director:
Stefan Forbes

World Premiere:
Toronto 2021

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Palm Springs

About:
Captives, cops, and robbers in New York City’s longest hostage siege reflect in this suspenseful and enlightening take on an event long misunderstood.

New to the Criterion Channel this week:
SEARCHING FOR MR RUGOFF

Director:
Ira Deutchman

World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019

Select Festivals:
Palm Springs, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Galway, Mill Valley

About:
A look back at the outsized personality behind legendary art house distributor Cinema 5.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to OVID tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13:
UNFINISHED SPACES

Director:
Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray

World Premiere:
Los Angeles Film Festival 2011

Select Festivals:
Camden, Denver, Havana, Palm Springs, Cinequest, Miami, Sebastopol Doc, Full Frame, Buenos Aires, New Orleans filmOrama

About:
An exploration of Cuba’s National Art Schools never-completed utopian architectural project.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to OVID today, Monday, September 12:
BOY I AM

Director:
Sam Feder, Julie Hollar

World Premiere:
NewFest 2006

Select Festivals:
Outfest, Frameline, LGBT fests in Tucson, Seattle, Budapest

About:
An exploration of provocative issues rarely touched upon in films portraying trans male subjects.

The film screened at NewFest, for which our program notes read:
It is only in recent years that transgender people and their issues have gained significant visibility within the larger LGBTQ community. But visibility has not translated into instant acceptance or understanding from everyone. For some within the lesbian community, the act of FTM transitioning is viewed at best as a naive social trend, or, at worst, an anti-feminist rejection of butchness and female power in favor of male privilege. Sam Feder and Julie Hollar’s timely and balanced documentary uses the engaging stories of three NYC-based FTMs, as well as interviews with a number of activists and scholars, to explore this controversy and get to its historical and cultural roots.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video today, Friday, September 9:
FLIGHT/RISK

Director:
Karim Amer, Omar Mullick

World Premiere:
Amazon Prime Video (September 2022)

About:
Families, their legal teams, whistleblowers, and Pulitzer-winning Seattle Times journalist Dominic Gates find themselves in the midst of a global tragedy when two Boeing 737 Max planes crashed only five months apart in 2018 and 2019.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, September 9:
THE BENGALI

Director:
Kavery Kaul

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, New Orleans, Rhode Island

About:
Fatima, a New Orleans dwelling descendant of African Americans and Indian immigrants, ventures to Kolkata, India, in search of her long-lost family.