New to Fandor this week:
ME TO PLAY
Director:
Jim Bernfield
World Premiere:
Slamdance 2021
Select Festivals:
Ashland, Florida
About:
As their bodies give way to Parkinson’s disease, two New York actors put their hearts into one final Off-Broadway production of Beckett’s ENDGAME.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD this week:
THE STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION
Director:
Mark Cousins
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
BFI London, Chicago, Lumiere, Palm Springs, Taipei Golden Horse, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Biografilm
About:
An examination of the most powerful movie images of the last decade, including the pandemic, to create an epic and hopeful tale of cinematic innovation from around the globe.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21:
THE REAL BLING RING: HOLLYWOOD HEIST
Director:
Miles Blayden-Ryall
World Premiere:
Channel 4 UK (April 2022)
About:
A group of LA teenagers arrested in 2009 for stealing from celebrity homes inspired a media frenzy and a movie – now, two of them tell their stories in this docuseries.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to HBO and HBO Max tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21:
ESCAPE FROM KABUL
Director:
Jamie Roberts
World Premiere:
HBO broadcast (September 2022)
About:
An immersive look at 18 monumental days in August 2021, from the US withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan through the subsequent evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghan citizens from Kabul airport after the Taliban seized the city.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Peacock tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21:
SHADOWLAND
Director:
Alex Braverman, Stephen Bailey, Lindsay Eve Van Dyke
World Premiere:
Peacock (September 2022)
About:
A docuseries inspired by reporting in THE ATLANTIC in which Joe Berlinger sends documentary teams across America to embed with subjects who have rejected mainstream narratives, revealing how conspiracy theories have moved from the margins to the mainstream.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 20:
THREE MINUTES — A LENGTHENING
Director:
Bianca Stigter
World Premiere:
Venice 2021
Select Festivals:
Sundance, Toronto, IDFA, DOC NYC, Philadelphia, Göteborg, Thessaloniki Doc, Provincetown, Sydney, Cleveland, Docs Against Gravity
About:
A home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland – the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust – is examined to unravel the stories hidden in the celluloid.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to OVID tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20:
THE SEER AND THE UNSEEN
Director:
Sara Dosa
World Premiere:
San Francisco 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, New Horizons, Reykjavík, Melbourne, Camden, RIDM, Leeds, Palm Springs, Available Light, Big Sky Doc, Seattle, Ashland, Thessaloniki Doc
About:
An eccentric Icelandic environmentalist is on a mission to protect the natural habitat of elves from development.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20:
BOVINES
Director:
Emmanuel Gras
World Premiere:
ACID Cannes 2011
Select Festivals:
Docaviv, Hamburg
About:
An entrancing observational study of cows’ lives.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20:
THE AUTOMAT
Director:
Lisa Hurwitz
World Premiere:
Telluride 2021
Select Festivals:
Philadelphia, Austin, Hamptons Doc, Miami Jewish
About:
The history of the titular vending machine, weaving together interviews with engineers, collectors, admirers, former employees, and an eclectic cast of its utmost enthusiasts.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS beginning this Sunday, September 18:
THE US AND THE HOLOCAUST
Director:
Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein
World Premiere:
Telluride 2022 (episode 1)
About:
A three-part examination of America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, when public indifference, bureaucratic red tape, and restrictive quota laws stood in the way of supporting those who sought to escape the Holocaust.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 