Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s Anthology Film Archives tomorrow, Thursday, June 2 through Saturday, June 4: PAUL SHARITS

François Miron’s appreciation of the avant-garde filmmaker made its bow at Rotterdam last year. Since then, it has screened at Jeonju, Japan’s Image Forum, San Francisco Doc Fest, Jerusalem, Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Viennale, Manchester, and Rendezvous With Madness, among other events.

A widely-respected pioneer of structuralist film, Paul Sharits made experimental work from the mid-1960s until his strange death in 1993. A visual artist who became fascinated by 16mm film and the flicker effect of projection, he produced touchstone films like T,O,U,C,H,I,NG, (1969) and later further deconstructed conventional film to create innovative new forms of expression that presaged gallery and museum installation work. Miron, a filmmaker and scholar, incorporates interviews, archival footage, and samples of Sharits’ work to give the artist his due here. While likely best appreciated by those already familiar with the innovator’s body of work, Miron’s film provides ample background and context, including a consideration of the impact of Sharits’ bipolar disorder, to provide a primer for the uninitiated that may very well spur them on to seek out more of his influential films.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 31: THE STATE OF MARRIAGE

Jeff Kaufman’s chronicle of the legal origins of marriage equality made its debut at Provincetown last year. Other screenings have included Brattleboro, Santa Fe, GlobeDocs, and the Austin LGBT fests.

While same-sex marriage legalization became part of the national debate over the past few election cycles, the battle for this civil right has been waged over long decades. Kaufman’s film recognizes the importance of the precedent set in Vermont as a pivotal part of the story, and focuses on the significant efforts made by a trio of female attorneys to bring marriage quality to that state. Galvanized by a child custody case in the early 1990s involving the surviving lesbian partner of a woman who was killed in a car accident, small-town Vermont lawyers Susan Murray and Beth Robinson sought out support for protections for other same-sex couples. After they found a partner in Mary Bonauto, a Boston-based civil rights advocate, they laid the groundwork to argue for the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, adopting a strategy that humanized the issue and found parallels in the once-banned practice of interracial marriage. Even after they found partial victories – legalized civil unions rather than full marriage – they continued their struggle, causing rifts between those who felt they were overreaching and others who were willing to accept the compromise. While the larger story is by now well-known, and Kaufman’s approach ultimately fairly conventional, the film succeeds in presenting a detailed look at the hard-fought grassroots campaign that enabled the freedoms that are enjoyed today.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 31: THE CASE OF THE THREE SIDED DREAM

Adam Kahan’s portrait of an experimental jazz multi-instrumentalist made its bow at SXSW in 2014. Additional play included New Orleans, IDFA, Big Sky, Full Frame, Salem, ReelAbilities, Atlanta’s Pan African, LA’s Don’t Knock the Rock, Florida, Leeds, and jazz fests in New York and Burlington.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction tomorrow, Tuesday, May 31 and to theatres this Friday, June 3: THE WITNESS

James Solomon’s revisitation of an infamous NYC murder made its debut at the New York Film Festival last Fall. Screenings followed at Palm Springs, Big Sky, Boulder, Hong Kong, Sarasota, and Atlanta, among other events.

The 1964 rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens shocked New York City and the rest of the nation, not just for the horrific crimes perpetrated against the young woman, but because of reports that 38 eyewitnesses were aware of the attack taking place yet did nothing – either assuming someone else would call the authorities, or unwilling to become involved in a stranger’s plight. The case pointed out the dangers of urban apathy and spawned neighborhood watch groups to try to prevent future crimes. On a personal level, the inaction of the 38 witnesses inspired Genovese’s younger brother, Bill, to enlist in the military so he could make a difference in the world, resulting in the loss of both of his legs in combat in Vietnam. Four decades later, however, The New York Times, the same paper that reported the indifference of Genovese’s neighbors, discredited its original report. This rewriting of the legend provides the impetus for Bill to make sense of what happened to Kitty, what witnesses did or didn’t do, and the crime’s impact on his own life. Solomon crafts an engaging, sensitive exploration of myth and reality, in the process revealing a fuller sense of a woman until now known only as a victim.

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 31: ABOVE AND BELOW

Nicolas Steiner’s portrait of the lives of outsiders debuted at Rotterdam last year. Its fest circuit also included DOC NYC, Hot Docs, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Edinburgh, Karlovy Vary, Vancouver, CPH:DOX, DocPoint, Big Sky, and Cucalorus, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed today, Monday, May 30: THE LAST SEASON

Sara Dosa’s portrait of a mushroom foraging clan debuted at San Francisco in 2014. Screenings followed at New Orleans, Hot Docs, Mountainfilm Telluride, Rooftop Films, Big Sky, Sebastopol Doc, United Nations Association, and the Seattle Asian American fest, among others. The film makes its television premiere in recognition of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV this coming Monday, May 30: OF MEN AND WAR

Laurent Bécue-Renard’s look at a PTSD treatment center for veterans made its premiere at Cannes in 2014. Its extensive fest circuit has included IDFA, Göteborg, DocPoint, Documentary Fortnight, ZagrebDox, True/False, Full Frame, Visions du Réel, Documenta Madrid, San Francisco, DOXA, Sydney, AFI Docs, Human Rights Watch, and DOK.Fest Munich, among others. POV’s screening is appropriately in conjunction with Memorial Day.

I previously wrote about the doc here.