New to VOD this week:
THE PENNY BLACK
Director:
Joe Saunders
World Premiere:
Slamdance 2020
Select Festivals:
St Louis, Newport Beach
About:
A man searches for his shady neighbor, who entrusted him with a valuable stamp collection before mysteriously vanishing.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 1:
THE SOUND OF IDENTITY
Director:
James Kicklighter
World Premiere:
Macon 2020
Select Festivals:
OutShine, Desperado
About:
A profile of Lucia Lucas at the Tulsa Opera, which marked the first time an openly trans woman performed in a principal role.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 1:
JULIA SCOTTI: FUNNY THAT WAY
Director:
Susan Sandler
World Premiere:
Nantucket 2020
Select Festivals:
NewFest, Athena, Sebastopol Doc, Austin LGBT
About:
Decades after appearing on bills with Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock, trans stand-up comic Julia Scotti returns to the stage.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to Discovery+ and OWN in two parts, tonight, Tuesday, June 1 and next Tuesday, June 8:
THE LEGACY OF BLACK WALL STREET
Director:
Deborah Riley Draper
World Premiere:
Discovery+/OWN broadcast (June 2021)
About:
A commemoration of the legacy of Tulsa OK’s Greenwood District which focuses on celebrating the Black pioneers who built Black Wall Street and who have inspired the present-day Black community.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, June 1:
THE FALCONER
Director:
Annie Kaempfer
World Premiere:
Mill Valley 2020
Select Festivals:
Big Sky Doc, BendFilm, Thin Line, Washington DC Environmental, Atlanta
About:
A portrait of one of the few African-American falconers in the United States, as he passes on his love of the sport to the next generation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 1:
STRAY
Director:
Elizabeth Lo
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, London, Bergen, RIDM, Stockholm, San Diego Asian
About:
A dogs’-eye view of Istanbul.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to CNN tonight, Monday, May 31:
DREAMLAND: THE BURNING OF BLACK WALL STREET
Director:
Salima Koroma
World Premiere:
CNN broadcast (May 2021)
About:
An exploration of the history of the Black cultural renaissance that existed in the Greenwood district of Tulsa OK, and the race massacre of late May and June 1921 that that left an indelible, though too-long ignored, stain on American history.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS tonight, Monday, May 31:
TULSA: THE FIRE AND THE FORGOTTEN
Director:
Jonathan Silvers
World Premiere:
Human Rights Watch online preview (April-May 2021)
About:
An examination of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre on the 100th anniversary of the crime and in the context of other racial massacres and police killings.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 28:
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
Director:
Jen Rainin
Co-Director:
Rivkah Beth Medow
World Premiere:
Frameline 2020
Select Festivals:
NewFest, Outfest, Image+Nation, Athena, Cleveland
About:
A triumphant chronicle of historic lesbian publication Curve Magazine and its trailblazing founder.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 28:
FIVE YEARS NORTH
Director:
Zach Ingrasci, Chris Temple
World Premiere:
Full Frame 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Seattle, Mountainfilm
About:
An exploration of the complexity of the immigration debate through the stories of an undocumented Guatemalan teenager and a Cuban-American ICE agent.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
After making the dangerous journey from his native Guatemala to New York City, 15-year-old Luis struggles to balance attending school and finding work to support his family back home. Meanwhile, Judy, a Cuban-American ICE agent, faces her own internal conflict with the shifting enforcement priorities of her longtime career, from targeting criminals to nonviolent undocumented individuals. As these two worlds near a collision, their parallel tales present a complex and nuanced take on both immigration and civic duty.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 