Category Archives: Releases

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, May 11 and to Starz on Monday, May 14:
WHAT HAUNTS US

Director:
Paige Goldberg Tolmach

Premiere:
Boston 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Washington West, Boulder, Austin, Sedona

About:
A personal investigation into the reasons behind a string of suicides from the same school.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Why are the men of Charleston SC’s Porter Gaud School killing themselves? Alarmed by the latest in a long-running series of suicides from her high school in 1979, filmmaker Paige Goldberg Tolmach returns to her hometown for answers. Stonewalled by administrators, she mines her own memories, and those of her former classmates, to uncover long-held secrets, revealing a disturbing cover-up centered around a popular teacher and sports coach.

New to VOD this week:
TOTO AND HIS SISTERS

Director:
Alexander Nanau

Premiere:
San Sebastian 2014

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Tribeca, Transilvania, Sarajevo, Camden, Flahertiana, Yamagata Doc, DOK.fest Munich, Dok Leipzig, Zurich, Warsaw, Stockholm, Vilnius

About:
In Bucharest, a pre-teen and his sisters cope with their mother’s imprisonment for drugs.

Taking a strictly observational approach, Nanau provides viewers with a remarkably intimate look at the lives of Roma siblings Toto (10), Andreea (14), and Ana (17). Though theoretically in the care of their uncles, the latter’s drug use has meant that the trio basically have been forced to raise themselves while their mother is serving out a seven-year drug sentence. Over the months covered in the film, young Toto seeks some sense of joy in an otherwise harrowing environment through his love of hip-hop dance, while middle sister Andreea takes up the slack in keeping him safe after eldest Ana seems fated to continue the dead end cycle of drugs. While never sugar-coating the bleak circumstances of this marginalized family, this exceptionally crafted film nevertheless is well able to demonstrate the younger children’s amazing resilience despite the uncertainty of their futures.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 8:
FINDING OSCAR

Director:
Ryan Suffern

Premiere:
Telluride 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Boulder, Mill Valley, Sedona, Sun Valley, United Nations Association, Austin

About:
Investigators seek justice for the victims of a state-sponsored Guatemalan massacre.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 8:
HUMAN FLOW

Director:
Ai Weiwei

Premiere:
Venice 2017

Select Festivals:
Telluride, Hamptons, Mill Valley, Haifa, Atlantic

About:
An overarching view of the global refugee crisis.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed this coming Tuesday, May 8:
FINDING KUKAN

Director:
Robin Lung

Premiere:
Hawaii 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, CAAMFest, IFF Boston, Los Angeles Asian Pacific, Seattle, Asian/Asian American fests in Boston, Atlanta, Vancouver, Philadelphia, San Diego, DC

About:
An investigation into the true origins of a lost documentary about China.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
KUKAN (1941), one of the first documentaries honored with an Academy Award, was long considered lost. A chronicle of Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression, the project was credited to Rey Scott, an adventurer who had never before made a film. When Hawaiian filmmaker Robin Lung learns that a driving force behind KUKAN was Li Ling-Ai, a Chinese-American Hawaiian woman all but erased from its history, she begins investigating the film and its mysterious production, leading to unanticipated discoveries.