Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, February 26:
RAT FILM
Director:
Theo Anthony
Premiere:
Locarno 2016
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, True/False, SXSW, Florida, Maryland, Art of the Real, Docaviv, Doclisboa, Vancouver, Mar del Plata, Torino
About:
A provocative essay about Baltimore’s rodents emerges as a simultaneous cultural anthropology of race and class.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, February 23:
EL MAR LA MAR
Directors:
Joshua Bonnetta and JP Sniadecki
Premiere:
Berlin 2017
Select Festivals:
New York, London, IDFA, Indielisboa, Dokfest Munich, Docaviv, Docs Against Gravity, AFI Docs, Camden, Chicago, Vienna, AFI Fest, San Francisco, Hong Kong
About:
An immersive exploration of life and death in a desert along the US/Mexico border.
Bonnetta and Sniadecki’s film draws the viewer into the Sonoran Desert, one of the most dangerous border crossing routes, and one sadly frequented by the most vulnerable, undocumented immigrants with the fewest resources or alternatives. Taking an experiential approach, the filmmakers convey the treacherous journey via offscreen testimony, never identifying individuals; an elaborate, unsettling sound design; and images of the scorched landscape and what travelers have left behind. While the project’s pace and poetic elements might limit its accessibility for some viewers, its stories of desperation, struggle, and death quietly yet hauntingly illuminate the continuing debate over border policies for those willing to listen.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Courtesy of XLrator Media
Director:
David Yuzuk
Premiere:
Rome GA Film Festival 2017
About:
A police officer investigates the mysterious life of a homeless veteran.
Several years ago, Miami police officer David Yuzuk met and befriended Richard Flaherty, a diminutive homeless man who eventually revealed that he was a Special Forces soldier involved in dangerous missions for the US government in Vietnam and beyond. Soon after Flaherty began to confide in Yuzuk, he was killed in a hit-and-run incident. Inspired to find the truth behind the late man’s stories, the amateur filmmaker contacts Flaherty’s family members, fellow veterans, and others from the community who had come to know him. In the process, he confirms many of his unlikely tales, including how he was allowed to enlist in the US military despite his small size and became a decorated Green Beret captain, and offers speculation on other, apparently still classified aspects of his career, such as Flaherty’s frequent international trips to dangerous locations during the time he was homeless, which the vet claimed were as a military consultant. Despite the tantalizing elements of his subject’s life story, Yuzuk unfortunately struggles to create an engaging film. Possessed of scant footage of his subject, he employs cheesy re-enactments, and is over-reliant on long-winded anecdotes and narration, all set to a distracting score, making this of limited appeal.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
AP Photo/Ernest K Bennett
Directors:
Frank Dawson and Abby Ginzberg
Premiere:
Pan African LA 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, St Louis, Toronto Black, March on Washington
About:
A revealing history of the battle for diversity study programs on college campuses.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
As students of color began arriving on college campuses in unprecedented numbers in the late 1960s, they found institutions ill-prepared to adapt to diversity. Unwilling to accept the absence of their unique cultures and histories, or to ignore prejudicial treatment, students mobilized for black and ethnic-studies programs, even taking up arms when necessary. Focusing on seminal struggles at San Francisco State and Cornell University, Frank Dawson and Abby Ginzberg’s film powerfully demonstrates this sadly still topical call for inclusivity in education.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, February 19 and to DVD on Tuesday, February 20:
TELL THEM WE ARE RISING: THE STORY OF BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Director:
Stanley Nelson
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
Documentary Fortnight, Full Frame, Hot Springs Doc, Pan African, Toronto Black, American Black, Blackstar, African Diaspora, Rio, Milwaukee, Heartland, Freep, RiverRun, Bentonville, Montclair, Maryland
About:
An exploration of the pivotal role played by historically Black institutions of higher learning in American society.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, February 16:
POOP TALK
Director:
Aaron Feldman
Premiere:
LES Film Festival 2017
About:
Comedians riff on the universal but taboo topic.
Feldman gathers a gaggle of comedians, plus a few medical professionals and academics, to talk about poop and the stigma attached to it. Aside from some occasional comments that aim to explain some of the evolutionary reasons why humans have developed an aversion to the stuff, and a few bits of animation, the bulk of the film consists of funny people telling generally amusing and often gross jokes or anecdotes about pooping, toilets, bidets, gendered differences around bodily functions, and the like, some with more discomfort than others. While not unengaging, the project feels largely formless and surface-level, an uncinematic parade of talking heads that could have as easily been a 10 minute short as its current just over an hour long current form.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Friday, February 16:
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.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD and VOD this week:
REBELS ON POINTE
Director:
Bobbi Jo Hart
Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2017
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, DocEdge, Raindance, Calgary, Vancouver, Ashland, Hot Springs Doc, Cuculorus, Napa Valley, AmDocs, Frameline, Outfest, Inside Out, QDocs, LGBT fests in Amsterdam, Miami, Denver, Austin, Atlanta, and Rochester
About:
An intimate look at a long-running all-male drag ballet troupe.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 13:
THE GUYS NEXT DOOR
Directors:
Amy Geller and Allie Humenuk
Premiere:
Sarasota 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, IFFBoston, Maryland, Provincetown, Woods Hole, Rhode Island, Big Sky Doc, RiverRun, MIX Milano, SF Jewish, Washington Jewish
About:
A profile of a gay couple and the woman who helped them have their own family.
I previously wrote about the doc for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Rachel is a married woman in her 40s, with a husband and three children. She is also the surrogate mother for her married gay friends Erik and Sandro. With refreshing candor and humor, Geller and Humenuk’s film explores the unique challenges of this unusual extended family through the course of three years. Erik and Sandro move away from New York City and adjust to small-town life; Sandro travels to his Italian homeland; and Rachel delivers the couple’s second daughter.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 13:
DEALT
Director:
Luke Korem
Premiere:
SXSW 2017
Select Festivals:
Dallas, Sarasota, IFF Boston, deadCENTER, Shanghai, New Zealand, Bergen
About:
A portrait of an acclaimed card magician who also happens to be blind.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
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