Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s IFC Center this Friday, November 30: WALK AWAY RENEE

Jonathan Caouette’s follow up to TARNATION had its world premiere at Cannes last year. The film has since screened at BAMcinemaFest, Poland’s New Horizon, Moscow, Outfest, and elsewhere.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 27: BURNING IN THE SUN

Cambria Matlow and Morgan Robinson’s profile of a young man’s efforts to develop a solar panel industry in Mali made its premiere at Santa Barbara in 2010 after a sneak at Rooftop Films in 2009. Its festival stops have included the Southern Circuit Tour, Woods Hole, Lone Star, the NY African Film Festival, a number of environmental fests, and select events in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Egypt.

Matlow and Robinson follow Daniel Dembele, the charismatic and entrepreneurial son of a Malian father and an Italian mother, as he develops a plan to bring development to Mali while generating a profit for himself. Noting that rural communities are without electricity and even larger communities contend with regular periods of blackouts, he enlists the aid of solar power engineers to build a local industry in making and selling solar panels within Mali itself – ingeniously buying “broken” solar cell scraps from larger multinational corporations at a fraction of their normal cost. Dembele, who grew up watching his mother aid in the development of Mali through her NGO which provides wells to villages, sees his own Afriq-Power initiative as his way to continue her legacy but in his own way. Rather than simply giving his fellow countrymen solar power, he will teach them how to make solar cells – developing self-sufficiency rather than charity, and providing a means to combat poverty. The filmmakers have found an appealing main subject in Daniel, whose arguments around development are persuasive – evidenced in the example of the village of Banko, the first to benefit from Afriq-Power’s efforts, bringing electricity to their school and surprising results to their test scores.

Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinemas today, Friday, November 23: MAN AT WAR

Jacek Blawut’s look at men around the world obsessed with virtual war re-enactment premiered at Krakow earlier this year.

This slick and surprisingly enjoyable HBO Central Europe production focuses on American, Polish, Russian, and German men, young and older, who spend an inordinate amount of their time participating in real-time simulations of key WWII aerial battles from the comfort of their computer desks. Blawut cuts quickly between the pilots at their monitors and their virtual world, represented through elaborate animated sequences, occasionally exploring their offline reality and the somewhat bemused or resigned reactions of their wives, girlfriends, or other family members. Politics and nationalism come into play, with rivalries between some of the combatants, and particular concern about sympathizers among the Polish players with their historical enemies, but there are so many players featured that it’s frankly pretty impossible to keep track of most of them as individuals. While gamers might be most enthralled by Blawut’s film, it does offer general viewers the experience of a spectacle – the chaotic nature of the dogfights is especially conveyed thrillingly and appropriately – as well as an intriguing look at a modern, technological form of historical re-enactment.

Coming to theatres this Friday, November 23: THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

Sarah Burns, David McMahon, and Ken Burns’ exploration of the infamous 1989 jogger rape case made its world premiere at Cannes. It went on to screen at Telluride, Toronto, London, Mill Valley, AFI Fest, and Chicago, and closed out DOC NYC last week. IFC opens the film at the IFC Center, Maysles Cinema, and Lincoln Plaza Cinema, expanding it next week to Los Angeles, Chicago, and Montclair before going wider in mid-December.

I included the film in my Toronto coverage here.

Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinema this Friday, November 16: HITLER’S CHILDREN

Chanoch Ze’evi’s look at the offspring of the Nazi leadership premiered at IDFA last year. Its festival circuit has included Thessaloniki Doc, DOK.Munich, One World Prague, Documentary Edge, Tallgrass, and Moscow, among others.

I included the film in my Thessaloniki coverage here.

Coming to theatres this Friday, November 16: MEA MAXIMA CULPA: SILENCE IN THE HOUSE OF GOD

Alex Gibney’s indictment of pedophilia in the Catholic Church premiered this Fall at Toronto. It’s gone on to screen at DOC NYC, London, Chicago, Milwaukee, Woodstock, and the Hamptons picking up a number of awards along the way.

I included the film in my Toronto coverage here.