Coming to Starz
beginning this Sunday, August 26:
AMERICA TO ME
Director:
Steve James
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Full Frame, AFI Docs, Middlebury
About:
An intimate docuseries exploring the intersection of race and educational achievement over a year in a diverse suburban Chicago-area high school.
I profiled the series pre-Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, August 24:
HOT TO TROT
Director:
Gail Freedman
Premiere:
Frameline 2017
Select Festivals:
NewFest, Documentary Edge, LGBT fests in Boston, Atlanta, and London
About:
A profile of same-sex competitive ballroom dancers.
Freedman’s film follows two pairs of dancers: Gay male dancer Ernesto, who begins with dancing partner Robbie, but must shift gears when the latter must contend with a health emergency, and takes on new teammate Nikolai; and lesbians Emily and Kieran. Notably, neither pairs are romantically linked, but working in tandem, they develop a unique intimacy. With same-sex dancers barred from mainstream ballroom competitions due to proscribed rules about men leading and women following, these Freds and Gingers instead show their moves on the niche same-sex circuit, represented here primarily through Oakland’s April Follies and the Gay Games. Unfortunately, the film actually doesn’t adequately permit the dancers to strut their stuff – despite a subject matter that lends itself to action and vibrancy, there’s surprisingly little dance here, and what is shown is filmed fairly perfunctorily. Instead of focusing on the competition, Freedman opts to go for portraiture – a not unreasonable decision, given the surfeit of mediocre competition docs made each year – but her protagonists just aren’t particularly compelling absent dance, making for a fairly forgettable run down of their coming out stories, health issues, and the like.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, August 24:
THE OSLO DIARIES
Directors:
Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Seattle, Jerusalem, Global Peace, Biografilm, Documentary Edge, Jewish festivals in San Francisco, Boston, Toronto, and London
About:
An unprecedented behind the scenes look at the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres and to Hulu tomorrow, Friday, August 24:
CRIME + PUNISHMENT
Director:
Stephen Maing
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, True/False, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Doc10, Full Frame, BAMcinemaFest, Ashland, Sarasota, Thin Line, Montclair, Nashville, Seattle, Shanghai, Traverse City, Martha’s Vineyard, NY Asian American, Southern Fried, Houston Latino
About:
Whistleblowing police officers attempt to expose a corrupt NYPD.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, August 24:
MAKALA
Director:
Emmanuel Gras
Premiere:
Cannes 2017
Select Festivals:
Karlovy Vary, Toronto, London, Busan, IDFA, CPH:DOX, True/False, Thessaloniki Doc, New Directors/New Films, Poland’s New Horizons, Palm Springs, Goteborg, Tokyo, Hamburg, Vienna
About:
A young Congolese man embarks on a Sisyphean trek to sell charcoal.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
DO YOU TRUST THIS COMPUTER?
Director:
Chris Paine
Premiere:
Regency Village Theater, Westwood (April 2018)
Select Festivals:
CinemAmbiente
About:
An exploration of the current and potential impact of artificial intelligence on the world.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Logo TV tomorrow, Thursday, August 23:
QUIET HEROES
Directors:
Jenny Mackenzie, Jared Ruga, and Amanda Stoddard
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Frameline, BFI Flare, Portland QDoc, TLVFest
About:
A tribute to the only medical professionals in Utah who would treat patients with AIDS in the early years of the epidemic.
My pre-Sundance profile may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, August 22:
JOHN MCENROE: IN THE REALM OF PERFECTION
Director:
Julien Faraut
Premiere:
Berlin 2018
Select Festivals:
Cinema du Reel, Art of the Real, Seattle, deadCenter, Las Vegas, Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, Provincetown, Jerusalem, Jeonju
About:
The athlete’s 1984 French Open performance illustrates an essay on the linkage between tennis and cinema.
Though its title might suggest a conventional biographical portrait, Faraut’s unconventional film is anything but. While its titular subject ends up being the project’s focal point, the film signals its unusual approach in its set up, highlighting not McEnroe, but the work of Gil de Kermadec, an instructional filmmaker for France’s Institut National du Sport et de l’Education Physique. Faraut himself has a background at the INSEP, informing this analysis bridging the worlds of sport and cinema. He draws first from de Kermadec’s almost comic how-to-play-tennis films and then from footage of McEnroe on the courts to demonstrate the pro’s unpredictable style and infamous rage. At the same time, the filmmaker, through the playful – sometimes too much so – narration by Mathieu Amalric, builds a not altogether convincing argument about the parallels between filmmaking and tennis, involving meditations on movement, time, perception, and, ultimately, storytelling, with McEnroe in the role of auteur. The culmination is a deep and occasionally repetitive parsing of McEnroe’s legendary disappointment at the finals of the 1984 French Open. While the film’s drollness gives way to pretension at times, there’s a distinct pleasure in witnessing McEnroe’s masterful game from such a hyper-focused perspective, even for non-fans.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, August 21:
LARGER THAN LIFE: THE KEVYN AUCOIN STORY
Director:
Tiffany Bartok
Premiere:
Hamptons 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Full Frame, Cleveland, Edinburgh
About:
A portrait of a too-soon-departed fashion world pioneer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, August 21:
WE’RE STILL HERE: JOHNNY CASH’S BITTER TEARS REVISITED
Director:
Antonino D’Ambrosio
Premiere:
Austin 2015
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Big Sky Doc, Biografilm, Belfast, Martha’s Vineyard, Noise Pop, Red Nation, American Indian Film Festival
About:
A reflection on Johnny Cash’s controversial 1964 concept album in support of the struggles of Native Americans.
D’Ambrosio’s midlength documents the recording of 2014’s Look Again to the Wind: Johnny Cash’s Bitter Tears Revisited, a tribute album on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Cash’s Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian. But beyond the standard behind the scenes footage and recording sessions that will primarily appeal to fans of the participating musicians and Cash adherents, the film also provides the fascinating, insightful, and troubled history of the original project, broadening the scope and audience for D’Ambrosio’s doc. Cash’s Bitter Tears marked a departure for the country singer, taking on an explicitly political topic in the form of a concept album – a form not fully appreciated at that point in time – that addressed the historical and ongoing oppression of Native people. As present-day musicians put their own spin on the album’s eight songs, their meaning and the reaction to the release is recounted, from outrage from fans accusing Cash of turning away from his country root to embrace folk activism, to outright censorship from the music industry who seemed deadset to deny the promotion of Native American issues.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 