Category Archives: Releases

Coming to PBS’s AfroPop tonight, Monday, January 21:
MAMA AFRICA

Director:
Mika Kaurismäki

Premiere:
Berlin 2011

Select Festivals:
Tribeca, Hot Docs, Sheffield, Biografilm, Edinburgh, Jerusalem, Seattle, Midnight Sun, Vancouver, Athens, Milan

About:
A portrait of the celebrated South African musician and human rights activist.

Miriam Makeba emerged in the late 1950s as a singer with international crossover appeal, mentored by Harry Belafonte. She used her success as a platform to speak out against apartheid, forcing her into exile from South Africa for three decades. When she became involved with the American civil rights movement, marrying one of its high-profile leaders, Stokely Carmichael, US support waned for a time, but her career continued internationally and found a resurgence after the end of apartheid. Kaurismäki’s doc, which debuted a few years after Makeba’s death in 2008, is a conventional profile that feels too truncated to fully pay the icon her due, but is a respectable primer to encourage viewers to seek out more on their own.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 18:
WHO WILL WRITE OUR HISTORY

Director:
Roberta Grossman

Premiere:
San Francisco Jewish 2018

Select Festivals:
Rome, Heartland, Jewish fests in New York, Jerusalem, Miami, San Diego, Atlanta, Rutgers, and Wilmington

About:
The hidden history of a secret archive created by Jews within the Warsaw Ghetto.

Recognizing the dangerous times in which they lived, a clandestine group of scholars, journalists, and community leaders set out to document Jewish lives in the Warsaw Ghetto and to collect their history so that it was not written for them by the Nazi propaganda machine. Adhering to strict protocols of secrecy, only three members of the group, known as Oyneg Shabes, knew the underground location of the archive. Remarkably, one of these survived the war, allowing two of the three caches to be uncovered. Grossman’s film reveals the story behind what has become known as the Ringelblum Archive, named after Emanuel Ringelblum, the historian who spearheaded the dangerous mission. In addition to using rare archival footage, the film incorporates re-enactments and narration culled from historical documents. While the narrations are largely successful, the dramatized scenes are unnecessary and lend an old-fashioned air to what is otherwise a compelling work of nonfiction history.

New to DVD this week:
UNFINISHED PLAN: THE PATH OF ALAIN JOHANNES

Director:
Rodolfo Gárate

Premiere:
In-Edit Chile 2016

Select Festivals:
Guadalajara

About:
A portrait of a respected but largely under-appreciated musician and how he has coped with great loss.

Alain Johannes has collaborated with heavier hitters in the music world since the early 1990s, most notably Soundgarden, but his own ventures have seen more modest successes, never cracking through into the mainstream. His longest lasting endeavor, Eleven, was in collaboration with his soulmate Natasha Shneider. Gárate’s workmanlike film traces Alain’s musical career, with particular emphasis on his work with Natasha until her sudden and unexpected death from cancer in 2005, and on Alain’s hard time dealing with her loss, finally exorcised in some small way through new music he creates in her memory. Alain also connects with his long-absent father, a musician in Chile, returns to Chile after four decades, and plays for his fanbase there – but then must contend with the deaths of his mother and his newly rediscovered father within weeks of one another. While this project will resonate with die-hard music fans, it’s doesn’t particularly work those who do not already know Johannes. Gárate spends far too much time spotlighting Johannes’ music, treating him like he’s a household name, rather than highlighting the emotional elements of his story that would engender more universal connection.

New to DVD/VOD this week:
OLANCHO

Directors:
Chris Valdes and Ted Griswold

Premiere:
Big Sky Doc 2017

Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Rotterdam, DocsMX, SF Docfest, Viennale, In-Edit, Brooklyn, Latino fests in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Toulouse

About:
A portrait of a Honduran farmer turned narco-corridos musician.

In Olancho, known as the most dangerous state in Honduras, the band Los Plebes de Olancho sing narco-corridos, folk songs valorizing their drug lord sponsors. When one of their songs ends up offending a dangerous cartel, band member Manuel, a farmer, fearing violence, is forced to flee to the US as an undocumented refugee, separated from his family, homeland, and band. Valdes and Griswold compose an intimate, if humble, profile – one that explores a not-atypical story of so-called illegal immigration motivated by cartel violence and lack of security.