
Festival:
The 49th Telluride Film Festival
Dates:
September 2-5
About:
The US film industry will be flocking to this Colorado cinephile retreat this weekend, where once again nonfiction makes up well over 60% of its new feature presentations.

Festival:
The 49th Telluride Film Festival
Dates:
September 2-5
About:
The US film industry will be flocking to this Colorado cinephile retreat this weekend, where once again nonfiction makes up well over 60% of its new feature presentations.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations

Coming to Hulu tomorrow, Thursday, September 1:
AMERICAN RAPSTAR
Director:
Justin Staple
World Premiere:
CPH:DOX 2020
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, SXSW, Doc’n Roll
About:
An eye-opening exploration of the SoundCloud rap phenomenon, a scene of troubled, young, lo-fi rappers that has used social media to develop a rabid fan base.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases

Festival:
The 79th Venice International Film Festival
Dates:
August 31-September 10
About:
Twenty documentaries appear as part of the approximately 75 feature offerings of this premier Italian event, while its autonomous sidebars present 14 docs among their 38 feature presentations, including the following.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, August 29 and to DVD via Criterion Collection tomorrow, Tuesday, August 30:
FAYA DAYI
Director:
Jessica Beshir
World Premiere:
Sundance 2021
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, BlackStar, True/False, Full Frame, Visions du Reel, Seattle, New Directors/New Films, Rotterdam, Melbourne
Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
A poetic, sensorial journey into the highlands of Harar in eastern Ethiopia, the birthplace of khat.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, August 26:
LET THE LITTLE LIGHT SHINE
Director:
Kevin Shaw
World Premiere:
True/False 2022
Select Festivals:
Black Star, Full Frame, Doc 10, Minneapolis-St Paul, Doclands, Freep, Milwaukee, Ashland
About:
A high-achieving elementary school near downtown Chicago is a lifeline for Black children – until gentrification threatens its closure.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases

Coming to Topic tomorrow, Thursday, August 25:
GHOST FLEET
Directors:
Shannon Service, Jeffrey Waldron
World Premiere:
Telluride 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Toronto, Berlin, Doc Edge, Seattle, El Gouna, Hamptons, Palm Springs, Cleveland
About:
A harrowing look at slavery on the high seas.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, August 23:
THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE
Director:
Iryna Tsilyk
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Berlin, IDFA, Hot Docs, Doc Fortnight, Thessaloniki Doc, ZagrebDox, Docs Against Gravity, Biografilm, Docudays UA, Reykjavik, Zurich, Dokufest, Adelaide, Seattle
About:
A Ukrainian family processes life in a war zone by making films about their experience.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, August 19:
THREE MINUTES — A LENGTHENING
Director:
Bianca Stigter
World Premiere:
Venice 2021
Select Festivals:
Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, DOC NYC, Philadelphia, Göteborg, Thessaloniki Doc, Provincetown, Sydney, Cleveland, Docs Against Gravity
About:
A home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland – the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust – is examined to unravel the stories hidden in the celluloid.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, August 19:
THE TERRITORY
Director:
Alex Pritz
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, It’s All True, Docs Against Gravity, Philadelphia Environmental, Jerusalem, Movies That Matter, Cleveland, Seattle, Sydney
About:
When a network of Brazilian farmers seizes a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, a young Indigenous leader and his mentor must fight back in defense of the land and the people living deep within the forest.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to OVID this Friday, August 19:
SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE
Director:
Peter Friedman, Tom Joslin
World Premiere:
Sundance 1993
About:
A video diary of life with AIDS, told with guts and humor by longtime lovers Tom Joslin and Mark Massi, celebrates the power of love in the face of a devastating illness.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance