New to VOD this week:
MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY
Directors:
Morgan Capps and Jilann Spitzmiller
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
Tallgrass, BendFilm, Santa Fe, Denver
About:
The story of the inexplicably popular Santa Fe-based artist collective.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow Friday, May 24 and to Rooftop Films this Saturday, May 25:
RUNNING WITH BETO
Director:
David Modigliani
Premiere:
SXSW 2019
Select Festivals:
Seattle, IFF Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Full Frame, Dallas,
About:
A candid behind-the-scenes look at Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 campaign for US Senate.
Beto O’Rourke was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2012, representing Texas as a Democrat. He won re-election to two more terms, but instead of seeking re-election last year, he challenged Republican incumbent Ted Cruz for the US Senate. While viewed by many as a fool’s errand given the state’s deep-seated red leanings, the charismatic Everyman shocked naysayers with a campaign that very nearly unseated his regressive opponent, demonstrating that Texas may not be as much of a lock for the Republicans as believed, and brought O’Rourke to national prominence, clearing the way for his current 2020 US Presidential bid. None of this will come as a surprise to anyone watching David Modigliani’s film – as with most campaign docs, the outcome is already known, so what matters is how the story is told and how close one gets to the candidate. Here, the approach is fairly straightforward, but Modigliani benefits from a subject who comes off as genuine, likeable, and optimistic – a mean feat for a politician. In addition, the filmmaker profiles several individuals working on the campaign, providing welcome new personalities to round out the proceedings as they barrel down to the inevitable results of election night, and highlighting how O’Rourke’s campaign has opened the door for potential progressive change in Texas and beyond.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres this Friday, May 24:
THE PROPOSAL
Director:
Jill Magid
Premiere:
Tribeca 2018
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sheffield, Rotterdam, Dokufest, New Orleans, Camden, Docaviv, Docs Against Gravity, Ambulante, Antenna, RIDM, Palm Springs, Hamptons, Vancouver, Göteborg, Portland, Salem, DocPoint
About:
The artist/filmmaker engages in a polite battle of wills over access to – and the legacy of – a celebrated Mexican architect’s work.
The culmination of a five-year project that has included art installations, exhibitions, and publications, Jill Magid’s first feature interrogates the contested legacy of Luis Barragán. Barragán, a well-respected Mexican architect, died in 1988, and eventually, his family sold his archive, name, and work to a private Swiss corporation, Vitra. Supposedly, the purchase was made by Vitra’s Rolf Fehlbaum as a gift to his then-fianceé, Federica Zanco, but, in Magid’s view, Vitra consistently has blocked access to Barragán’s work by pretty much anyone, including other artists or scholars, and she has used this as the basis for her multi-year, multi-media project. Taking a personal, essayistic approach, the artist chronicles her correspondence with Zanco, the archive’s director, while traveling through Mexico and elsewhere, tracing Barragán’s steps and concocting an audacious offer of her own to rival Fehlbaum’s alleged grand gesture to Zanco. While the conceit of the film – and Magid’s constant presence – may wear some viewer’s patience thin, its larger themes remain fascinating enough to more or less excuse its shortcomings.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres this Friday, May 24:
WOODSTOCK: THREE DAYS THAT DEFINED A GENERATION
Director:
Barak Goodman
Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
Select Festivals:
Seattle, DocLands
About:
An immersive reflection on how organizers defied the odds to stage the seminal music event.
While Woodstock has become an iconic event in the history of music and of the 1960s counterculture, the fuller background on the happening’s origins may not be quite as well known. Barak Goodman’s masterful project revisits the 1969 concert and its planning, placing viewers in the midst of the action via remarkable archival visual footage and present-day audio commentary from organizers, attendees, and performers. From John Roberts and Joel Rosenman’s original plans to the idea’s rapid spread, the securing of and loss of the original setting to locating the eventual site of Max Yasgur’s Bethel farm, the overwhelming logistics to the need for support from the local community, this new doc draws the audience back to those three eventful days in August that capped off the tumultuous sixties and defined a generation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres via Fathom Events for one night only tomorrow, Thursday, May 23:
THE COLD BLUE
Director:
Erik Nelson
Premiere:
AFI Docs 2018
Select Festivals:
New York, Traverse City
About:
A meditation on war composed of archival film of B-17 bombers shot by William Wyler.
