Category Archives: Releases

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 12:
ARCHITECTS OF DENIAL

Director:
David Lee George

Premiere:
October 2017 (limited theatrical/VOD)

About:
A revisitation of the 1915 Armenian genocide and the legacy of its official denial over the past century.

An earnest if poorly executed project, George’s film aims to be a forceful call to action insisting on the official acknowledgement that the Ottoman Empire committed a genocidal act on more than a million Armenians in 1915. Turkey and its allies, including the US, have consistently refused to acknowledge the genocide, despite the existence of evidence both contemporaneously and that uncovered in more recent years, as well as the use of the term by the Pope and a growing number of other high profile individuals. This project assembles a parade of talking heads – most strangely and uncritically including Julian Assange – to review the historical record and to spin a conspiratorial view of Turkish influence on the US, an alarmist tale of impending violence in the region as a result, ill-thought-out guerrilla ambushes of politicians about their denialism, and attempts to draw direct lines between the Armenian genocide to the Nazi’s Final Solution and other examples of genocide over the past 100 years, all set to an incessant, irritating score and with the over-use of intertitles that make this feel like an amateur film. While there’s obviously merit to the idea that the genocide should be finally officially acknowledged, this clunky polemic is ill-suited to have much impact.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, December 8:
I AM EVIDENCE

Directors:
Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Traverse City, AFI Docs, Provincetown, Hawaii, St Louis, UN Association, Globe Docs, Hamptons, Milwaukee,

About:
An alarming look at institutional failures in prosecuting sexual assault cases.

I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program, saying:
Produced by Mariska Hargitay (LAW AND ORDER: SVU), this eye-opening documentary investigates the alarming backlog of untested evidence kits that have denied justice to sexual assault survivors. Giving voice to four courageous women whose kits went untested for years, Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir’s film reveals deep-seated problems with the US criminal justice system that have resulted in perpetrators failing to be held accountable for their heinous crimes, and survivors being left in limbo.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, December 6:
BILL FRISELL, A PORTRAIT

Director:
Emma Franz

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Seattle, Nashville, Biografilm, New Zealand, Mill Valley

About:
A portrait of the acclaimed musician.

The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Bill Frisell is a widely inventive guitarist who crosses musical boundaries. This intimate character portrait “shows a self-deprecating master whose hands seem to float while shaping sonic lines and fields that always surprise with their weird clarity” (Georgia Straight). The eclectic list of musicians in the film includes Bonnie Raitt, Hal Willner, Paul Simon, Nels Cline, John Zorn, and Jack DeJohnette, who treat the audience to generous helpings of music that will be richly satisfying to Frisell’s admirers.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, December 5:
LIVING ON SOUL

Directors:
Jeff Broadway and Cory Bailey

Premiere:
Los Angeles Film Festival 2017

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Philadelphia

About:
Musicians affiliated with Daptone Records headline the Apollo Theater for a three-night concert series.

Broadway and Bailey’s concert film showcases performance that were part of the December 2014 event, which included the late Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, as well as several other talented musicians – though unless the audience is well-versed in music, they likely will not recognize most of the other performers involved, which include Antibalas, Naomi Shelton, and the Como Mamas. The filmmakers successfully capture the energy of the performances, which make up the bulk of the film, but falter when it comes to providing enough background or behind the scenes footage to invest the viewer in the lesser known lights on camera vs the two headliners who have already had full-length films made about them – Jones in MISS SHARON JONES! and Bradley in CHARLES BRADLEY: SOUL OF AMERICA.