Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 12:
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
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.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s American Experience tonight, Monday, January 11:
THE CODEBREAKER
Director:
Chana Gazit
World Premiere:
American Experience (January 2021)
About:
The recently declassified story of an unheralded female cryptanalyst who was instrumental in America’s war effort against Nazi Germany.
Elizebeth Smith Friedman would tell people that during WWII, she held an unassuming role in the US Navy. The truth would not come out until decades after her death, when classified documents would reveal the pivotal role she played as a codebreaker, responsible for foiling Nazi plans to torpedo essential supply ships and for exposing an extensive espionage ring in Latin America. As Chana Gazit’s biography reveals, Friedman was not always out of the public eye, however – she gained a fair amount of celebrity in the 1930s when she was tasked by the US Coast Guard to lead a codebreaking unit to decrypt messages used by organized crime leaders transporting alcohol during Prohibition, and later served as chief witness during the trials that followed against the gangsters. But, during WWII, in the men’s world of the military, despite her expertise in cryptanalysis, Friedman was not permitted to lead her own unit, so she was overshadowed by less experienced men, and her contributions kept strictly classified. Though she would lay the foundation for the NSA, there was no place for her postwar. While Gazit’s film follows the dry American Experience house style, it nevertheless succeeds in giving Friedman her long deserved recognition.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, January 11:
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AMERICA
Director:
Jared Leto
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
About:
July 4, 2017, as experienced across the country.
Coordinating shoots in each US state, plus Puerto Rico, director Jared Leto takes an approach similar to Jeff Deutchman’s two election docs, 11/4/08 and 11/8/16, creating a mosaic of a single day through a series of vignettes. While the previous films were focused on presidential elections, Leto’s more broadly takes the temperature of the country on Independence Day, though not every scene explicitly references this. There is enough patriotism – or, more disturbingly, nationalism and white supremacy – on display to offer a snapshot of America less than a year into the divisive 45th president’s first term, but the film as a whole doesn’t attempt to present an explicit, overarching political message. Instead Leto and his editors offer overly brief vignettes that broadly attempt to capture America’s diversity, often creating dialogue through pointed juxtapositions. By its design, the well–produced doc was never meant to delve deeply into any single particular issue, but its survey structure nevertheless results in a disjointed and not especially satisfying watch as a whole.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Friday, January 8:
THE DISSIDENT
Director:
Bryan Fogel
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, Zurich, Aspen, Savannah, Stockholm
About:
An investigation of the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
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
Coming to virtual cinemas today, Wednesday, January 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.
While still limited to the elite, there are surprisingly more private owners of Rembrandt paintings than one might expect. Filmmaker Oeke Hoogendijk introduces viewers to a handful in her somewhat shambolic art world exploration, such as the amiable Richard Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, who renovates his sitting room to serve as the perfect backdrop for his beloved Rembrandt, Old Woman Reading; Baron Eric de Rothschild, whose Paris home is crammed full of remarkable work, including Portrait of Marten Soolmans and Portrait of Oopjen Coppit, a pair of Rembrandts that are sought by both the Louvre and the Rijksmuseum; and art dealer Jan Six XI, the latest in a family of Rembrandt collectors. Others float in and out of Hoogendijk’s film, which unfortunately has too much of a loose, episodic structure for most of its running time before settling in for the final stretch around a controversy around Six’s discovery (and sale) of a hitherto unknown new work by the Old Master.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 5:
SHE IS THE OCEAN
Director:
Inna Blokhina
World Premiere:
International Ocean Film Festival (2018)
Select Festivals:
San Diego, Santa Cruz, Long Beach, Maui, Honoulu Surf, Worldfest Houston
About:
Profiles of nine girls and women who are connected to the ocean, mostly through surfing.
Filmmaker Inna Blokhina attempts to construct a unified film through a series of unconnected vignettes about various women and how they relate to the ocean, threading the five-year story of Cinta Hansel, a young Balinese girl who is fulfilling her American father’s unrealized dreams of surfing success, throughout the doc. While the intent seems to be a metaphorical trajectory of women’s involvement with the ocean from girlhood to senescence, this doesn’t really come across successfully, given that most of the subjects are within the same age range. Other than Cinta, the subjects, profiled in overly slick sequences with excessive music-video montages, include a young professional surfer who is the daughter of a Hawaiian surfing legend, a shark conservationist who educates the public about the misunderstood species through shark diving tours, a cliff diver who was inspired by her gymnast mother, a ballet dancer who likes to free-dive, an acclaimed barrel surfer, a big wave surfer, the surfing mother of a deceased surf champion, and Sylvia Earle, the noted marine biologist. These profiles are unfortunately too brief to be compelling, and their cumulative effect bears diminishing returns, making this of limited interest to all but die-hard surf film fans.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
