Category Archives: Recommendations

New to DVD this week:
MADAME

Director:
Stéphane Riethauser

World Premiere:
Visions du Reel 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Locarno, Thessaloniki Doc, Documentamadrid, Pink Apple, Kerala, Golden Horse, Image+Nation

About:
A personal meditation on the relationship between the gay filmmaker and his grandmother.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
From a young age, filmmaker Stéphane Riethauser was groomed to become the golden heir to his family’s business—an alpha male who would fulfill their patriarchal expectations. His best friend and confidante was his grandmother Caroline, a self-made independent woman ahead of her time. After playing the part for several years, Stéphane matures into his true self and embraces LGBTQ activism. But will glamorous, old-fashioned Caroline understand? Riethauser’s film is an honest and edgy confrontation with things long left unsaid in a family’s past.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 9:
INSTANT DREAMS

Director:
Willem Baptist

Premiere:
IDFA 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Thessaloniki Doc, Sofia, Docs Against Gravity, Jihlava, Slamdance, SF DocFest, Visions du Reel, IndieStreet

About:
Fans of Polaroid are determined not to let its magic vanish.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 8:
WOMEN IN BLUE

Director:
Deirdre Fishel

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Minneapolis/St Paul, AFI Docs, Salem, Atlantic, Vancouver, Hot Springs Doc, Denver, St Louis, Rocky Mountain Women’s, African Diaspora

About:
Female officers from the Minneapolis Police Department provide an inside look at a troubled institution.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
When Janeé Harteau becomes Minneapolis’s first female police chief, she sets out to change a troubled department by addressing racially biased policing, increasing transparency, recruiting more women into the force, and championing leadership roles for female officers. But all of her reforms are threatened by an officer’s fatal shooting of an unarmed woman. Filming both before and after George Floyd’s murder, Deirdre Fishel follows four female officers as they navigate the changing department, offering a compelling inside look at the complex intersection of gender, race, and the limits of reform within an ethically questionable institution.

Coming to OVID.tv tomorrow, Wednesday, February 3:
TAHRIR: LIBERATION SQUARE

Director:
Stefano Savona

World Premiere:
Locarno 2011

Select Festivals:
New York, Santa Barbara, Docpoint, Dubai, DocLisboa, DOXA

About:
An  immersion into the Egyptian uprising.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 1:
9TO5: THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT

Director:
Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar

World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (unscreened)

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Nantucket, AFI Docs, IDFA, Full Frame, Hot Springs Doc, Philadelphia, RiverRun

About:
A look back at the 1970s movement by secretaries and female office workers to demand better working conditions.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
The latest film from Oscar-winners Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar explores a pivotal but little remembered intersection of women’s rights and labor rights. In the early 1970s, secretaries and other female office workers were underpaid, undervalued, unable to advance, and often subject to sexual harassment. In the wake of the Women’s Liberation Movement, a group of women in Boston finally had enough, joining together to begin 9to5, a movement that would sweep the nation with irreverent, attention-getting actions to demand meaningful change—and later inspire the eponymous hit film and song.