Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema for a one-week run beginning next Monday, August 13: THE CHILEAN BUILDING

Macarena Aguiló’s exploration of a little-known politically-motivated social experiment in Chile’s tumultuous history made its premiere in 2010. Among its stops on the festival circuit were FIDOCS, IDFA, DOK Leipzig, New York International Latino, DOCS Barcelona, and Thessaloniki Doc, among many others, picking up more than a half dozen awards along the way.

Aguiló delves into her own history to tell the story of Proyecto Hogares (referenced as either “Project Homes” or “Project Home”) – a safehouse in Cuba for the children of Chile’s leftist freedom fighters. While their biological parents fought against the injustices of Pinochet’s regime back home, their sixty children were raised communally in the titular Cuban home-in-exile by “social parents,” twenty adults who could not fight but served the revolution by bringing the next generation to adulthood. While some have fond memories of their time in Cuba, others were deeply scarred by a sense of abandonment that haunts their family relationships to this day. Aguiló, her surrogate siblings, and both social and biological parents reflect on their history together through animation, archival photos and diaries, and emotional interviews, presenting an intimate and engaging personal history that is broadened by shared experiences and circumstances to transcend the individual and instead represent a nation’s difficult history in microcosm. The film demonstrates the limits and sacrifices born of revolutionary commitment, and how much the personal truly is political.

Coming to DVD and VOD next Tuesday, August 14: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s West Memphis Three trilogy ender made its world premiere at Toronto last year. After the release of the three men, an addendum was added, premiering at the New York Film Festival, with additional festival exposure at the Hamptons, IDFA, Thessaloniki Doc, and elsewhere. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

I wrote about the film prior to its broadcast premiere here.

Currently available on SundanceNOW: WALK AWAY RENEE

Jonathan Caouette’s follow up to TARNATION made its world premiere at last year’s Cannes. Since then, that original version of the film screened at Moscow, Poland’s New Horizons, and a number of other festivals. After reworking the film, Caouette screened the current, revised version at BAMcinemaFest and Outfest, and it’s this version that made its VOD premiere in late June.

Caouette’s first film also had somewhat of a similar origin – originally debuting in late 2003 at NYC’s experimental LGBT fest, MIX in a three-hour version that included some sci-fi elements, Caouette edited the film dramatically in time to officially premiere the new version at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, removing the fictional elements. While I haven’t seen the original version of his latest film, my understanding is that it too included some more fantastical, fictional elements that have largely been excised in the new version. Like TARNATION, the new film is focused on Caouette and his relationship with his mother, Renee LeBlanc, a schizophrenic for whom he’s functioned as a caretaker for several years. Less experimental and poetic than the first film, but still very much poignant, Caouette’s follow up shows a filmmaker who is more mature and perhaps more inured to the realities of dealing with the mental illness that plagues his mother and the impact it has on his life. The film follows Jonathan as he travels with Renee from Texas to New York, having decided to transition her to an assisted-living facility closer to his home. Beyond the road trip aspect, which results in its own share of drama when Renee loses the meds that keep her on the precarious side of stable, the film also fills in viewers on the time between the end of TARNATION and the present film. This includes Jonathan’s son Joshua moving in with his dad and his partner David, soon followed by both Renee and her father, Adolph Davis – a living situation that clearly couldn’t have been easy for anyone. Caouette has received criticism in the past for focusing his work on his mother’s compromised state, but it would seem unavoidable that this should be included as the content of his filmmaking – her condition, and that of his unusual and difficult upbringing had, and continues to have, a profound affect on his life. That he is able to process and transform these challenges through his films is a testament to the power of creativity and art.

Coming to theatres (as part of the International Documentary Association’s Oscar-qualifying DocuWeeks) at NYC’s IFC Center this Friday, August 10 and at LA’s Laemmle NoHo 7 on Friday, August 17: RICKY ON LEACOCK

Jane Weiner’s nearly 40-years-in-the-making tribute to her mentor made its world premiere at Brazil’s It’s All True. The film next screened at Bologna’s Biografilm, where the organizers created an award in Leacock’s name.

Richard Leacock, who died early last year, is recognized as one of the most influential documentarians in the world for his revolutionary work in creating low-cost, portable camera and sound recording equipment, and his related work with Robert Drew, DA Pennebaker, and Albert Maysles in developing cinema verité. Just as he learned from the acclaimed Robert Flaherty, working as his cameraman for the documentary hybrid LOUISIANA STORY, novice filmmaker Jane Weiner approached Leacock in 1972 to learn from him as she made a documentary about him. The result, filmed intermittently over the next four decades, and including not only Leacock, but Pennebacker, Drew, and influential French film figures like the Cinématheque Française’s Henri Langlois and master filmmaker Jean Rouch, is clearly a personal labor of love for Weiner. Eschewing conventional approaches to biography, with a linear recitation of the subject’s birth, early life, significant achievements, and death, Weiner instead works with the free-flowing nature of the footage she captured over the years to impart to the viewer “the feeling of being there,” Leacock’s signature. Bookended with Leacock preparing dinner for friends sometime in the 70s, the film travels through his past and future to reveal his life through intimate and engaging interviews and fantastic clips from his work, revealing fascinating details about the origins of observational documentary that his colleagues and he made possible. As such, it’s a must-see for documentary filmmakers and fans, who should recognize and reflect on these pioneers and their achievements.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, August 7: 13 FAMILIES: LIFE AFTER COLUMBINE

Nicole Corbin, Steve LuKanic, and Mark David Katchur’s profile of the families of the Columbine school shooting victims premiered last Spring at a special screening hosted by the Denver Film Society. It also screened this past November at the ArcLight Documentary Festival in Hollywood.

Twelve students and one teacher were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on April 20, 1999 in one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. Corbin, LuKanic, and Katchur present a respectful portrait of these victims through those who were affected most by their violent deaths – their parents, siblings, and other family members. Reflecting on the incidents of that day, and how they learned that their loved ones were lost, these families share the grief and, for some, anger, that many are still processing more than a decade later – some through public support of gun control, others in more quiet ways. At the same time, the subjects offer viewers a personal and deep appreciation for the victims – their personalities and characters – and the impact their deaths had on the families. Perhaps most interestingly, multiple interviewees note the strength they gained from other families, all going through the same process together, as well as the typically unaddressed effect the trauma had on surviving siblings. Despite a tendency to rely on talking heads and an overuse of music, the documentary is affecting and unfortunately all too relevant, given the continued incidents of school shootings and gun deaths – while the film explicitly notes the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, the tragic DARK KNIGHT RISES shooting in Aurora CO that claimed twelves lives last month serves as sad evidence that lessons have not yet been learned from the Columbine tragedy.