Coming to Discovery+ tomorrow, Thursday, April 28:
DEAR MR BRODY
Director:
Keith Maitland
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Telluride, SXSW, San Francisco Doc, Provincetown, Miami
About:
In 1970, eccentric hippie millionaire Michael Brody, Jr decided to give $25 million away to anyone who needed it, sparking a media frenzy and thousands of letters from strangers all requesting his help.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Paris Theater on 35mm for a 30th anniversary screening this Saturday, April 30:
BROTHER’S KEEPER
Directors:
Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofksy
World Premiere:
Sundance 1992
Select Festivals:
Toronto, Chicago
About:
The lives of the aging Ward brothers are upended when one is accused of murder.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Festival:
The 29th Hot Docs
Dates:
April 28-May 8
About:
Making its return to an in-person event, along with online offerings throughout Canada, North America’s largest nonfiction event showcases approximately 145 new and recent doc features.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to Netflix tomorrow, Wednesday, April 27:
THE MYSTERY OF MARILYN MONROE: THE UNHEARD TAPES
Director:
Emma Cooper
World Premiere:
Netflix (April 2022)
About:
An exploration of the mystery surrounding the death of the movie icon, focused on previously unheard interviews conducted with her inner circle.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 26:
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY
Director:
W Kamau Bell
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
About:
Can you separate the art from the artist? Should you even try? While there are many people about whom we could ask those questions, none poses a tougher challenge than Bill Cosby.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 26:
WRITING WITH FIRE
Director:
Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh
World Premiere:
Sundance 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Nantucket, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, RIDM, BlackStar, Guadalajara, DocsMX, Double Exposure, Sydney, Yamagata Doc, Ambulante, Denver, San Diego Asian, Hawaii, Bergen, San Francisco, Krakow, Seattle, Thessaloniki Doc, One World, Shanghai
Notable Recognition:
The doc was nominated for the Academy Awards.
About:
A chronicle of the trailblazing work of India’s only news outlet run by Dalit women–once known as “untouchable.”
I previously wrote about the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS today, Monday, April 25:
BIG SONIA
Directors:
Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday
Premiere:
Napa Valley 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Seattle, Cleveland, Sun Valley, Big Sky Doc, Milwaukee, Durban, Jewish fests in San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Palm beach, Charlotte, Kansas City, Southampton, and Miami
About:
An intimate and at times humorous portrait of an unstoppable Holocaust survivor.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres and virtual cinema tomorrow, Friday, April 22:
THE EARTH IS BLUE AS AN ORANGE
Director:
Iryna Tsilyk
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Berlin, IDFA, Hot Docs, Doc Fortnight, Thessaloniki Doc, ZagrebDox, Docs Against Gravity, Biografilm, Docudays UA, Reykjavik, Zurich, Dokufest, Adelaide, Seattle
About:
A Ukrainian family processes life in a war zone by making films about their experience.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Newly re-released on DVD this week:
FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG
Director:
Mark Rappaport
World Premiere:
Toronto 1995
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, Karlovy Vary, Cleveland
About:
Ill-fated actress Jean Seberg – portrayed by Mary Beth Hurt – reflects on her life as illustrated through her work in this creative exploration of film history and women’s place within it.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
SYL JOHNSON: ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS
Director:
Rob Hatch-Miller
World Premiere:
Chicago 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Big Sky Doc, Montclair, BlackStar, Nashville, Florida, Newport Beach, Sidewalk, Indie Memphis, Sound Unseen, Cork, Doc ‘n Roll
About:
A retired, overlooked soul singer finds new opportunities when his song is embraced by a new generation of musicians.
The film screened at DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Despite a couple of minor hits, soul singer Syl Johnson retired from the music industry in the 1980s, never quite having achieved the success for which he longed. But with the dawn of hip hop came the unexpected, widespread embrace of his 1967 song “Different Strokes” – sampled by artists as diverse as Run-DMC, Michael Jackson, the Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, A$AP Rocky, Kid Rock, En Vogue, Usher, and Kanye West, among many others – and new opportunities for the savvy performer emerged, as detailed in Rob Hatch-Miller’s lively chronicle of the ups and downs of Johnson’s career.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 