Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, May 16: HANNA RANCH

Mitch Dickman’s chronicle of the life and legacy of an eco-rancher debuted at Denver last year and went on to screen at the Durango Film Festival earlier this year.

Eric Schlosser, who serves as executive producer, famously wrote about “eco-cowboy” Kirk Hanna in FAST FOOD NATION, a Colorado cattleman who saw the importance of holistic resource management on his family’s ranch and became the unlikely bridge between seemingly disparate constituencies – environmentalists and ranchers. Dickman’s engaging film details Hanna’s life, his prescient grasp of the dangers of urban overdevelopment, and forward-thinking drive for land conservation. Born into a ranch family, the early death of his father eventually led to the unification of two adjacent ranches via his mother’s remarriage. But with this commingled family came complicated inheritance issues, infighting, and egos – all handled, to Dickman’s credit, with finesse and relative economy. For a time, with one quarrelsome brother out of the way, Hanna began to accomplish much, not only on his own ranch, but for embattled cattlemen around the West. Personal demons surfaced, however, eventually leading the charismatic Hanna to claim his own life. While the balance between Hanna’s family dynamics and his public activities feels a bit off – the former remain far more compelling, with particularly resonant interviews with his widow and younger brother – Dickman is quite good at engendering genuine curiosity about Hanna, his family, and their story.

Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinema tomorrow, Friday, May 16: A PEOPLE UNCOUNTED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE ROMA

Aaron Yeger’s chronicle of the long-persecuted European minority debuted at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2011. Other fests have included Heartland, Mumbai, Starz Denver, Santa Barbara, Cleveland, Full Frame, Salem, Kassel Doc, Documentary Edge, Beldocs, and St Louis, among others.

Widely misunderstood, the Roma – popularly known by the pejorative “Gypsies” – were one of several groups targeted during the Nazi era, with an estimated half a million Romani exterminated in concentration camps. Still the subject of persecution and intolerance in the modern era, scapegoated throughout Europe by the rising tide of nationalism and right-wing fascistic politics, many fear the horrors of the past may too easily be revisited upon them in the future. Yeger’s strongly lensed and well-constructed film advocates for a culture that, as suggested by its title, has been too often neglected, revealing past injustices and the reality of Roma life today, drawing on the testimony of Holocaust survivors, academics, and others standing up for justice for this people.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 13: SIGN PAINTERS

Faythe Levine and Sam Macon’s exploration of a once ubiquitous artisanal craft debuted at a special event in Washington DC’s Renwick Gallery last year. Festival screenings have included Thin Line, Leeds, Milwaukee, and Atlantic. Bond/360 partners with FilmBuff to release the doc on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, blinkbox, Google Play, PlayStation, Vudu, and Xbox.

Levine and Macon take a cross-country survey of the modern state of hand-painted design, focusing on sign painters who have persevered despite the decline in demand for their particular skills in a culture that sadly preferences cheap, computer-enabled, one-size-fits-all work. Given their approach, few individual painters really leave a huge impression, but their vibrant work certainly does – a striking contrast to the poorly designed and constructed vinyl signs that have driven many out of business since the rise of graphic design computer programs and other technology. Recognizing the recent resurgence of interest in artisanal craftsmanship, the filmmakers are able to bring in a sense of hope to the proceedings, however, with painters noting that individuals and even corporations like The Gap have started knocking on their doors, seeking the authenticity that their work conveys, while also showing viewers a quick peek at the next generation, practicing their brushstrokes in an intensive lettering class. Not surprisingly, the doc features some impressive title and credits sequences, in addition to showcasing the handiwork of the many craftsmen and women interviewed.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 13: IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? AN ANIMATED CONVERSATION WITH NOAM CHOMSKY

Michel Gondry’s thought-provoking tête-à-tête with the acclaimed linguist debuted at DOC NYC last year. Other festival stops included Berlin, Sydney, and Milan, while the doc enjoyed a theatrical and VOD release in November.

I previously wrote about the film upon its release here.

Coming to HBO today, Monday, May 12: THE (DEAD MOTHERS) CLUB

Carlye Rubin and Katie Green’s exploration of coping with the death of a mother debuted at Florida’s Silver Springs fest last month. It has also screened at Sarasota and the Santa Fe, Catskill Mountains, and Crossroads fests prior to its cable debut.

Rubin and Green’s project elucidates the complex feelings and sense of loss experienced by women whose mothers died in their daughters’ adolescence or earlier. Signaled by its title, the film aims to show the commonality between disparate women, who become, as executive producer and interview subject Rosie O’Donnell notes, the unwilling members of an unofficial and often unspoken club through this life-changing experience – one that carries significant import in the rest of their lives. The filmmakers profile three younger woman – a high school senior weighing college options, an artist experiencing pregnancy for the first time, and a new mother who fears she carries the same gene that resulted in her mother’s breast cancer – while offering the reflections of three older, celebrity viewpoints – O’Donnell, Molly Shannon, and Jane Fonda – who all shared this early trauma. By its nature, this split focus means that the viewer only gets a small sense of any one subject. While they’re all sympathetic figures, and not to detract from the reality of their loss, there’s one subject too many among the younger women – Ginger, the artist, provides some visual variety through her artwork, but otherwise feels the most forced in being included here, with at least one section of her story so focused on her work that the connection to her mother is completely absent. In contrast, each of the celebrities, largely because they are older and have had decades to work through their loss, prove more enlightening and affecting.