Opening at NYC’s Cinema Village today, Friday, February 17: PUTIN’S KISS
Lise Birk Pederson’s bracing look at politics and ideology in modern-day Russia through one young woman’s experience made its premiere at IDFA. The film came to Sundance for its US debut, claiming the World Cinema Documentary Award for Cinematography.
I wrote about the film prior to Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Screening as part of AfroPoP on select PBS stations this month, including NY’s WLIW21 this Sunday, February 19: THAT’S MY FACE/E MINHA CARA
Director Thomas Allen Harris’ complex examination of his family’s and his own sense of identity premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001. The following year it screened at Sundance and Berlin, claiming an award at the latter, and then was featured at numerous LGBT festivals, including NewFest and Outfest, where it won the Outstanding Documentary Feature award.
Harris brings us on a journey of self-discovery that crosses three continents, three generations and thirty years in this truly epic and exceptionally beautiful personal documentary. While Harris was a child, his mother rejected her African-American Methodist Episcopal church upbringing and embraced Pan-Africanism, eventually migrating her family to Tanzania, East Africa on a quest to find a mythic motherland. Harris learned to love Africa, but, upon returning to the US, was unable to express his newfound understanding in this culture. In search of a sense of home and belonging, Harris traveled to Salvador de Bahia, the African heart and soul of Brazil, where an African spirit tradition, with its fluid sexuality and overt sensuality, was openly celebrated. His documentary incorporates super 8mm film shot by his family over three generations, and features an innovative sound design that uses rap and hip hop strategies of multi-voice sampling.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to DVD next Tuesday, February 21: SHOOTING ROBERT KING
Richard Parry’s portrait of a war photographer made its world premiere (under the original title BLOOD TRAIL) at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, and came stateside the next year with screenings at SXSW, Silverdocs, and True/False, among others.
Using the tagline “15 Years, 3 Wars, 1 Photographer,” the doc tells the story of the titular war correspondent, beginning as a naive 24-year-old covering the war in Bosnia in 1993, following up when he is a hardened man in Chechnya in 1997, and finding him more at peace in 2007, both embedded within the US military in Iraq and at home in the Tennessee woods on a deer-hunting trip. Robert King is the focus through which the film explores the complex and at times contradictory forces motivating journalists to put themselves in harm’s way to bear witness to war and atrocity. At the same time, the longitudinal aspect of the story, with Parry filming King whenever he could over more than a decade, allows the audience to see the fascinating transformation of its subject over time – speaking to the powerful impact war has on even those documenting it.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to POV next Thursday, February 23: RACING DREAMS
Marshall Curry’s doc on young go-kart racers won the Best Documentary Award at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival. It claimed further wins on the festival circuit, and also enjoyed a limited theatrical run.
I wrote about the film upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, February 14: THE SONS OF TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Tim Wolff’s exploration of the relationship between New Orleans’ gay community and Mardi Gras premiered at Frameline in 2010. First Run Features released the film theatrically this past Fall.
In the decades when gay men could not live openly and risked arrest and public censure if they congregated in bars, New Orleans’ many Mardi Gras parades provided temporary safe haven. The city’s homosexuals could don parade drag and celebrate semi-openly. Over time, as Wolff’s doc shows, these men banded together in “krewes” to organize what became a network of drag balls for the festivities, a practice that continued after gay liberation allowed for more openness. Using remarkable archival footage and interviews, the film paints a vivid picture of New Orleans’ past, while simultaneously displaying modern-day efforts to keep the tradition alive post-Katrina.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
My latest Indiewire-curated selections for Hulu documentaries takes a somewhat skewed look at Valentine’s Day. While some of the subjects of these docs look for and even find love, others tread a more difficult path. View all of the films now for free!
For more information about the selections, see my Indiewire article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 14: ELEVATE
Anne Buford’s doc on the life-changing possibilities of basketball for Senegalese players premiered at SXSW. Additional screenings followed at BAMcinemaFEST, Dallas, and elsewhere, as well as a limited theatrical release.
I included the film in my Dallas coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
If you’re based in the NYC area or planning on being in town this Thursday, February 16 at 6:00pm, I’m moderating a panel hosted by The Paley Center for Media together with The International Documentary Association.
The panel, “Meet the Filmmakers Nominated for the Academy Award, Documentary Short,” provides attendees the chance to see clips from the five nominees and hear from representatives of four of the films, as well as from the winner of the category last year. Beyond discussing their films, the filmmakers will also talk about the impact of the nomination, and the opportunities for short form non-fiction to be screened publicly.
Read more about the panel and participants here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Now in its eleventh year, the Documentary Fortnight is MoMA’s annual exhibition of recent non-fiction from around the world. Running February 16-28, the program aims to expand the consideration of what constitutes documentary in contemporary filmmaking and art, reflected in an eclectic and innovative line-up as well as two guided tours of Web-based interactive non-fiction storytelling. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Premiering on HBO tomorrow Tuesday, February 14: THE LOVING STORY
Nancy Buirski’s remarkable recounting of the precedent-setting story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving made its premiere at Tribeca last year. It screened as the Centerpiece of Full Frame (the festival Buirski founded), won a screenplay award at Silverdocs, and screened at numerous other events, including the Hamptons, Traverse City, and Virginia, where the story is set. Fittingly, it makes its cable premiere both on Valentine’s Day and during Black History Month, and, happily, just days after a significant decision towards overturning another discriminatory marriage law, Prop 8.
I included the doc in my Tribeca roundup here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
