Category Archives: Recommendations

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films this Thursday, July 28: FAKE IT SO REAL

Robert Greene premiered his look at wrestlers at True/False earlier this year. I wrote about the film in my coverage of T/F for indieWIRE, saying:

As suggested by its title, Greene’s film confronts artifice, in the form of its subject. In his third feature-length doc in as many years (OWNING THE WEATHER premiered at Full Frame 2009, while KATI WITH AN I screened at T/F last year), Greene profiles a group of would-be professional wrestlers – they haven’t quite been able to make money yet – during the lead up to one of their shows in North Carolina. Exploring what goes into the sport/spectacle – from character development to physical training – the film also brilliantly captures a unique men-only world – veteran performers haze rookie pretty boy Gabriel, curiously obsessed with playfully questioning his heterosexuality – a recurring theme for the group which also includes another wrestler who portrays a flamboyant gay character.

Note: Greene will be present for a Q&A after the screening, joined by subjects from the film, who will then engage in a live wrestling “Battle Royale.”

Coming to NYC’s Museum of the Moving Image as part of its Errol Morris’ America series this weekend, July 23-24: GATES OF HEAVEN

In 1978, Morris made his documentary debut with this understated gem that helped to establish him as one of the US’ most notable documentarians. The film screened in the New York Film Festival and went on to a successful theatrical release. It famously was the subject of a wager between the director and Werner Herzog, who pledged to eat his shoe if Morris made GATES and managed to get it shown in theatres. The result was documented by Les Blank in his short film, the aptly titled WERNER HERZOG EATS HIS SHOE.

This unusual, and unusually affecting, film focuses on pet cemeteries – the people who run them and some pet owners who have buried their beloved animals there. As in Morris’ other films, he turns the cameras on his interview subjects and lets them tell their stories, directly to the camera, and unmediated beyond his editing choices. The soft-spoken but at times intense Floyd McClure, also known as Mac, is the focus of the first half of the film. He speaks at length about his strong feelings that animal companions should be granted a respectful resting place, both for their own sake and for those they’ve left behind. His solution was the ill-fated Los Altos, CA’s Foothill Pet Cemetery, an alternative to rendering plants that dispose of animal remains – an industry that is heard from here as well, via a kind of smarmy, kind of funny plant owner. The second half of the film zeroes in on Cal Harberts, his wife, and their two sons, who run the successful Napa Valley Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park, as well as a church that preaches that God will welcome both two-legged and four-legged creatures at the gates of heaven. In between are comments from pet owners about their loss, including the show stealer, Florence Rasmussen, who delivers a meandering monologue about her life that doesn’t appear to have much to do with the rest of the film, but provides a remarkable moment that matches the strange mix of pathos, humor, irony, and Americana that is captured so seemingly effortlessly by Morris through the entire film. This one definitely is worthy of its label as a “classic” – if you haven’t seen it yet, make sure that you do.

Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema (as part of a special Masterclass with director Steve James) next Thursday, July 28: NO CROSSOVER: THE TRIAL OF ALLEN IVERSON

Oscar-nominated director Steve James went back to his hometown of Hampton, VA for his part in ESPN’s 30 FOR 30 series. It had its world premiere at SXSW last year.

No stranger to basketball – besides his acclaimed HOOP DREAMS, he played in high school – James relates the contentious 1993 story of up and coming court star Allen Iverson. Clearly on a path from high school stardom to the NBA, Iverson took a detour in 1993 when he was allegedly involved in a racially charged fight at a local bowling alley. Tried together with a group of his friends as an adult, Iverson faced a potentially career-killing trial, and one which split Hampton, leaving painful wounds to this day. Given his connection to Hampton and its community, James takes a personal approach to the story, narrating and also appearing in the film conducting interviews with not only people close to the Iverson case, but with his mother and family friends. Regular readers of this blog will note that I’m generally not a fan of filmmakers inserting themselves in their films in this manner, and I’m not convinced this was the best tactic for James to take, though there is justification for such an approach. Still, it’s not employed consistently enough to my liking, making these elements pale in comparison to segments in which James is not as present. Despite this, the film as a whole offers a provocative close reading of a specific incident that put in relief the intersection of race, athletics, and the justice system. In so doing, the film successfully moves far beyond being a doc about sports to address much more expansive concerns.

Note: James will be present for a post-screening Q&A.

Coming to POV next Tuesday, July 26: MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN

Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s film had its world premiere at Hot Docs in 2009, and went on to play at a number of notable festivals, including London, IDFA, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Seattle, Hamptons, and Silverdocs. In addition to winning jury prizes at the latter two events, the documentary also won Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards, and was nominated for a BAFTA.

I wrote about the film out of Hot Docs for indieWIRE, saying:
MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN tackles another government and its repressive policies by focusing on the legal struggle of a white Zimbabwean farmer and his family to keep his land in the face of President Robert Mugabe’s corrupt and racist land reform policy. Exploring the question of what it means to be part of the white minority in an African country, the directors risk their own safety by secretly filming incidents of violence intended to intimidate whites off of their land.

Bailey and Thompson found a solid protagonist in 75-year-old Michael Campbell, an Australian-born, naturalized Zimbabwean. He refuses to bow down to Mugabe’s discriminatory practices, challenging the government’s program legally, and holding his ground despite threats of violence against him and his family. This well-crafted film simultaneously operates as a profile of Campbell, a tense legal thriller, and a decades-spanning history of the legacy of racist policies in the African nation.

Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, July 26: BETTER THIS WORLD

Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega launched their insightful and disturbing examination of a trumped up case of domestic terrorism at SXSW this year, and made the rounds, screening at Full Frame, Hot Docs, Silverdocs, and picking up awards at both San Francisco and Sarasota.

I wrote about the film after its premiere here.

Note: Director Katie Galloway is scheduled to participate in a post-screening Q&A.

Coming to NYC’s Museum of the Moving Image as part of its Errol Morris’ America series this weekend, July 16-17: THE THIN BLUE LINE

Morris’ 1988 film is arguably among only a handful of documentaries of the past century that crossed over in something of a lasting way into the popular mainstream’s consciousness. Chiefly, this is due to its real world impact, helping to re-open the case it documents and exonerate an innocent man. While it resonated with the industry, winning numerous film critic circle awards, it was disqualified for an Oscar nomination due to a strange technicality, considered “non-fiction” instead of “documentary” for some reason.

The film details the investigation of the murder of Dallas police officer Robert Wood involving Randall Dale Adams, a drifter, and David Harris, a teen runaway. Through interviews and re-enactments based on witness and investigator testimony (innovative at the time), Morris reconstructs the different versions of Wood’s shooting death and builds a case against the prevailing theory that led to Adams conviction and death sentence. Morris’ storytelling techniques have since become commonplace, but, at the time, they brought a dynamism and immediacy to what might have been little more than a segment on a news magazine program. I’m almost always against the use of re-enactments in documentary, but there are always exceptions, and while Morris can’t be said to be the first to employ them, he incorporates them in a skillful and deliberate manner that, most importantly, fit the crux of his film – the crime investigation. But it’s a crime investigation that is highly stylized both in visuals and in its Philip Glass composed score – a film noir documentary that was elevated beyond the realm of a nightly news report to achieve an artfulness and potency that had direct, real life consequences.