Category Archives: Releases

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, June 16:
SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

Director:
Matt Schrader

Premiere:
Hamptons 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Denver, Hawaii, Santa Barbara, CPH:DOX, RiverRun, Dallas, Cleveland, Ashland, San Francisco, Nashville, deadCENTER

About:
An inside look at the art of the film score.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Music is an integral part of most films, adding emotion and nuance while often remaining invisible to audiences. Matt Schrader shines a spotlight on the overlooked craft of film composing, gathering many of the art form’s most influential practitioners, from Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman to Quincy Jones and Randy Newman, to uncover their creative process. Tracing key developments in the evolution of music in film, and exploring some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks, Sxchrader’s doc is an aural valentine for film lovers.

New to VOD this week:
TICKLING GIANTS

Director:
Sara Taksler

Premiere:
Tribeca 2016

Select Festivals:
BFI London, Just for Laughs, Bergen, Vancouver, DocPoint, Glasgow, Big Sky Doc, Stockholm, Salem, Human Rights Watch London and Toronto, Movies That Matter, Cleveland

About:
A heart surgeon-turned-comedian tests the limits of free speech in post-Mubarak Egypt.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, June 13:
THREE SISTERS

Director:
Wang Bing

Premiere:
Venice 2012

Select Festivals:
Toronto, Dubai, Hong Kong, Busan, Montreal, Jerusalem, DOK.fest Munich, Edinburgh, New Zealand, Doclisboa, BAFICI, Taipei

About:
A portrait of a poor rural Chinese family, focused on three young sisters largely fending for themselves.

Over the course of two and a half hours of observational cinema, Wang empathetically reveals the lives of Yingying, ten; Zhenzhen, six; and Fenfen, four, a trio of sisters long ago abandoned by their mother and forced to work difficult chores in a small community that has yet to see the benefits of China’s expanding economy. While their father is initially in the picture, he eventually leaves for the city, taking his youngest daughters and leaving the sad Yingying to essentially take care of herself, with minimal supervision by her neighboring grandfather. Possessed of a nagging, disturbing cough, the young girl engenders audience sympathy, but an air of hopelessness permeates the proceedings, and her future.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, June 13:
HELL ON EARTH: THE FALL OF SYRIA AND THE RISE OF ISIS

Directors:
Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Greenwich, Provincetown

About:
A comprehensive exploration of the conflict in Syria and the origins of the Islamic State.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, June 13:
ART AND HEART: THE WORLD OF ISAIAH SHEFFER

Director:
Catherine Tambini

Premiere:
New York Jewish Film Festival 2016

Select Festivals:
Berkshire, Hamptons Take 2 Doc, Jewish fests in San Francisco, Palm Beach, and New Jersey

About:
A tribute to a prominent NYC cultural figure, the founder and artistic director of performing arts organization/theatre, Symphony Space.

Tambini assembles a parade of admirers, collaborators, and family members – as well as interviews with Sheffer himself, who died in 2012 at the age of 76 – to reveal the Renaissance man’s many contributions to the arts and culture of the city. With a career encompassing the Yiddish theatre, public radio, and his decades of stewardship of Symphony Space and its eclectic, multidisciplinary programming, Sheffer affords the director a rich archive with which to work, and she ably conveys his achievements and his affable personality, even to viewers who may never have heard of him.

Coming to NatGeo this Sunday, June 11:
HELL ON EARTH: THE FALL OF SYRIA AND THE RISE OF ISIS

Directors:
Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Greenwich, Provincetown

About:
A comprehensive exploration of the conflict in Syria and the origins of the Islamic State.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Showtime tonight, Friday, June 9:
BECOMING CARY GRANT

Director:
Mark Kidel

Premiere:
Cannes 2017

Select Festivals:
Edinburgh

About:
The story of how working-class Archie Leach became debonair actor Cary Grant.

Based on an unpublished memoir, and peppered with clips from his movie career as well as rare home movies, Kidel’s film traces Leach’s re-invention, while also exploring the lasting impact of his upbringing. Of particular note is his long-held belief that his mother abandoned him as a child – Grant later learned his father had her committed and the actor developed a relationship with her after his success. He linked this formative sense of betrayal to both his lifelong distrust of women and a string of unsuccessful marriages. Curiously, the film never entertains the question of Grant’s potential gay relationships, though his onscreen appeal to both men and women is noted by film historians. Much of the introspection that characterizes the memoir is born of Grant’s participation in extensive LSD psychotherapy in the late 1950s, here represented in not entirely effective re-enactments, but the film otherwise offers viewers with an engaging overview of the development of the charismatic performer’s life and career.