Category Archives: Recommendations

Opening this Thursday and running through May 3, the San Francisco International Film Festival celebrates its 55th year with over 100 feature length films, including more than 30 documentaries. The longest-running film festival in the US, the SFIFF has always been especially notable for its well curated international program, and for an enthusiastic audience that fills its theatres for over two weeks. While I haven’t been able to attend the festival in years, it holds a special significance for me as the first major festival I interned for right after college.

The combination of a great city, its senior status, fantastic programming, and a smart staff has made the festival one of the most loved and respected of US festivals. The film industry was shocked by the sudden passing of the San Francisco Film Society’s new executive director Bingham Ray during Sundance just three months ago, less than six months after the death of the accomplished previous executive director, Graham Leggat. While it’s difficult to comprehend the impact this kind of back-to-back loss has had on the organization, it’s a testament to the work both men did for the SFFS an the film industry as a whole, and to their deep love of cinema, that the staff has pulled together such an impressive slate despite the trying circumstances. I’ve already seen about half of the docs in the lineup, some of which I’ll note below together with titles I’ve not yet seen but hope to at some point. Continue reading →

The Tribeca Film Festival begins in less than a week, running April 18-29 in New York City. After a decade with David Kwok at its programming helm, his departure after last year’s event has led to some staff changes, notably the elevation of longtime senior programmer Genna Terranova to the position of Director of Programming, the arrival of former Cannes Directors’ Fortnight head Frédéric Boyer as Artistic Director, and the greater involvement of Tribeca Enterprises’ Chief Creative Officer, Geoff Gilmore, in programming. It will be interesting to see how audiences and critics respond to this year’s slate, which is not noticeably different in any radical way. In terms of documentary programming, the festival continues to show a commitment to spotlighting US and world non-fiction, including 39 feature-length docs throughout the various sections of the event. While I’ve had a chance to see quite a few of these titles in advance, I’m looking forward to watching the remainder during the next couple of weeks, especially the following highlights: Continue reading →

Launched in 2009, Disappearing Act is a European film festival in New York City that celebrates critically acclaimed films from all across Europe that have still nevertheless been unable to attract widespread audience awareness. A co-presentation of the Czech Center and the Romanian Cultural Institute, the event draws on support from nearly two dozen additional European agencies. Its fourth edition begins tomorrow, April 11, and runs through April 22. Screenings will be held at the IFC Center, the Bohemian National Hall, and the Alliance Francaise. With the exception of the opening night, all other screenings are free to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Of the twenty-five features making up this year’s line-up, four are documentaries, while an additional two are hybrid narrative/docs. I’ve already seen and strongly recommend two of the former: CINEMA KOMUNISTO (pictured) and DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR.

The remaining docs are the Slovakian THE BORDER (pictured), directed by Jaroslav Vojtek, telling the story of the village of Slemence, divided by new borders in 1946 into a Slovak and a Ukranian side, literally separating families and the entire community; and the Hungarian NEGATIVE HISTORY OF HUNGARIAN CINEMA, directed by Gyula Nemes, which intriguingly seeks to rediscover unfinished or never-made films by the masters of Hungarian cinema.

The hybrids include Italian director Pietro Marcello’s award-winning THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF/LA BOCCA DEL LUPO (pictured), a truly sui generis piece celebrating Genoa and the unlikely love story of a murderer and a drug addict; and Portuguese director Miguel Gomes’ OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST, a similarly beguiling cinematic exploration of place, focused on the attempt to make a film against the backdrop of a summer music festival in a rural village community.

The 19th New York African Film Festival kicks off this Wednesday, bringing New York audiences a concise cross-section of new and retrospective film from all over Africa. Reflecting a desire to serve a diverse potential audience, aside from a couple of satellite events, the festival takes place at multiple venues over three different periods of time: The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre between April 11-17, Harlem’s Maysles Cinema between May 4-6, and Brooklyn’s BAM Rose Cinemas between May 25-28.

Documentaries outnumber the fiction films at the festival, perhaps speaking to one of the goals of the event – educating the public about the African continent and its widely distinct peoples, upending the stereotypes many viewers might have of a monolithic, “primitive” culture. Correcting these reductive notions, the non-fiction on display at the event instead represents an expansive, vibrant multiplicity of backgrounds and concerns. By my count there are eighteen feature-length documentaries or documentary series – almost entirely new work, with a few retrospective programs highlighting South Africa’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the African National Congress. Continue reading →