Coming to NatGeo tomorrow, Thursday, October 29 and then to Hulu on Friday, October 30:
CITY SO REAL
Director:
Steve James
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Denver, Chicago, St Louis, Full Frame
About:
An expansive five-part portrait of modern-day Chicago against the backdrop of a contentious mayoral race and police trial.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to The WORLD Channel tonight, Tuesday, October 27:
THE BOOK MAKERS
Director:
James Kennard
World Premiere:
Woods Hole 2020
Select Festivals:
San Francisco DocFest, Port Townsend, Doclands, Mill Valley
About:
A survey of the world of analog bookmaking in a digital age.
While the death knell has supposedly been ringing for book publishing for years now, there are still those who are devoted to the printed book. Filmmaker James Kennard profiles a number of them – too many and for too short a time – as well as authors, illustrators, collectors, and experts in this ode to the love of books and their tactility. Among the interview subjects are a man who spends nearly two years painstakingly setting an archaic letterpress to print a Charles Bukowski cult novel, whose process serves as a running thread through the doc. Others featured include artisans who use creative materials and techniques to re-imagine the very idea of what a book should look like, and how a reader might interact with it, many of which are showcased at San Francisco’s annual CODEX Book Fair, which celebrates the craftsmanship of hand-made books. There’s plenty of eye candy on display for bibliophiles, but the film’s length and format prove frustrating – each profile is too brief and underdeveloped before moving along to the next.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to HBO Max tonight, Tuesday, October 27:
JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE
Director:
Dawn Porter
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2020 (cancelled)
About:
A wide-ranging look at the life, activism, and political career of the esteemed civil rights icon.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel tonight, Monday, October 26:
TIGHTROPE: AMERICANS REACHING FOR HOPE
Director:
Viva Van Loock
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2020
About:
An investigation into America’s epidemics of opioid addiction, poverty, and incarceration.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
How did the idea of “rugged individualism” become a curse for everyday Americans? Distraught over the loss of too many childhood classmates, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn explore the causes and costs of opioid addiction, poverty, and incarceration plaguing America, from the inner city to small towns like Kristof’s hometown of Yamhill, Oregon. While pockets of empathy and aid exist, are they enough to rescue the thousands of Americans in despair, for whom the American Dream of self-reliance is impossibly out of reach?
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, October 26:
REPRESENT
Director:
Hillary Bachelder
World Premiere:
Cleveland 2020
Select Festivals:
Freep, Woods Hole, Maine
About:
Three female political candidates are followed in local elections in Michigan, Ohio, and Illinois.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to Showtime tonight, Friday, October 23:
AMERICAN SELFIE: ONE NATION SHOOTS ITSELF
Director:
Alexandra Pelosi
World Premiere:
Showtime broadcast (October 2020)
About:
A wide-ranging look at a polarized America.
Despite the title of filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi’s project, her documentary isn’t really about selfies, except for an opening segment engaging with tourists in front of Jeff Koons’ Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Instead, she travels across America for about a year, beginning in September 2019, to capture the nation’s division at Trump rallies, environmental protests, pro-gun gatherings, Black Friday sales, the Super Bowl, and a variety of locations related to the pandemic, from grocery stores being emptied of products and funeral homes inundated with victims of the coronavirus to Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to Trump’s reprehensible photo op at St John’s Church. If it’s division she wished to capture, she does so in spades, with many scenes punctuated by angry people yelling at one another. It’s a lot to take in and, frankly, goes on a bit too long, but it is an honest snapshot of what we’ve come to, and an urgent reminder of the role those currently in power have played in fanning these flames of discord for their own benefit.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD this week:
SEAT 20D
Director:
Jill Campbell
World Premiere:
Hamptons Doc Fest 2019
About:
A sculpture project helps a mother reckon with the loss of her son in a terrorist attack.
Alexander Lowenstein was a passenger on Pan Am 103 on December 21, 1988, part of a group of Syracuse University students returning from a semester abroad in London. The plane was destroyed by a terrorist bomb that ultimately claimed 270 victims and came to be known as the Lockerbie bombing. As a way to process her grief, Alexander’s mother, Suse, turned to her artwork, beginning a sculpture of a woman confronted with the death of her child. Reaching out to other families from the Lockerbie bombing, Suse found 75 other mothers who wished to participate. The result, completed over the course of 15 years, is the sculpture garden dubbed Dark Elegy. When focused on Suse and the healing properties of the artistic process, the film is strongest; attempts to bring in other stories, including an overextended sequence with Syracuse University’s Remembrance Scholar program, prove less successful.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD this week:
WHITE NOISE
Director:
Daniel Lambroso
World Premiere:
AFI Docs 2020
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Springs Doc
About:
An up-close look at three media-hungry, white nationalist alt-right influencers.
Following the ascendancy of Trump on a platform of divisiveness, fear mongering, and pandering to the extreme right, filmmaker Daniel Lambroso spent several years gaining impressive access to and the trust of three figures at the center of the alt-right movement: white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, Canadian anti-immigration and anti-feminist blogger Lauren Southern, and conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich. There’s a cynicism that pervades all three distasteful subjects, but none more so than Cernovich, who seems like he’s willing to do or say anything to make money. Southern and Spencer don’t come off much better, equally disingenuous about the real world impact of their words and even contradictory about their beliefs. For some viewers, the very existence of a documentary giving more screentime and attention to these amoral media whores may be deeply problematic, but Lambroso makes it worthwhile, providing just enough rope for them to hang themselves. Still, it’s decidedly a film to hatewatch once and not look back again after it’s wrapped up.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America ReFramed tonight, Tuesday, October 20:
FIRST VOTE
Director:
Yi Chen
World Premiere:
Los Angeles Asian Pacific 2020
Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, CAAMFest, Houston Asian American Pacific Islander, Hawaii, Hot Springs Doc
About:
A profile of several Asian Americans who get involved politically in the 2018 midterm elections.
Filmmaker Yi Chen, herself a first time voter, sets out to understand what experiences shaped the political beliefs of other Asian Americans in the lead up to the 2018 midterm elections. She focuses primarily on North Carolina, where she profiles Sue Googe, a proud gun-toting Chinese immigrant who unsuccessfully runs as a Republican for congress with the message that her background lets her know that socialism doesn’t work and must be stopped. Also in NC are Kasier Kuo, a progressive Democrat who tries to make sense of Chinese support Trump; and Jennifer Ho, a professor and progressive Democrat who leads class discussions focusing on race in America and the perception of Asians. In Ohio, Lance Chen becomes a key organizer for the Republican Party, keeping a database of Chinese Americans and doing grassroots outreach to get their support for Republican candidates. While the filmmaker has identified an intriguing topic that rarely receives much mainstream consideration, her film suffers from its short running time. Its hourlong format but with a trimmed down cast, or a more fleshed out longer cut, would strengthen the project substantially, allowing its individual subjects to make more of an impact. Still, the film provides welcome insight and helps to break down false notions of any kind of monolithic Asian American identity or political consensus.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, October 19:
FEELS GOOD MAN
Director:
Arthur Jones
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
True/False, SXSW, Big Sky Doc, Taipei, Fantasia, Sidewalk, Kyiv
About:
An exploration of the unpredictable development of an influential Internet meme.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
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