Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s 92Y Tribeca for a special screening this Wednesday, February 29 and in theatres beginning next Thursday, March 8: THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE

Marie Losier’s doc on an innovative performer and his muse made its world premiere at Berlin last year, where it claimed a Teddy Award, and its North American premiere at SXSW. In the past year, it has screened at well over seventy additional festivals, including Tribeca, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Indie Lisboa, Doc Aviv, Silverdocs, BAMcinemaFEST, FIDM, Karlovy Vary, and CPH:DOX.

I included the doc in my SXSW coverage here.

Coming to NYC’s IFC Center this Friday, March 2 and on VOD Friday, March 16: LAST DAYS HERE

Don Argott and Demian Fenton’s profile of a down-on-his-luck musician premiered at SXSW last year in competition. It went on to screen at other notable festivals, including BAMcinemaFEST, Independent Film Festival Boston, and IDFA, winning awards at the latter two.

I covered the film out of SXSW here.

Now in theatres: UNDEFEATED

Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin’s intimate look at a North Memphis high school football team made its debut at SXSW last year. It later screened at Toronto and Dubai, among others, and is one of five non-fiction features in contention for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Like its subjects, the Manassas Tigers, this documentary snuck up seemingly out of nowhere. Despite slots at notable fests, and some good early reviews, the film wasn’t on many people’s radar until the Oscar shortlist. Personally, I’ve been clear here in the past that sports docs often leave me cold unless the filmmakers also craft a compelling story that can appeal to the uninitiated – viewers who aren’t already fans of the particular team or sport on display. Unfortunately, a great many docs that I come across each year fail to do so. In the case of Lindsay and Martin’s film, thankfully, they recognize the need to connect audiences beyond the base concern of who will win and who will lose a particular game. Instead, they have crafted a remarkably touching, inspiring, and accessible film that will make grown men cry. Beyond the appeal of an underdog story, which this most certainly is – the Tigers have had a disastrous 110-year history, never once winning a playoff game – the doc works as a potent study of masculinity and character. The four main characters – Coach Bill Courtney, a father figure to his young charges who lack male role models; OC, whose ticket out of poverty is a college scholarship; Chavis, who struggles to stay on the team due to anger issues; and Money, an overachiever both academically and athletically, despite a small frame – have invested much in football, but, as Courtney reminds his team, the sport doesn’t build character – it reveals it. How they each handle the ups and downs of the season sets them up to face the future and be undefeated, whether or not they win the game.

Coming to PBS’ American Experience and to DVD next Tuesday, February 28: THE AMISH

David Belton’s in-depth examination of an historically very private community premieres simultaneously on PBS and on DVD next week.

Because of general Amish restrictions on being filmed or photographed, the majority of the practicing Amish featured in the film are represented largely through audio interviews, though the film’s cinematography captures their rural environment quite beautifully. The doc presents the Amish way of life from their own perspective, supplemented with on-camera interviews with historians and other academics, as well as individuals who left the Amish community for various reasons. The result is a remarkably well-rounded portrait of a distinct community with its own social structures, traditions, history, and beliefs, contextualizing the misperceptions the outside world often has, while also providing critical insight from those whose disparate beliefs led them to leave the flock. Though widely understood to reject modern technology and educational advancement, the film succinctly explains their reasoning as a means to literally keep their community close lest modern advances encourage followers to stray, and to keep the focus on what God provides, not on what men make. Most intriguingly, Belton’s film shows how the Amish have had to adapt to larger changes in society, such as the lack of farmland in the regions they have typically lived, necessitating a shift from farming to operating small businesses; venturing outside of their community to find work in factories that mixes them with the “English” (aka non-Amish); or, more radically, settling new communities out West in places like Colorado where farmland is cheaper and more plentiful.

Coming to NYC’s reRun Gstropub Theater for a one-week run this Friday, February 24: HOW TO START A REVOLUTION

Ruaridh Arrow’s portrait of Nobel Prize winner Gene Sharp had its world premiere in Sharp’s hometown at the Boston Film Festival last Fall, where it claimed Best Documentary. It has gone on to screen at a number of other fests, including Raindance (another Best Doc win), CPH:DOX, SF Documentary, and the United Nations Association Film Festival, among others. It has also been screened by various Occupy movements in recent months.

I profiled the film while in post-production right after its successful Kickstarter campaign here. The finished film successfully balances Sharp’s story with those of various nonviolent struggles around the globe that were influenced by his writings, including the widely disseminated and translated FROM DICTATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY. Split into seven lessons, from “Plan a strategy” to “Don’t give up,” the doc explores in parallel the work Sharp and his collaborators, Vietnam veteran Robert Helvey and Afghani refugee Jamila Raqib, do as part of the Albert Einstein Institution, and the efforts of revolutionaries in diverse places like the Ukraine and Serbia to free their countries from tyranny. Sharp emerges as a thoughtful man of principles, clearly nonplussed by notions of personal fame or accusations that he has taken credit for successful revolutionary movements – instead, he presents himself as committed to helping provide information and tactics that have been proven alternatives to violent uprisings. While the film has a tendency of being overscored and talking heads heavy, its message transcends these minor issues, and provides powerful testimony that deserves a wide audience.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 21: EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE

Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler’s definitive portrait of the alternative LA rock band made its debut at the LA Film Festival in 2010. In addition to further appearances on the festival circuit, the film also enjoyed a limited theatrical release last fall, and was included in this month’s AfroPoP season on PBS.

I included the doc in my coverage of SXSW last year here.