Category Archives: Recommendations

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.

Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, May 22: (DIS)HONESTY – THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES

Yael Melamede’s exploration of why people lie had its world premiere at Full Frame earlier this year. It has also screened at Hot Docs, Montclair, and the new Bentonville Film Festival. In addition to a limited theatrical release, the doc will be available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Instant Video, and VUDU via Bond/360, as well as through the film’s website.

Melamede’s guide through the big question that her film explores – human dishonesty – is behavioral economist Dan Ariely, whose pioneering work on irrational human behavior inspired this straightforward but pleasantly diverting survey. Threaded throughout the film is the affable Duke University professor’s lecture explication of a series of experiments he conducted to tease out how and why people choose to be dishonest, revealing the sliding “fudge factor” that allows people to rationalize their behavior in relation to the context and beliefs of what is or is not morally or socially permissible. Beyond his engaging, and often surprising, research findings, Melamede regularly highlights individual anecdotes by self-confessed liars, some with positive consequences, such as an author who calmed a hysterical fellow airline passenger by claiming he was an aeronautical engineer, and others with decidedly more negative outcomes, from insider traders to job loss, when the deception was uncovered.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 19: DESPITE THE GODS

Penny Vozniak’s behind-the-scenes look at a film director’s seemingly doomed comeback had its world premiere at Hot Docs in 2012. It also screened at Sydney, Fantasia, Raindance, Stockholm, Sitges, Chicago, Atlanta DocuFest, and Minneapolis St Paul, among others.

I previously wrote about the film out of Hot Docs here.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, May 18: 1971

Johanna Hamilton’s look at an early group’s efforts to expose federal surveillance debuted at Tribeca last year. Other fest play included IDFA, Sheffield, AFI Docs, Traverse City, and CPH:DOX, before its release this past Winter.

I previously wrote about the doc upon its theatrical release here.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, May 18: SOUTHERN RITES

Gillian Laub’s investigation into the complexity of race relations in the American South made its debut at Hot Docs last month. The film now has its broadcast premiere on HBO.

Six years ago, Laub, a noted photographer, published a series of photographs in The New York Times Magazine on the shameful continued practice of racially segregated high school proms in Montgomery County, Georgia. Bowing to the public pressure that ensued, the school district decided to integrate the prom the following year, but when Laub returned to document the event, it was made very clear that she was not welcome, as shown in the opening scene of her film. Instead, she switched her attention to two separate, only tangentially related stories, both reflecting the region’s still troubling relationship to race: the nearby murder of 22-year-old African American Justin Patterson by Norman Neesmith, an old white man, and the efforts of Calvin Burns, the county’s first African American chief of police, to seek the seat of sheriff. The bulk of Laub’s film details the circumstances and the aftermath of the first of these, which turns out to be more complicated than one might initially imagine, but nevertheless hinges on ingrained, even unconscious, assumptions about race that lead to tragic, unnecessary violence. The second thread, which finds the supremely qualified Burns facing off against an opponent with zero law enforcement experience, speaks to the same racial politics still in play in the county that enabled the Patterson/Neesmith case. Despite the welcome presence of Burns’ outspoken, frustrated daughter Keyke, this storyline, like the forestalled prom coverage, never quite comes together here, and feels underdeveloped compared to the more compelling primary story that Laub explores. Nevertheless, the film, like Laub’s original prom portraits, sheds much needed light on a powder keg issue.