Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s Cinema Village this Friday, June 8: PATAGONIA RISING

Brian Lilla’s investigation into a controversial Chilean hydroelectric plan premiered at Newport Beach last year. Additional stops on the festival circuit included, among others, the Hot Springs and San Francisco Documentary fests, and Chile’s Valdivia, Cine Otro, and Cine de la Patagonia Aysen, wining awards at the latter two.

Chile’s isolated Patagonian region is home to the Baker and Pascua, two glacier-fed rivers that provide for the region’s biodiversity. When the Spanish company Endsea proposes an ambitious hydroelectric project – the construction of five large dams – they promise a surplus of “clean” energy which can benefit Chile. Among the downsides, familiar to viewers who have seen films like UP THE YANGTZE: flooded regions, displaced inhabitants, and the potential unbalancing of the area’s ecosystem. Lilla talks to the gauchos and other residents of the region, contrasting their anxieties about this radical change to their homes with the corporate-speak reassurances of Endsea’s representative. The engaging doc also explores alternative, lower-impact sources of energy that may prove better solutions to the country’s energy needs, if only the interest of global profit above all else is able to be held in check.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 5: (A)SEXUAL

Angela Tucker’s exploration of a community of individuals with no sexual inclination made its world premiere last year at Frameline. Its festival circuit included additional LGBT events, the New Orleans Film Festival, and a multi-city tour for Asexual Awareness Week last October.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, June 5: HIT SO HARD

P David Ebersole’s portrait of Hole’s Patty Schemel premiered at SXSW last year. Its festival circuit included, among others, New Directors/New Films, Seattle, Sheffield, Frameline, Outfest, and Provincetown. It had a limited theatrical release this Spring.

I wrote about the film out of SXSW here.

Coming to theatres this Friday, June 1: PINK RIBBONS, INC

Léa Pool’s exposé of the breast cancer industry premiered in Toronto last year. It has been screening at numerous festivals since, including Sarasota and Nashville, leading up to its release this week, and expanding through July.

Early in Pool’s film, a commentator notes: “We used to march in the street; now we run for a cure.” This observation succinctly encapsulates the film’s basic thesis – the industry and culture that has been developed around breast cancer has served to redirect anger and outrage that once fed into direct activism into an at times simplistic, pink-colored, positive-spin campaign that is in many ways a profit-driven corporate endeavor. Among the surprises here for viewers who may not be up on their breast cancer history is the fact that the ubiquitous pink ribbon for breast cancer awareness actually started out as more of an orange ribbon, changing hue via focus group test marketing only after its originator refused to have her symbol co-opted by corporate interests; or that breast cancer awareness month was developed by a pharmaceutical company that directly benefits from increased diagnoses of the disease. To her credit, Pool gives space in her film not only to those convincingly arguing against the disturbing marriage of philanthropy, corporate interests, and “cause marketing,” but to representatives from a wide range of breast cancer industry foundations, organizations, and corporations, including the Susan G Komen Foundation, most recently at the center of a huge controversy around their relationship to Planned Parenthood. While the film is certainly not impartial – nor does it need to be – it neither paints these pink ribbon-waving groups as pure villains; while big questions loom over their practices and priorities – working with corporations whose products and policies likely contribute to the spread of cancerous agents, focusing on pharmaceutical treatments rather than prevention – it’s clear that many of the speakers believe in their missions. While that may be the case, Pool’s film offers powerful voices of dissent that should encourage critical thinking in a culture that too easily embraces quick-fixes and feel-good symbols.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, June 5: THE WOODMANS

C Scott Willis’ study of a family of artists premiered at Tribeca in 2010, picking up Best New York Documentary. Additional festival exposure included Silverdocs, Cleveland, Palm Springs, and Planete Doc Review, among others. After a limited theatrical release, which also saw the film garner a nomination for Best Documentary from the Gothams, the film had its broadcast premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens late last year.

I previously wrote about the doc here.