Category Archives: Recommendations

New to DVD/VOD this week:
BEAUTIFUL DARLING

Director:
James Rasin

World Premiere:
Berlin 2010

Select Festivals:
New Directors/New Films, Frameline, Provincetown

About:
A portrait of the pioneering and influential Warhol Superstar, Candy Darling.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, January 12:
QUEEN OF HEARTS: AUDREY FLACK

Director:
Deborah Shaffer

Co-Director:
Rachel Reichman

World Premiere:
Film Columbia 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Docaviv, Full Frame, Ashland, Indie Grits, Hamptons Docfest, Sonoma

About:
A portrait of the pioneering artist.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Netflix today, Monday, January 11:
CRACK: COCAINE, CORRUPTION & CONSPIRACY

Director:
Stanley Nelson

World Premiere:
Netflix (January 2021)

About:
A provocative investigation of the crack epidemic of the 1980s-’90s.

America’s ill-conceived and ineffective “war on drugs” ramped up under Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush in the 1980s, largely as a response to crack. Draconian laws punished dealer and user alike, resulting in mass incarceration, disproportionately affecting people of color and laying siege to their communities and families, with the parallel militarization of the police. While crack use was hardly limited to Black people, with some estimating that as many as two-thirds of users were actually white, law enforcement and the media largely ignored the latter, instead demonizing people of color. Acclaimed documentarian Stanley Nelson revisits the origins of the crack epidemic and explores its legacy, offering astute historical and cultural context for how and why crack emerged and became central to mainstream, racist narratives of Black criminality and the expansion of the prison industrial system.