Coming to HBO and HBO Max tomorrow, Saturday, August 13:
THE PRINCESS
Director:
Ed Perkins
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
Biografilm
About:
Princess Diana’s story is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive, creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death, illuminating the profound impact she had, and demonstrating how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was, and still is, shaped by these events.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, August 13:
RIOTSVILLE, USA
Director:
Sierra Pettengill
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
New Directors/New Films, True/False, CPH:DOX, Seattle, Freep, San Francisco, Traverse City
About:
Footage shot by the media and government of a fictional town built by the US military explores the militarization of the police and the reaction of a nation to the uprisings of the late 1960s, creating a counter-narrative to a critical moment in American history.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, August 12:
FREE CHOL SOO LEE
Director:
Julie Ha, Eugene Yi
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
BAMcinemaFest, Santa Barbara, Milwaukee, CAAMFest, Los Angeles, Asian Pacific, Asian American fests in New York, Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Austin
About:
After a Korean immigrant is wrongly convicted of a 1973 San Francisco Chinatown gang murder, Asian Americans unite as never before to free Chol Soo Lee.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 9:
HE DREAMS OF GIANTS
Director:
Keith Fulton, Lou Pepe
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019
Select Festivals:
AFI Fest, Cleveland, Dublin, Taipei Golden Horse, Raindance
About:
A behind-the-scenes look at Terry Gilliam’s THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE.
The film screened at DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
For 30 years, Terry Gilliam struggled to make a screen adaptation of DON QUIXOTE, including an abandoned attempt chronicled in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s 2002 documentary LOST IN LA MANCHA. Gilliam never gave up and neither did the documentarians. This film represents the culmination of all their efforts in an epic and poignant portrait. We watch Gilliam bring all his talent, obsession, and humor to confronting self-doubt, the pressure to compromise, and the need to realize a long-held dream.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, August 9:
FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK
Director:
Bobbi Jo Hart
World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, DOXA, Inside Out, Frameline, Outfest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific, Santa Barbara, Athena, Cleveland, In-Edit, Hawaii, Doc’n Roll, Woodstock, Florida
About:
Ferocious female rockers Fanny, who shattered glass ceilings in the ’70s, collecting fans like David Bowie before being buried in retro record bins, reunite fifty years later with a new record deal and a chance to rewrite history.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9:
CALENDAR GIRL
Director:
Christian D Bruun
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2020
Select Festivals:
Miami Jewish, LA Fashion Festival, Berkshire
About:
Ruth Finley, the nonagenarian queen of the fashion industry through her pink Fashion Calendar, founded in 1945, faces the end of an era as her iconic publication changes ownership.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, August 8:
PRESIDENT
Director:
Camilla Nielsson
World Premiere:
Sundance 2021
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, AFI Docs, Docaviv, Thessaloniki Doc, Dokufest, Encounters, DMZ Docs, Melbourne, Docville, Zurich, Montclair, Philadelphia
Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
The leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party seeks a free and fair election.
I previously wrote about the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Film Movement Plus tomorrow, Friday, August 5:
THE NOTORIOUS MR BOUT
Director:
Tony Gerber, Maxim Pozdorovkin
World Premiere:
Sundance 2014
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, True/False, Little Rock, Miami, BAMcinemaFest
About:
A portrait of an infamous Russian international arms smuggler.
I previously profiled the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to DVD this week:
COW
Director:
Andrea Arnold
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Telluride, IDFA, Busan, BFI London, Melbourne, Jerusalem, Beijing, Hamburg, Hamptons, Reykjavik, Mill Valley, Chicago, Jihlava, AFI Fest, Tokyo, Rio
About:
A close-up portrait of the daily lives of two cows.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Wednesday, August 3 and to theatres this Friday, August 5:
MIJA
Director:
Isabel Castro
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Los Angeles Latino, Miami, Cleveland, RiverRun, Maryland, San Francisco
About:
When Doris, a young, ambitious music manager whose undocumented family depends on her ability to launch pop stars, loses her biggest client, she hustles to discover new talent and finds Jacks, another daughter of immigrants for whom “making it” isn’t just a dream: it’s a necessity.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
what (not) to doc 