Category Archives: Releases

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.

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.

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.

Coming to CNN this Sunday, January 3:
JIMMY CARTER: ROCK & ROLL PRESIDENT

Director:
Mary Wharton

World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, AFI Docs, Hot Springs Doc, Vancouver, Victoria

About:
A consideration of the importance of popular music in the life and political career of the former US president.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to VOD this Friday, January 1:
SING ME A SONG

Director:
Thomas Balmès

World Premiere:
Toronto 2019

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Docs Against Gravity, IDFA, AFI Docs, One World, Docville

About:
A follow up to the director’s Bhutan-set film, HAPPINESS.

I previously wrote about the doc here.