Coming to select theatres and to virtual cinemas tomorrow, Friday, January 8:
THE REASON I JUMP
Director:
Jerry Rothwell
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Docs Against Gravity, London, ReelAbilities
About:
A profile of non-verbal autistic young people, based on the New York Times bestseller by Naoki Higashida.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to virtual cinemas tomorrow, Friday, January 8:
BEAUTIFUL SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND
Director:
Katrine Philp
World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Camden, Reykjavík, Nordisk Panorama, Haifa, Bergen, Montclair
About:
An intimate child’s eye view of a counseling center which focuses on mourning the loss of loved ones.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
New Jersey’s Good Grief counseling center offers a holistic approach to mourning. Filmmaker Katrine Philp presents viewers with a child’s perspective of its programs, offering an affectionate and intimate look at the lives of several children who have recently lost their parents and must navigate their grief by embracing sadness with honesty, bravery, humor, and love. The result is an enlightening film in which the students become our teachers in finding better ways of coping with loss.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
CUSP
Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt intimately chronicle the lives of three teenage girls in a Texas military town.
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
AT THE READY
Maisie Crow profiles Latinx teens in El Paso as they contemplate careers in border patrol and law enforcement against the backdrop of increasing xenophobia.
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s Frontline this Friday, January 8:
A THOUSAND CUTS
Director:
Ramona Diaz
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, SXSW, AFI Docs, Full Frame, San Francisco, Cleveland
About:
A chilling look at the assault on fundamental democratic freedoms in the Philippines.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
ALL LIGHT, EVERYWHERE
Theo Anthony interrogates the idea of objectivity through the shared histories of cameras, weapons, policing, and justice.
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
AILEY
Jamila Wignot presents a revealing, moving portrait of pioneering choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
The 37th Sundance Film Festival takes place later this month, running January 28-February 3 both online and via satellite screens, with a lineup consisting of 71 features, 50 shorts, 4 episodics, and 14 exhibitions, performances, and VR experiences.
Once again, as I’ve done since 2011’s festival, I’ll profile each of the more than 30 feature and long-form episodic documentaries in advance of the festival, beginning tomorrow.
Please note: These are not reviews. As a Documentary Programming Associate for Sundance, I recommend every film in the 2021 lineup. These profiles instead provide background about the teams behind this year’s docs in anticipation of the festival and the films’ later release. For a sample, check out last year’s series, which began here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
New to Discovery+ this week:
RESTAURANT HUSTLE 2020: ALL ON THE LINE
Director:
Guy Fieri and Frank Matson
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2020
About:
Four celebrity chefs reckon with the impact of the pandemic on their restaurants.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to Discovery+ tonight, Monday, January 4:
PS BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE
Director:
Michael Seligman, Jennifer Tiexiera
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
Outfest, Brisbane
About:
A collection of recently unearthed letters offer a fascinating glimpse at the underground gay drag scene of 1950s-’60s NYC.
In 2014, a box of letters discovered in a Los Angeles storage unit, all addressed to the mysterious “Reno,” sets filmmakers Michael Seligman and Jennifer Tiexiera on a journey to track down the circle of friends behind the communications, all part of the pre-Stonewall drag scene in NYC. Excerpts from the colorful missives are read throughout the resulting film, bringing to life the vibrant but often dangerous milieu as experienced by men with such aliases as Claudia, Daphne, and Josephine Baker, not to mention the distinctive slang of that era’s gay subculture, while present-day interviews with the letter writers as well as queer historians offer both infectious humor and poignant reflection. While there’s a looseness to its structure, and a too abrupt transition from the subjects’ heyday to the devastation of AIDS, eliding the transformative two decades in between, the film is nonetheless incredibly engaging and an important excavation of queer history from a period when primary sources were often hidden, if not destroyed.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 