Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s Film Forum tomorrow, Wednesday, August 20: THE EXPEDITION TO THE END OF THE WORLD

Daniel Dencik’s quirky exploration of the Arctic Circle premiered at CPH:DOX in 2012. It went on to screen at True/False, Docville, Thessaloniki Doc, Planete+ Doc, Karlovy Vary, Los Angeles, AFI Docs, and Traverse City, among others.

I previously wrote about the film out of True/False here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, August 19: MANAKAMANA

Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s ridealong with Nepalese tourists and pilgrims made its debut at Locarno last year. It went on to screen at Toronto, New York, AFI Fest, RIDM, CPH:DOX, Rotterdam, True/False, and Hong Kong, and to enjoy a limited theatrical release this past Spring.

I included the film in my Toronto coverage here.

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, August 18: A WORLD NOT OURS

Mahdi Fleifel’s chronicle of growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp had its world premiere at Toronto in 2012. Other fest berths included DOC NYC, Berlin, Abu Dhabi, CPH:DOX, BAFICI, and Reykjavik Shorts & Docs.

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

Coming to PBS’s Global Voices series on The WORLD Channel this Sunday, August 17: BEFORE THE REVOLUTION

Dan Shadur’s look at the peaceful coexistence of Israelis in the Shah’s Iran had its world premiere at Hot Docs last year. It’s gone on to screen at London’s Open City, Newport Beach, and at a range of Jewish fests, including Portland, St Louis, New York, and Toronto, among others.

I included the film in my Hot Docs coverage here.

Coming to the Film Society of Lincoln Center tomorrow, Friday, August 15: RED HOLLYWOOD

Thom Andersen and Noël Burch’s look at the work of blacklisted studio directors originally premiered at Locarno in 1996, and went on to screen at Rotterdam and Vancouver the following year. The new version of the film screened this past Spring as part of the Film Society’s Art of the Real series, as well as at Ann Arbor. The Film Society presents a week-long exclusive theatrical re-release of a remastered and re-edited version of the film in conjunction with the series “Red Hollywood and the Blacklist,” featuring selections of work by blacklisted filmmakers as curated by Andersen.

Culled from over fifty Hollywood films spanning the 1930s to the 1950s, Andersen and Burch’s film essay offers a close reading of resistance and ideology conveyed through mainstream cinema. With a few exceptions, the films under consideration are largely unknown, even though some feature recognizable actors, and this reconsideration of forgotten work is largely the point. Until recent years, the work of the blacklisted screenwriters and directors who refused to participate in the red-baiting witch hunt of the House Committee on Un-American Activities was dismissed as inconsequential. Andersen and Burch’s detailed study suggests otherwise, demonstrating through a wide range of clips how their political sensibilities and sense of social justice emerged, sometimes explicitly, other times more subtly, to lend a particular, subversive edge on topics ranging from war, class, gender, and crime. Concurrent with their analysis are contemporary 1990s interviews with some of the blacklisted filmmakers, offering their own take, making for an engrossing alternative telling of postwar cinema history.

Coming to VOD this Friday, August 15: THE DOG

Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren’s look at a larger than life personality debuted at Toronto last year. Its fest circuit has included the New York Film Festival, Berlin, SXSW, Thessaloniki, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Montclair, among others.

I included the doc in my Toronto coverage here.