Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to the theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, May 22: PLIMPTON! STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF

Tom Bean and Luke Poling’s portrait of an unlikely citizen celebrity premiered at Silverdocs last year. Its fest run has included DOC NYC, Martha’s Vineyard, Camden, Hamptons, Hot Springs, Austin, Palm Springs, Cleveland, Oxford, and RiverRun, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Silverdocs for Indiewire, saying:
Tom Bean and Luke Poling’s comprehensive portrait of the late Renaissance/Everyman made its world premiere at the festival this week. Known for both his forays into participatory journalism and as the co-founder/editor of THE PARIS REVIEW, Plimpton emerges as a fascinating subject – willing to be the ultimate amateur – trying his hand at stand-up, football, and the flying trapeze for the sake of an experiential story – despite criticisms, while also cultivating the talents of multiple generations of authors through his influential journal. Smartly constructed, using copious archival interviews to allow Plimpton to largely tell his own story, Bean and Poling’s documentary is a brilliant example of creative biographical filmmaking.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 21: LA SOURCE

Patrick Shen’s look at one Haitian man’s quest to improve his village debuted at Silverdocs last year. It went on to screen at DocuWeeks, DocuWest, Big Sky, Newport Beach, Sarasota, Atlanta, and Palm Springs, among other fests.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres via Cinedigm’s Docurama Festival initiative next Tuesday, May 21: CHARGE

Mark Neale’s chronicle of the trials and triumphs of developing zero emissions motorcycles seems to have largely bypassed film festivals, though it did win an award at Vegas Independent in 2011. The film is part of Cinedigm’s new seven-film program bringing feature documentaries to theatres weekly in up to fifteen US markets, including NYC, LA, Pasadena, Encino, San Diego, Palm Desert, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Hartford, New Haven, Ithaca, Richmond, and Helena. The films are also available for additional theatrical-on-demand screenings via Tugg. In NYC, Cinema Village will screen the doc next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

Narrated by racing fan Ewan McGregor, Neale’s film focuses on the world’s first zero-emissions motorcycle grand prix, held in the Summer of 2009 on the Isle of Man, home of the most legendary and difficult course in the sport. With practice courses and other prep for the annual regular race already taxing the Isle’s infrastructure, and the patience of its residents, the decision to devote even more time to an unorthodox electric vehicle version is met with skepticism if not downright resistance. Neale follows several teams in the lead-up to the race, out to prove the viability of an electric motorcycle that can complete the challenging course on one charge with the same thrill as their fossil-fueled kin. At the center of this international assemblage are the cocky US team, MotoCzysz, who have sunk $350,000 into their bike, and Team Agni, which taps into the genius of Cedric Lynch, an eccentric pioneer whose innovative motor design is used in several of the competitors’ vehicles. Mechanically minded viewers would likely find more to appreciate in numerous garage and workshop scenes as engineers work out kinks and discuss torque and whatnot, but even those with zero interest in racing will find the film engaging. Neale is able to generate genuine tension about whether the teams will successfully finish their designs, make it to the race, and even finish – both at the inaugural event in 2009 and at the follow up in 2010 – and the green theme at its core should draw an unlikely but appreciative additional audience.

Now on VOD: TO MAKE A FARM

Steve Suderman’s profile of young Canadian farmers debuted at Vancouver in 2011, where it was one of the top ten audience favorites. It went on to screen at Big Sky, Washington DC Environmental, Minneapolis St Paul, Shanghai, Princeton Environmental, and several other environmental and food-related events. FilmBuff released the film on iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, XBOX, nook, Cinemanow, and Vudu yesterday.

Coming from a farm background himself, Suderman narrates this nicely-shot look at three sets of small-scale farmers in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada – two couples, Tarrah and Nathan and Leslie and Jeff, and one-man-band Wes. Following them over the course of a year as they set up their farms, plant and harvest their crops, and tend to their animals, the engaging film gives viewers a clear sense of the challenges of their endeavor – physically, emotionally, and economically. Being Canadian, the subjects are affable without being naive, candidly expressing the sometimes utopian sentiments that led them to pursue farming, but also honest enough about how hard it is to make it work. They make the point that they’re largely starting from scratch – even if they’ve studied organic farming, they’re at a disadvantage compared to past farmers who drew on generational knowledge that has in many ways been lost with the move to large-scale industrial farming. For his part, director Suderman comments on this transformation of agriculture, but his occasional anti-industrial narration feels like an ill-fit with the more successful observational footage of the farmers going about their various chores.