Category Archives: Recommendations

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.

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, May 13: ONE CUT, ONE LIFE

Lucia Small and Ed Pincus’ personal meditation on mortality and collaboration made its bow at Full Frame last year. Its fest circuit has included IFF Boston, Woods Hole, Torino, and the New York Film Festival, among others.

Within a short span of time, two of filmmaker Lucia Small’s close friends die violent, unexpected deaths, and she learns that her one-time filmmaking partner, Ed Pincus, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Pincus, a pioneering figure in American nonfiction, had long ago retired from the craft to a quiet life with his wife Jane and his flower farm in Vermont. His previous collaboration with Small, 2007’s THE AXE IN THE ATTIC, brought him back to filmmaking, but put a strain on their friendship. Faced with his mortality and her friends’ recent deaths – and Jane’s objections – the duo decides to reunite on a new first-person project that instead celebrates life. Doubling as an examination of their fraught partnership and the tensions of the documentary/subject relationship, their intimate, sometimes (purposely) uncomfortable, film becomes a way for both participants to take charge of their respective traumas, and, if not heal them, at least make their peace.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 12: 180 DAYS: HARTSVILLE

Jacquie Jones and Gerald McLaurin’s indepth look at a South Carolina school year debuted on PBS this Spring.

I previously wrote about the doc upon its broadcast here.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, May 11: THOUGHT CRIMES: THE CASE OF THE CANNIBAL COP

Erin Lee Carr’s exploration of an Internet fantasy turned nightmare debuted last month at Tribeca. It went on to screen at Hot Docs and Montclair before its broadcast premiere.

After work, NYPD officer Gilberto Valle would return to the home he shared with his wife Kathleen and baby daughter and unwind online for several hours. Growing suspicious, Kathleen eventually installed spyware, and discovered her husband’s secret: His time on the web was devoted to exploring disturbing, violent fantasies involving kidnapping, rape, and cannibalism. Feeling endangered, and concerned that he was planning to follow through on his dark thoughts, she left Valle and reported his actions to the authorities. The ensuing arrest and trial resulted in a media circus, turning the public against the so-called “Cannibal Cop,” who was convicted not only of the illegal use of police databases, but, more chillingly, of conspiring to kidnap and eat women. Carr, with the cooperation of Valle and his parents, goes beyond the sensationalistic headlines to uncover how a man was prosecuted for his fantasies, as gruesome as they might be. Interviews with journalists, psychologists, attorneys, and jurors navigate the complex and fascinating case, parsing its ethical implications for the US legal system.

Coming to DVD this coming Tuesday, May 12: IN COUNTRY

Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara’s look at a group of Vietnam War hobbyists debuted at Full Frame last year. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, and Camden, and to be released theatrically and on VOD by Bond/360.

I previously wrote about the doc here.