Category Archives: Recommendations

Now on DVD: BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL

Mark Mori’s profile of the life and career of the cult pin-up queen made its debut at the Viva Las Vegas Film Festival in 2012. It went on to screen at DOC NYC, New Orleans, CineKink, LA Indie, Hot Springs Doc, and Atlanta, among other events.

Gaining access to Page before her death in 2008, Mori smartly structures his tribute to the 1950s model around her own retelling of her life story, an often gleeful look back that proves infectious to the audience. Having retired in her early thirties, she doesn’t appear on camera, preferring to allow people to remember her in her heyday – a dark-haired beauty with bangs and a curvy physique with a sense of uninhibitedness. Mori illustrates her biography with a copious amount of archival photos and films featuring Page in her prime, along with the occasional comment from admirers or collaborators, including Playboy‘s Hugh Hefner, photographer Bunny Yeager, and artist Greg Theakston, whose fanzine, The Betty Pages, contributed to the resurgence in her popularity in the 1980s.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 22: THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI

Bill Siegel’s chronicle of the Greatest’s conscientious objection over Vietnam premiered a year ago at Tribeca. It went on to screen at Seattle, Traverse City, San Francisco Jewish, Melbourne, and Montclair, among many others.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Tribeca here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22: LA MAISON DE LA RADIO

Nicolas Philibert’s portrait of a cultural institution made its debut at Berlin last year. It went on to screen at Telluride, Cinema du Reel, Planete+ Doc, BFI London, Vancouver, Stockholm, CPH:DOX, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, among others, before enjoying a limited theatrical release.

Philibert’s film offers a kaleidoscopic day in the life of Radio France, situated in the building known by the familiar nickname signaled in the title. As is typical of his work, the director completely eschews expository cards or voiceover, instead immersing the viewer in the goings on of the public radio station – equivalent in many ways to America’s NPR – from news flashes and nautical reports to musical interludes and arts and culture interviews. Momentarily visiting on-air studios and staffers at their desks or on their beat – such as a report about the Tour de France filed from the back of a speeding moped – the effect is never meant to be comprehensive, but rather evocative of the range of the station’s programming, and what this eclecticism signifies about the importance of culture and information within France. Like tuning the dial achronally between different programs within the same station, Philibert’s observational approach washes over the audience rather than telling them a straightforward story – the lack of specific context in a handful of sequences may leave some viewers scratching their heads, but as a verité portrait of a place, it’s effective in its simplicity.

Coming to the IFC Center today, Friday, April 18: MANAKAMANA

Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s mesmerizing document of pilgrimage debuted at Locarno last Summer. It’s gone on to play at Toronto, New York, DocLisboa, AFI Fest, RIDM, CPH:DOX, Rotterdam, DocPoint, True/False, and Hong Kong, among many others.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Toronto here.