Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to EPIX this Sunday, May 31: DEEP WEB

Alex Winter’s exploration of digital freedom under government attack had its world premiere at SXSW this Spring. It has since gone on to screen at Full Frame, San Francisco, Hot Docs, and Montclair.

As indicated by its title, Alex Winter’s documentary explores the Internet that most people wouldn’t know how to find, a place where users seeking anonymity have been able to carve out a black market cottage industry selling illicit items via seemingly untraceable browsers and currency. The specific focus of the film is the Silk Road, a “Darknet” marketplace which made the buying and selling of drugs a turnkey process until the federal government used dubious means to track down and arrest its administrator, known on the site simply as Dread Pirate Roberts, but infamously identified by authorities as Ross Ulbricht, an unassuming Libertarian who ran an upcycling business in Austin. While tracing the story of the rise and fall of the Silk Road, and of Ulbricht’s then-pending trial, Winter’s film offers a concise but surprisingly cogent, and bracingly provocative, crash course in the libertarian tenets that underpinned the site and its users’ strong stance on the necessity for encryption and privacy in the face of ever-encroaching government surveillance and unaccountability – not only for the deep corners of the Internet, but for all users.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed series this coming Tuesday, June 2: IF YOU BUILD IT

Patrick Creadon’s look at design-focused education debuted at Full Frame in 2013. Fest screenings followed at DOC NYC, AFI Docs, Cucalorus, Austin, Heartland, Hot Springs, and the Hamptons, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New to DVD this week: KUMU HINA

Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson’s portrait of a transgender Hawaiian teacher debuted at the Hawaii International Film Festival last year. It has traveled widely on the LGBT and Asian fest circuits, among other events, including Frameline, QDoc, Beijing, Chicago, Jakarta, Austin, Hong Kong, Auckland, Wellington, Dallas, and NYC.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 26: BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB VS GRAVITY

Catherine Gund’s portrait of a dynamic choreographer made its bow at SXSW last year. Its fest circuit included Cleveland, Full Frame, Seattle, Sydney, Brooklyn, Sheffield, and Frameline, among others. It now comes to VOD exclusively through iTunes, with Netflix availability scheduled for June 11.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 22: SOMETHING BETTER TO COME

Hanna Polak’s longitudinal portrait of a Russian girl made its debut at IDFA last year, where it claimed a special jury award. Other festival screenings have included True/False, ZagrebDox, Documenta Madrid, Doc.fest Munich, and Docs Against Gravity.

Polak first encounters her protagonist, Yula, at the age of ten. She seems unremarkable, save for the place she calls home: the Svalka, the largest landfill in Europe, located just outside of Moscow. Curious to understand how people could live in such an environment, Polak tenaciously returned periodically over the course of fourteen years, tracking Yula, her mother, and the loose-knit community that shared the unorthodox environs, and in the process allows the viewer to witness a girl grow into a young woman. Though at a decided disadvantage, having grown up with virtually nothing and struggling with the same factors that plagued her mother, Yula nevertheless dreams of escaping the trap of poverty. Polak crafts an impressionistic, indelible study of adolescence and of a hardscrabble existence.