Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, July 23:
HAIL SATAN?
Director:
Penny Lane
Premiere:
Sundance 2019
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, Full Frame, San Francisco, What The Fest!?, Salem, Boston Underground, Freep, Sidewalk
About:
A provocative exploration of the separation of church and state through the unlikely rise of the Satanic Temple religious movement.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Starz tonight, Monday, July 22:
THE GREAT MOTHER
Directors:
Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2018
Select Festivals:
Miami, Athena
About:
A portrait of an activist who has become the guardian of immigration orphans.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Nora Sandigo has more than 1000 kids. The fierce immigration activist serves as the legal guardian for US-born children of undocumented immigrants who have been deported. Were it not for her, many would be forced into the foster care system, keeping them legally separated from their parents. Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker’s intimate film profiles this inspiring woman, who not only provides economic, legal, and emotional support for her charges, but lobbies Congress for immigration reform despite an increasingly hostile political climate.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, July 22:
ON HER SHOULDERS
Director:
Alexandria Bombach
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, SXSW, Hot Docs, Sheffield, AFI Docs, Full Frame, Human Rights Watch, SF Jewish, Jerusalem, Dokufest, Melbourne, Sun Valley, Doc 10, Ashland, Cleveland, Kansas City, Sarasota, Montclair, Maryland, Dallas, Nashville, Seattle, Warsaw, Biografilm, Heartland
Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
A look at the burden carried by a young woman as she advocates for her people on the global stage.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres for a special one-night-only engagement via Fathom Events tonight, Monday, July 22:
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Director:
Tom Donahue
World Premiere:
Toronto 2018
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hamptons, Chicago, Martha’s Vineyard, Napa Valley, Stockholm, Miami, Thessaloniki Doc, Docville, Riverrun, Edinburgh
About:
An investigation into the entertainment industry’s long-running problem with gender discrimination.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Tom Donahue’s incisive film gathers a who’s who of female actors and directors for a powerful call to action on elevating women’s roles in film and television, both on and off screen. Meryl Streep, Sandra Oh, Jessica Chastain, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon, Taraji P Henson, and executive producer Geena Davis are among the many powerful agents of change in this rousing documentary full of fresh revelations about Hollywood’s insidious and systemic sexism.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 19:
CASSANDRO, THE EXOTICO!
Director:
Marie Losier
World Premiere:
Cannes 2018 (ACID)
Select Festivals:
IDFA, CPH:DOX, Morelia, Ambulante, Tempo Doc, Mar del Plata, Santa Barbara, Jeonju, São Paulo, Hamburg, San Diego Latino, SF DocFest, Sarasota, Outfest Fusion, BFI Flare
About:
An intimate profile of the “Liberace of lucha libre” as he faces the end of his career.
Lucha libre, of course, is a wildly popular form of wrestling entertainment in Mexico, known for its masked combatants with colorful names and personalities. Perhaps less well-known is the presence of exóticos within the sport, male wrestlers who adopt feminine outfits, hair, and makeup, as well as exaggerated, campy, and stereotypically gay/feminine mannerisms. While often functioning as comic foils, they sometimes take center stage themselves as unlikely heroes in a culture of over the top machismo. Saul Armendariz, better known as Cassandro, the subject of Marie Losier’s warm portrait, is one such luchador, a record-holding champion who sees himself as a pioneer in bringing dignity to gay men within the field. The Texan-born 47-year-old Cassandro has competed within lucha libre for over 25 year, and he has the scars and broken bones to show for it. As Losier follows him over the course of five years, Cassandro reflects on the triumphs and adversities of his life – the latter including abuse suffered while young, and struggles with alcohol and drugs, though he proudly shows off his many years of sobriety to the camera – but soon comes to recognize that his body just can’t take the rigors of the ring any longer. He makes for an affable protagonist, and a surprisingly genuine and vulnerable one, in this well constructed and at times playful film.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD via MUBI this week:
JAMILIA
Director:
Aminatou Echard
World Premiere:
Berlin 2018
Select Festivals:
Cinéma du Réel, Jerusalem, DocumentaMadrid, Vancouver, Open City Docs
About:
An exploration of the cultural impact of a 1958 Kyrgyz novella and its titular heroine.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 19:
DAVID CROSBY: REMEMBER MY NAME
Director:
AJ Eaton
World Premiere:
Sundance 2019
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, SXSW, Santa Barbara, Sun Valley, Seattle, Revelation Perth, Boulder
About:
A candid, warts and all portrait of the rock and roll legend.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to VOD this week:
THE EXPERIMENTAL CITY
Director:
Chad Freidrichs
World Premiere:
Chicago 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Denver, St Louis, Big Sky Doc, Planet in Focus, DC Environmental, Salem, Sarasota, Revelation Perth, Architecture & Design fests in New York City, Washington DC, Los Angles, Rotterdam, Milan, Zurich, Copenhagen, and New Orleans
About:
A chronicle of an almost successful attempt to build the city of the future.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the 1960s, frustrated by the growing problem of urban pollution, Athelstan Spilhaus, a visionary scientist and futurist comic strip writer, assembled a team of experts to develop a bold experiment: the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC). MXC would be the city of the future, a domed metropolis for 250,000 pioneering residents, built from scratch and using cutting-edge technology to prevent urban sprawl and pollution. Things didn’t quite go as planned, as explored in Chad Friedrichs’ fascinating look back at the would-be city of tomorrow.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS tomorrow, Wednesday, July 17:
8 DAYS: TO THE MOON AND BACK
Director:
Anthony Philipson
World Premiere:
BBC broadcast (July 2019)
About:
An immersive revisitation of the Apollo 11 mission.
This PBS presentation may very well be the last of a veritable subgenre of Apollo documentaries released this year, all timed, of course, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of mankind setting foot on the moon. In some ways, director Anthony Philipson’s project is similar to both Todd Douglas Miller’s epic APOLLO 11 and Tom Jennings’ APOLLO: MISSIONS TO THE MOON, in that it puts heavy focus on archival material. Unlike both of those takes on the Apollo mission, however, this one chooses to incorporate extensive dramatized re-enactments to supplement extant material. In practice, this amounts to actors portraying Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Mike Collins lip-synching actual audio recordings of conversations between them and Mission Control. It’s frankly an odd stylistic choice, and one which viewers may find to be distracting more often than not. Leaving that aside, Philipson is more successful at weaving together the audio with actual mission footage, as well as Walter Cronkite’s useful CBS News coverage of those historic eight days in space. As the former plays out, particularly, of course, the lunar landing and return to Earth, the film does achieve its intended immersive impact, resulting in an at times absorbing watch that would seem to approximate the experience of watching the events on those days back in 1969.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16:
ROBERT SHAW: MAN OF MANY VOICES
Directors:
Pamela Roberts and Peter Miller
World Premiere:
Atlanta Symphony Hall (April 2016)
Select Festivals:
Newport Beach, San Diego Jewish, Breckenridge
About:
An appreciation of acclaimed conductor Robert Shaw.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
