Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction as a pre-Spring Season special screening this Monday, March 28: THE PIPE
After its premiere at Toronto last September, I offered brief thoughts on Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s doc on the impact of a natural gas pipeline on a small Irish village here.
Note: There will be a Q&A with director Risteard Ó Domhnaill & producer Rachel Lysaght after the screening.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
The 40th edition of New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, begins this Wednesday, March 23 and runs through Sunday, April 3.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
For many attendees of SXSW film, Austin is slowly receding as we make our way back to reality following the awards on Tuesday night, despite films continuing through Saturday. If you weren’t able to make it to Austin, or already miss SXSW’s eclectic programming, take a look at my second round of flashbacks from past editions for indieWIRE via Hulu. View all of these docs for free now!
For more information about the selections, see my iW article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
Closing out the Winter season of NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, March 15: HARLAN COUNTY USA
Premiering at the New York Film Festival, Barbara Kopple’s portrait of striking Kentucky coal miners took home the 1976 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as a special award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Recognized as one of the most significant documentaries on organized labor made in the US, it was added to the US National Film Registry in 1990, the second year of its existence.
Even after 35 years, HARLAN COUNTY USA still retains its impact and relevance, especially given the ongoing controversy in Wisconsin over union rights. The men and women profiled in Kopple’s film wage a long and bitter strike for better working conditions and wages, often facing violence from thugs hired as strikebreakers. Living among the families affected, Kopple and her team themselves face some of this violence as shown in a particularly memorable scene in this beautifully shot and paced documentary. Of note is the focus the film places not only on the striking male workers, but on their wives, strong women who show themselves to be effective organizers and partners in their families’ struggles for a better life.
The event will include a Q&A with Kopple.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Since SXSW opens tomorrow, I decided to curate a selection of past SXSW film selections for Hulu’s Documentaries page for indieWIRE. View all of these docs for free now!
For more information about the selections, see my iW article.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Indiewire @ Hulu Docs, Recommendations
SXSW begins this Friday. I’ve been fortunate to be able to attend the festival for the past two years – the first as a member of the Documentary Competition Jury, and the second with THE CANAL STREET MADAM premiering in that same category – and am returning for a third year, this time mostly to watch films, though I will be taking meetings with filmmakers as a programming Mentor.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
My indieWIRE article covering the just-completed 2011 True/False Film Festival in Columbia, MO is now up here.
As a quick clarification – I didn’t catch every film that screened during the four-day festival, and didn’t write about the films that I’d already seen elsewhere. The eight I wrote about at length generally spoke to the two themes I noticed emerging, and I didn’t mean to suggest that these were the only films worth a look, despite the article’s title. There are a number of other films that are well worth seeing, including titles I profiled in anticipation of their Sundance launch (beginning here, and including, to name just a few, THE INTERRUPTERS, PAGE ONE, THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED, and RESURRECT DEAD), films from Toronto and/or IDFA (ARMADILLO, FAMILY INSTINCT), and others viewed at T/F including THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH and BLOOD IN THE MOBILE, among others.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, In Brief, Recommendations, Sundance
On Thursday, I’m headed to Columbia, MO for True/False, a very well-programmed and fun documentary festival that runs through the weekend. I didn’t get much of a chance to see many films during the few days I was in Berlin last month, so I’m looking forward to diving into T/F’s lineup of 40 features, largely consisting of new work, Sundance and IDFA standouts, sneak previews, a few retrospectives, and five hush-hush secret screenings that I won’t be writing about – though I will say that a secret screening from last year’s edition was one of the more haunting, thought-provoking films I saw at T/F 2010, so these are good bets, and I will be trying to check out the ones I haven’t already seen.
I’m serving as a festival “ringleader,” helping with intros/Q&As for a number of films – in addition to a handful of titles I’ve seen before, I’ll be having my first look at other docs with the audience and jump into a Q&A with their directors immediately afterward. I’ll also be covering T/F for indieWIRE again, so I’ll be sharing my thoughts on specific films as well as on the eclectic event as a whole – which adds new events like a masquerade-themed opening night reception and a s’mores-filled filmmaker campfire storytelling session alongside its traditional “March March” parade down the college town’s streets.
Among the titles I’m most eager to view are a couple that I’ve missed at previous festivals – LA BOCCA DEL LUPO, EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS – as well as new titles like AT THE EDGE OF RUSSIA, FAKE IT SO REAL, HABANA MUDA, HULA & NATAN, and SUBWAY PREACHER, and retros like THE BURGER AND THE KING.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction next Tuesday, March 1: LOVE ON DELIVERY
Janus Metz’s hour-long documentary on Thai mail order brides in Denmark screened in IDFA in 2008 before coming stateside the next year at SXSW and Full Frame, where I was on a jury that awarded the film the HBO Emerging Filmmaker Award in 2009.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Raindance’s Documentary Production Certificate concludes next Wednesday, March 2 with filmmaker Lila Yomtoob (HIGH LIFE) leading a workshop on outreach and distribution for documentary films.
Sign up now for Outreach, Marketing & Self-Distribution Strategies for Documentary Film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
