photo by Ashly Covington
Director:
Amy Adrion
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
SXSW, San Francisco, Sarasota, Newport Beach, Inside Out, Greenwich, Lighthouse, Sydney
About:
A survey of the current state of gender bias in Hollywood filmmaking.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
photo by Pierre Verdy
Director:
Lorna Tucker
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
True/False, CPH:DOX, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Provincetown, Cleveland
About:
A candid profile of the uncompromising British designer.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, June 8:
THE WORKERS CUP
Director:
Adam Sobel
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, Sheffield, It’s All True, Docs Against Gravity, Vilnius, Doc Edge, Human Rights Watch, Sydney, Zurich, Carthage, Cinema Verité, Palm Springs
About:
Migrant workers building Qatar’s World Cup infrastructure compete in their own soccer tournament.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tomorrow, Friday, June 8:
WRESTLE
Director:
Suzannah Herbert
Co-Director:
Lauren Belfer
Premiere:
San Francisco 2018
About:
An intimate look at a Huntsville AL high school wrestling team.
JO Johnson High School is a struggling institution in a state which already typically has low test scores and graduation rates. Against the odds, social studies teacher Chris Scribner forms a wrestling team that gives its students hope. Herbert and Belfer’s film focuses on four of his team members – Jamario, Teague, Jailen, and Jaquan – whose trials on the mat are nothing compared to what they face in their personal lives, impacted by class and race. As they contend with absent parents and dysfunctional families, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and racial profiling – on top of the universal struggle of adolescents to assert their independence – these young athletes seek focus and control through Scribner’s team, but they don’t always beat the odds. Though at times feeling like it has one subject too many, with varying levels of engagement and responsiveness from its protagonists, the film ultimately remains compelling in its empathetic and intimate coming of age portrait of four young adults striving to better themselves and their situation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
photo by Jim Judkis
Director:
Morgan Neville
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, SXSW, True/False, San Francisco, Montclair, Seattle, Cleveland, Minneapolis St Paul, Wisconsin, Boulder, Miami
About:
A moving exploration of the enduring impact of children’s television show host Fred Rogers on generations of viewers through his pioneering program, MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Thursday, June 7:
TO A MORE PERFECT UNION
Director:
Donna Zaccaro
Premiere:
Woodstock 2017
Select Festivals:
Nashville, Rocky Mountain Women’s, Inside Out, LGBT fests in Boston and Miami
About:
The decades-long love between a lesbian couple serves to revisit the story of marriage equality in the US.
Zaccaro’s hour-long film focuses on Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, a couple whose story was already told in 2009’s EDIE & THEA: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT by filmmakers Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir. As recounted there, Edie and Thea, who met in the early 1960s, finally married in 2007, after decades as community activists. Covering much of the same territory for its background about their lives and the saga of same sex marriage, this film continues their story after Thea passed away in 2009. Facing estate taxes because her marriage rights were not recognized by the federal government, Edie took to the courts, ultimately facing off against DOMA in the case which lends this film its subtitle and which overturned that shortsighted, discriminatory law. While Edie is without question a pioneer and a hero, this project unfortunately feels like a bit of an also-ran given the familiarity of her story from the previous film and that of the defeat of DOMA from various docs on the subject of same sex marriage in recent years.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to DVD and VOD this week:
THE FABULOUS ALLAN CARR
Director:
Jeffrey Schwarz
Premiere:
Seattle 2018
Select Festivals:
Frameline, Outfest, Inside Out, QDoc, NewFest, Hot Springs Doc, Key West, LGBT fests in Boston, Melbourne, Atlanta, Palm Springs, Fresno, Durham, Dublin, Houston, Denver, Cleveland, and Halifax
About:
The story of the flamboyant entertainment impresario behind GREASE and CAN’T STOP THE MUSIC.
Though never a household name, for several decades, Allan Carr was the ultimate, if unlikely, Hollywood insider and power player. He demonstrated a savvy sense of marketing, responsible for Oscar campaigns for well-respected films like THE DEER HUNTER, while also serving as talent manager and producer, reaping the sizeable benefits of properties like GREASE, and even Broadway hits like LA CAGE AUX FOLLES until bad decisions, most notably the infamously poorly received 1989 Academy Awards ceremony he produced, led to a carer freefall. With both humor and respect, Schwarz and an assemblage of famed collaborators and admirers entertaingly recount how the eccentric, effeminate Carr got into the business, initially through theatre and later television, and how he parlayed success in these endeavors to conquer Hollywood, benefitting from a penchant for self-promotion and throwing outlandish parties.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, June 5:
DEFINING HOPE
Director:
Carolyn Jones
Premiere:
Heartland 2017
About:
A look at palliative care in America.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 5:
COACH JAKE
Director:
ian Phillips
Premiere:
Urbanworld 2017
Select Festivals:
Heartland, Bushwick, Yonkers, Reel Recovery
About:
A portrait of NYC’s winningest coach as he contemplates mortality and his legacy.
Martin Jacobson, known affectionately by his soccer players at Manhattan’s Martin Luther King Jr High School as Coach Jake, joined the troubled school in 1994. During his long tenure he has logged more wins than any other high school soccer coach in the city. As recounted in Phillips primarily congratulatory profile, he did so after beating a decade-long addiction to heroin which left him with hepatitis C, seemingly replacing one addiction for the thrill of winning. As the affable but imperfect septuagenarian hopes to bring his latest team to the championships, he reflects on the good and bad parts of his life – from mentoring his largely immigrant-background players to perhaps dropping the ball with his own kids – and how he keeps on going.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, June 1:
NOSSA CHAPE
Directors:
Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist
Co-Director:
Julian Duque
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
Montclair, Kicking & Screening
About:
A Brazilian soccer club reckons with a devastating tragedy.
In 2016, the underdog Associação Chapecoense de Futebol was poised to put their small Brazilian city on the map, having experienced a record season and qualifying for the nation’s top-ranked division. But en route to Medellín, Colombia for an important match, their charter airplane crashed, killing 19 members of the team. With just three athletes surviving, and those with serious injuries, the club and its family members face an uncertain future. The Zimbalists and Duque follow their efforts to rebuild, bringing on a new coach who controversially wants to forge ahead, recruiting new players who don’t gel as well as the lost team, and following the physical and emotional aftermath of the survivors. Surviving athletes struggle through physical rehabilitation with the hope of playing again, as well as with survivor’s guilt, while family members seek compensation for the loss of their loved ones. While taking a fairly conventional approach to storytelling, the filmmakers are able to convey the deep sense of loss felt by the team and community, creating a welcome and impactful emotional resonance that lifts this above most standard sports docs.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 