Category Archives: Releases

New to VOD this week:
INTENT TO DESTROY

Director:
Joe Berlinger

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, IDFA, Krakow, Maryland, St Louis, IFF Boston, San Francisco Jewish, New Zealand, Haifa, Heartland, Denver

About:
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of a narrative feature about the 1915-1918 Armenian genocide.

Had Terry George’s THE PROMISE turned out to be a critical or box office success, this companion project by Joe Berlinger would be less of a misfit. As it stands, that would-be epic – starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, and Christian Bale – was little seen or admired, making this admirable but misjudged project feel like a DVD extra for an unlikely-to-be-released Criterion Collection version of an unwanted film. Saddled with the objective of filtering the controversial and long-denied ethnic cleansing through the lens of THE PROMISE, the doc never quite finds the right balance, with clips from George’s film and from the set too often serving as a distraction from the more interesting and provocative consideration of how denial has come into play over the past century, both in the historical record, and in past film projects, from the abandoned adaptation of THE FORTY DAYS OF MUSA DAGH to Atom Egoyan’s unsuccessful ARARAT – but, very strangely, nothing specific offered regarding efforts to stop THE PROMISE. Ultimately, Berlinger’s doc comes off as an overlong, too earnest promotional piece, despite its best intentions.

Coming back to American Experience for an encore tonight, Tuesday, January 30:
TRIANGLE FIRE

Director:
Jamila Wignot

Premiere:
American Experience (February 2011)

About:
A chronicle of the 1911 factory fire that led to widespread reforms for factory safety.

On March 25, 1911, a fire claimed the lives of 146 garment workers – mostly women and girls – at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in NYC ‘s Greenwich Village, many jumping to their deaths, unable to escape the sweatshop building because the owners had had the doors locked to prevent theft and unauthorized breaks. Wignot’s straightforward film counts down to the tragedy, recounting the controversial growth of labor union power among garment workers and the reactionary responses of factory owners; a sense of the gap between the haves and have-nots of the time; brief profiles of some of the factory workers, many immigrants; the background of owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, immigrant success stories who managed to escape criminal charges in the end; and a quick rundown of the reforms and regulations introduced following the tragedy. Utilizing talking head experts, minor re-enacted sequences on the factory floor, archival sources, and recitations of the experiences of survivors, the film hews close to the PBS program’s typically more informative than artistic approach.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 30:
BUGS

Director:
Andreas Johnsen

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
Edinburgh, Seattle, Docaviv, Docs Against Gravity, Melbourne, Reykjavik, Denver, Vlnius

About:
A global insect-eating expedition seeks new sources of food for the world.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, January 29:
MAY IT LAST: A PORTRAIT OF THE AVETT BROTHERS

Directors:
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Full Frame, Nashville, IDFA

About:
A behind-the-scenes look at the folk rock band as they record their latest album.

Longtime fans of the NC band, directors Apatow and Bonfiglio offer a loving tribute, focusing on the sibling pair at its heart, elder brother Scott and younger brother Seth. Hewing fairly close to music docs of its ilk, the film reviews the band’s origins, presents numerous performances, and provides fans a look at their creative process in the studio with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin to record “True Sadness,” which went on to be nominated for two Grammy Awards. Along the way, Apatow and Bonfiglio establish and re-establish that Scott and Seth are remarkably close and that everyone in the band gets along, briefly profiling other bandmates and family members. While offering some pathos in the consideration of the real-life inspiration of Seth’s new song about divorce, the film largely feels fairly surface, playing primarily to its fanbase and never really transcending its celebratory feel to dig much deeper.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, January 29:
I AM ANOTHER YOU

Director:
Nanfu Wang

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, BAMcinemaFest, Ashland, Cleveland

About:
What begins as a portrait of a seemingly carefree young drifter becomes something more complex.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 23:
NASSER’S REPUBLIC: THE MAKING OF MODERN EGYPT

Director:
Michal Goldman

Premiere:
Washington DC International Film Festival 2016

Select Festivals:
IFF Boston, Cairo, Pan-African, Luxor African, African Disaspora

About:
A profile of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Nasser quickly rose to power in Egypt as one of the leaders of the 1952 revolution, a military coup to abolish the monarchy and end the British occupation. Following its success, and a later face-off with the Muslim Brotherhood, the charismatic Nasser became Egypt’s president and continued widespread reforms, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the formation of a nascent pan-Arab nation. As Goldman points out in her educational but workmanlike film, however, is that while Nasser brought many positive contributions to Egypt – and tried to accomplish much more that might very well have helped to stabilize the Middle East – he unfortunately failed to institute a true democracy. As a result, while hailed as Egypt’s great liberator, he also became the nation’s dictator until his death in 1970, setting the course for subsequent decades of authoritarian rule. In many ways, however, the Egypt that Nasser set out to transform shared much in common with today’s post-Arab Spring one, a country seeking to move beyond Mubarak and build a new, modern nation, making Goldman’s project timely for its historical contextualization and analysis.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, January 23:
WHERE YOU’RE MEANT TO BE

Director:
Paul Fegan

Premiere:
Glasgow 2016

Select Festivals:
IDFA, CPH:DOX, Sheffield, Edinburgh, BAFICI, Docs Against Gravity, Chicago, Vancouver, Guth Gafa

About:
A Scots musician attempts to modernize and popularize outdated folk songs.

Fegan’s film follows Aidan Moffat, who was part of popular band Arab Strap, as he sets out to tour Scotland with his rewritten folk songs, borne out of an affection for the oral tradition of passing along the music and a desire to revitalize it. When Sheila Stewart, a 79-year-old traveller and folk singer hears his reworkings, however, she is not impressed – she believes the traditional songs are sacrosanct and that Moffat has missed the meaning. Despite this criticism, Moffat perseveres, in his own way helping to continue Stewarts work in keeping the music alive. While on the whole focused too much on the performances and not enough about Moffat, Stewart, or the music’s background, Fegan’s film has just enough charm and humor to keep a non-Scots audience engaged.

Coming to theatres this Friday, January 19:
KANGAROO

Directors:
Kate McIntyre Clere and Michael McIntyre

Premiere:
Santa Barbara 2017

Select Festivals:
NYC Wildlife Conservation, Wildlife Rotterdam

About:
An exposé of the brutal treatment of kangaroos in Australia.

While synonymous with Australia, particularly in tourist-friendly images, the kangaroo has a more complicated relationship with the people of its home country than the international community might suspect. Some want to protect the animal, others wish to exploit it for meat, and some see it as vermin needing to be exterminated. Clere and McIntyre reveal these disparate viewpoints in their earnest but at times clunky film, but it becomes fairly clear that their sympathies rest with the conservationists – and it’s hard to imagine how any viewer would disagree, given the disturbing slaughter revealed here – making their film a would-be THE COVE for kangaroos. Unfortunately, the filmmakers incorporate some questionable storytelling techniques – from re-enactments to shock freeze frames and spot color effects – that have a cheapening effect. Despite this, they succeed in revealing the troubling treatment of the iconic Australian animal, as well as how it’s been combatted.