Constructed from the recently rediscovered raw color footage shot by William Wyler for his classic 1944 documentary THE MEMPHIS BELLE, Erik Nelson’s project brings together survivors of the Eight Air Force to reflect on their experiences of WWII. For the bulk of the film, excerpts of Wyler’s striking footage plays while veteran airmen offer audio commentary, sometimes instructive, other times poignantly personal, and occasionally darkly humorous. For its coda, Nelson turns the camera onto some of his subjects, contrasting the nonagenarians with archival photos in their military prime, and gently interviewing them about their perception of the sacrifices they made. Organized into titled sections that also provide brief statistics or facts about the missions flown and the dangers faced, the film has a somewhat episodic feel, but manages to remain engaging despite this, buoyed by its breathtaking visuals.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Reel South this Thursday, May 23:
INGRID
Director:
Morrisa Maltz
Premiere:
Slamdance 2018
Select Festivals:
Atlanta, Rhode Island, Bend, Hot Springs Doc, Virginia, Cucalorus
About:
A portrait of a woman who gave up her conventional life to become a hermit artist.
Ingrid Gipson had a successful career as a fashion designer in Dallas in the 1980s, but gave up her career – and her children – to move off the grid to live alone on a farm in Oklahoma. Now 74 years old, the German immigrant is observed in her daily routines, from taking care of her livestock to making art out of nature. Maltz’s project is beautifully shot and deliberately paced, conveying a fascination for her intriguing protagonist. That said, while still somewhat appealing, at under an hour, the film never digs deep enough to become a satisfying whole.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Photograph by Judy Teller
Director:
Sasha Waters Freyer
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
San Francisco, New Zealand, Thin Line, Vancouver, Haifa
About:
A history and appreciation of acclaimed street photographer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 21:
LOS VIEJOS (THE OLDIES)
Director:
Rosana Matecki
Premiere:
Guadalajara 2018
Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Miami, MICGénero, Boston Latino, DC Caribbean, Belize, DOK.Fest Munich, Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano
About:
A portrait of three elderly Cuban musicians.
Set in Santa Clara, Rosana Matecki’s warm film follows three aging musicians as they contend with the realities of aging on their bodies while reflecting on their past and the key role music played in their lives. As subjects Zaida, Candido, and Bringuez continue to stay active, performing their traditional Cuban music as best they can, they demonstrate a passion that defies age and that allows them to face the change that comes with each day. At the same time, the project serves as a thematic meditation on Cuba itself, where the long-standing embargo from the US has resulted in a kind of cultural time warp of sorts, and, at least for a moment, appeared to be poised for radical change before the current US presidential administration’s regressive policies.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, May 20:
WRESTLE
Director:
Suzannah Herbert
Co-Director:
Lauren Belfer
Premiere:
San Francisco 2018
About:
An intimate look at a Huntsville AL high school wrestling team.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Pacific Heartbeat tomorrow, Saturday, May 18:
PRISON SONGS
Director:
Kelrick Martin
Premiere:
Australian TV (January 2015)
Select Festivals:
imagneNATIVE, Human Rights Arts & Film
About:
Aboriginal Australian inmates reveal their lives through music.
Shot entirely behind prison walls in Darwin, Australia, Kelrick Martin’s project profiles the lives of both male and female prisoners of Aboriginal background in the overcrowded Berrimah Prison. Professional composers took the latters’ own words from intimate interviews to craft revealing songs about the common, systemic issues Aboriginal individuals still face and that contribute to statistically outsized rates of incarceration – a similar conceit as used in the 2006 Sundance doc SONGBIRDS by Brian Hill about female prisoners in the UK. The result is nicely shot and well meaning, let down somewhat by the propensity to use Auto-Tune in the arrangements and some attempts to integrate goofy humor.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 