Category Archives: Releases

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s AfroPoP today, Monday, April 12:
FINDING SALLY

Director:
Tamara Mariam Dawit

World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2020

Select Festivals:
DOXA, Encounters, Durban, CinemAfrica, NY African Diaspora

About:
The director seeks to unearth the story of an aunt she’s never heard of before.

After Tamara Mariam Dawit, the daughter of an Ethiopian man and Canadian woman, moves to her father’s homeland to reconnect with her father’s side of the family, she learns of the existence of a long-absent aunt, Selamawit, known affectionately as Sally. While Sally’s sisters are surprised by Dawit’s claims that they’ve never spoken about Sally in front of her, it’s clear that their lost sister’s story is a painful one. Interviewing each of her aunts, as well as other family friends, Dawit delves not only into Sally’s story, but that of Ethiopia’s tumultuous history. Though presented as something of a mystery, Sally’s story is well known, up to a point, by her family, the offspring of a respected diplomat for Emperor Haile Selassie’s government. Sally was involved in the student movement that opposed Selassie as well as the more radical Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party that was targeted as an enemy by the repressive military junta that forced the emperor from power in 1974. Sally went into hiding, but the family eventually learned of her death, though they never knew the exact circumstances. To her credit, the filmmaker’s investigation uncovers this missing part of the story, bringing closure to Sally’s sisters. While Dawit’s filmmaking is very basic and conventional, and especially marred by slow, unengaging, and too present expository narration, she does manage to broaden an intimate personal story through a wider consideration of Ethiopia’s fraught history.

New to VOD this week:
SAM & MATTIE MAKE A ZOMBIE MOVIE

Director:
Jesse Suchmann, Bobby Carnevale

World Premiere:
VOD release (April 2021)

About:
Best friends with Down syndrome rally their entire town to help them make a film.

Sam Suchmann and Mattie Zufelt met at the Special Olympics and became best friends. They long dreamt of making their own movie – an over the top, bloody horror film called Spring Break Zombie Massacre – and solicited the help of Sam’s brother Jesse, who brought in his friend Bobby. Together, they sought funding on Kickstarter, and, eventually, drew in basically their entire community, with Sam and Mattie making all of the creative decisions. While producing that film, Jesse and Bobby also chronicled the process, resulting in this sweet but messy making of doc, which also includes the full 45 min SPRING BREAK ZOMBIE MASSACRE. Sam and Mattie are charismatic and funny, making it easy to understand how their mission went viral, got them booked on CONAN, and found celebrity supporters like Peter Farrelly. That said, the doc, like Sam and Mattie’s own film, struggles in its pacing and length, underlining that the filmmakers were so close to the material that they failed to kill some of their darlings. Still, as a whole, the project is appealing and successfully captures the joy that the young filmmakers felt in realizing their project, as well as the goodwill of all of those who showed up to work with them.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 6:
MY REMBRANDT

Director:
Oeke Hoogendijk

World Premiere:
IDFA 2019

Select Festivals:
Docs Against Gravity, Montclair, Vancouver, GlobeDocs, Docville, Cologne

About:
Profiles of various owners – private and institutional – of works by the Old Master.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to The WORLD Channel’s AfroPoP today, Monday, April 5:
MAMA GLORIA

Director:
Luchina Fisher

World Premiere:
Chicago 2020

Select Festivals:
Athena, BFI Flare, Oxford, Kansas City

About:
A profile of a pioneering Black transwoman.

Growing up Black and gender nonconforming on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s, Gloria Allen suffered dearly in her early years, facing brutal violence and rape in high school. Despite this, she found support and acceptance from her mother and grandmother, as well as from the vibrant community of the city’s drag ball culture, and professional fulfillment as a nurse. In more recent years, recognizing her relative good fortune and the serious challenges faced by her trans sisters, Allen began offering charm school classes for young homeless trans women, passing on the lessons she learned from her mother and grandmother to instill self-confidence and pride. As an older trans woman of color, Allen is a notably worthwhile subject for a portrait, but one wishes the film were stronger as a whole. Feeling at times like a filmed oral history, Luchina Fisher’s doc lacks polish and visual interest, and is buoyed primarily by Allen’s positivity and charm.