Category Archives: Recommendations

Locarno 2022: Documentary Overview

Festival:
The 75th Locarno Film Festival

Dates:
August 3-13

About:
Just under a third of the approximately 80 new feature presentations at this noted Swiss festival are nonfiction.

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On DVD & Streaming: FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK

Coming to DVD and streaming tomorrow, Tuesday, August 2:
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.

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Special Screening: I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Saturday, July 30:
I DIDN’T SEE YOU THERE

Director:
Reid Davenport

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
True/False, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Sydney

About:
Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker launches into an unflinching meditation on freakdom, (in)visibility, and the pursuit of individual agency.

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On VOD: BEBA

New to VOD this week:
BEBA

Director:
Rebeca Huntt

World Premiere:
Toronto 2021

Select Festivals:
Berlin, CPH:DOX, Docaviv, Miami, Tribeca, Provincetown, Minneapolis-St Paul

About:
A raw, poetic self-portrait in which a young, NYC-born Afro-Latina filmmaker stares down historical, societal, and generational trauma.

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On TV & Streaming: WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Coming to HBO and HBO Max tomorrow, Wednesday, July 27:
WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Director:
Joe Hunting

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, Maryland

About:
Filmed entirely inside the world of VR, this vérité documentary captures the excitement and surprising intimacy of a burgeoning cultural movement, demonstrating the power of online connection in an isolated world.

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In Theatres: MY OLD SCHOOL

Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan

Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 22:
MY OLD SCHOOL

Director:
Jono McLeod

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Thessaloniki Doc, Docs Against Gravity

About:
The astonishing true story of Scotland’s most notorious imposter.

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Special Screening: WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Thursday, July 21:
WE MET IN VIRTUAL REALITY

Director:
Joe Hunting

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, Maryland

About:
Filmed entirely inside the world of VR, this vérité documentary captures the excitement and surprising intimacy of a burgeoning cultural movement, demonstrating the power of online connection in an isolated world.

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On DVD: THE SILVER SCREEN: COLOR ME LAVENDER

Coming to DVD in re-release today, Tuesday, July 19:
THE SILVER SCREEN: COLOR ME LAVENDER

Director:
Mark Rappaport

World Premiere:
Locarno 1997

Select Festivals:
NewFest, Chicago Reeling

About:
An examination of the representation of homosexuality in Golden Age Hollywood cinema.

The film screened at NewFest, for which our program notes read:
If you thought you’d seen it all in THE CELLULOID CLOSET, think again! In this latest installment of queer film history, Mark Rappaport, the acclaimed director of ROCK HUDSON’S HOME MOVIES, enlists the talents of FRASIER co-star Dan Butler to take you on an ingenious and highly entertaining journey through the golden years of classic Hollywood cinema, highlighting the continual presence of some extremely queer characters on the silver screen. Through the skillful dissection of film clips, Rappaport offers astute and persuasive readings of particular male star personae, including Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Cary Grant, Jerry Lewis, and Clifton Webb, to demonstrate how thoroughly ambiguous Hollywood masculinity really was.

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Streaming: AFTERSHOCK

Coming to Hulu tomorrow, Tuesday, July 19:
AFTERSHOCK

Director:
Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee

World Premiere:
Sundance 2022

Select Festivals:
BlackStar, Full Frame, Hot Docs, DC/Dox, SXSW, Martha’s Vineyard African American, BAMcinemaFest, Essence Fest, American Black

About:
Following the preventable deaths of their partners due to childbirth complications, two bereaved fathers galvanize activists, birth-workers, and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises of our time – the US maternal health crisis.

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On DVD: THE AMERICAN SECTOR

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 12:
THE AMERICAN SECTOR

Director:
Courtney Stephens, Pacho Velez

World Premiere:
Berlin 2020

Select Festivals:
Art of the Real, Docaviv, Camden, AFI Fest, RIDM, Maryland

About:
A road trip tracking several of the remnants of the Berlin Wall now held by American collectors and institutions.

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