New to DVD this week:
BLOOM UP: A SWINGER COUPLE STORY
Director:
Mauro Russo Rouge
World Premiere:
Hot Docs 2021
Select Festivals:
Biografilm, Mallorca
About:
An average middle-aged Italian couple by day, Hermes and Betta live out their unbridled sexual fantasies as swingers by night.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Anthology Film Archives tomorrow, Thursday, September 15:
TERRA FEMME
Director:
Courtney Stephens
World Premiere:
MoMA Doc Fortnight 2021
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, RIDM, DokuFest, Camden, Open City Docs, Sydney Underground, Indielisboa, Docaviv
About:
Archival material and home movies from the 1920s to the 1940s reveal the emancipatory power women found in newly available personal cameras, and the association this self-expression had with gender roles, the rise of a leisured, white middle class, and imperialism.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Peacock today, Wednesday, September 14:
HELL OF A CRUISE
Director:
Nick Quested
World Premiere:
Peacock (September 2022)
About:
An exploration of the spread of COVID aboard a luxury Diamond Princess cruise ship in January 2020, and why, one week later, cruise ships were still sent out to sea.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, September 13:
UNSEEN SKIES
Director:
Yaara Bou Melhem
World Premiere:
San Francisco 2021
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Sydney, Docs Against Gravity
About:
American artist Trevor Paglen, who uses the most advanced technology to map surveillance, data flows, and the state’s monitoring of our lives, is about to launch the most ambitious project of his career.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
WE ARE THE THOUSAND
Director:
Anita Rivaroli
World Premiere:
SXSW 2020 (unscreened)
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, Melbourne, Docs Against Gravity, Thessaloniki Doc
About:
An uplifting, inspiring, and emotional music documentary about a seemingly impossible plan to record a song by the Foo Fighters with a thousand musicians.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
FUTURA
Director:
Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
Toronto, New York, IDFA, Vienna
About:
A collective exploration of what youth think about the future, through a series of interviews filmed during a long journey across Italy.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 13:
HOLD YOUR FIRE
Director:
Stefan Forbes
World Premiere:
Toronto 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Palm Springs
About:
Captives, cops, and robbers in New York City’s longest hostage siege reflect in this suspenseful and enlightening take on an event long misunderstood.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, September 13:
FROM WHERE THEY STOOD
Director:
Christophe Cognet
World Premiere:
Berlin 2021
Select Festivals:
Jihlava, Thessaloniki Doc, FID Marseille, Jerusalem, Indielisboa, Open City Doc
About:
A handful of prisoners in WWII camps risked their lives to take clandestine photographs and document the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. In the vestiges of the camps, director Christophe Cognet retraces the footsteps of these courageous men and women in a quest to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to the Criterion Channel this week:
SEARCHING FOR MR RUGOFF
Director:
Ira Deutchman
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019
Select Festivals:
Palm Springs, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Galway, Mill Valley
About:
A look back at the outsized personality behind legendary art house distributor Cinema 5.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13:
UNFINISHED SPACES
Director:
Alysa Nahmias, Benjamin Murray
World Premiere:
Los Angeles Film Festival 2011
Select Festivals:
Camden, Denver, Havana, Palm Springs, Cinequest, Miami, Sebastopol Doc, Full Frame, Buenos Aires, New Orleans filmOrama
About:
An exploration of Cuba’s National Art Schools never-completed utopian architectural project.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 