New to DVD this week:
BURIED ABOVE GROUND
Director:
Ben Selkow
Premiere:
Woodstock 2015
Select Festivals::
SF Indie, Cleveland, Fargo, Vail
About:
A look at three individuals dealing with PTSD.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Category Archives: Releases
On DVD: BURIED ABOVE GROUND
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On DVD: EVERY BRILLIANT THING
New to DVD this week:
EVERY BRILLIANT THING
Directors:
Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey
Premiere:
DOC NYC 2016
About:
A filmed one-man performance about suicide.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On DVD: HOLY HELL
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 9:
HOLY HELL
Director:
Will Allen
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Nashville, Montclair, Minneapolis-St Paul, DocAviv, Martha’s Vineyard, Biografilm
About:
An inside look at life as a cult member.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
On VOD: MOM AND ME
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 9:
MOM AND ME
Director:
Ken Wardrop
Premiere:
Telluride 2015
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Cleveland, RiverRun, Edinburgh, Sydney, Denver
About:
An exploration of the unique bond between mothers and sons.
I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s lineup, saying:
Just before Mother’s Day, a local talk radio show in Oklahoma City – “the manliest city in the United States” – asks male listeners to call in and talk about their relationships with their moms. The responses frame this warm, often humorous film. Exhibiting surprising vulnerability and sharing alternately charming and poignant stories, callers are a diverse group, from a contrite prisoner eager to reconnect with his wronged mom to a bachelor whose mother badgers him for grandkids. Ultimately, what emerges is a multifaceted exploration of a bond that is unique for each mother-son pair, yet wonderfully universal at the same time.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On VOD: KEDI
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 9:
KEDI
Director:
Ceyda Torun
Premiere:
!f Istanbul 2016
Select Festivals:
Full Frame, Sheffield, Seattle, Melbourne, Vancouver, DocPoint, Goteborg, Salem, Palm Springs
About:
Istanbul through the eyes of its colorful street cats.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On TV: GOOD LUCK SOUP
Coming to the World Channel’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9:
GOOD LUCK SOUP
Director:
Matthew Hashiguchi
Premiere:
Cleveland 2016
Select Festivals::
CAAMFest, American Doc, Chagrin Doc, Asian American fests in Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston
About:
The filmmaker explores the complexity of identities in his extended mixed-race family.
Taking an understandably personal but ultimately unfocused approach to his subject matter, the biracial Japanese/Italian Hashiguchi, who grew up in a predominantly white, Irish-Catholic part of Cleveland, ruminates on his ambivalence towards his Japanese American heritage while also surveying various family members about their own experiences. What first seems like a rough-hewn and familiar but appealing portrait of the filmmaker’s grandmother, Eva – an 88-year-old Japanese-American born in California and interned during WWII – too soon gives way to interviews with Hashiguchi’s immediate and extended family members. While their perspectives on overt or subtle racism, passing, and embracing or rejecting elements of their ethnic backgrounds offer some interest, the project as a whole never fully coheres.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On VOD: ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I F STONE
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9:
ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I F STONE
Director:
Fred Peabody
Premiere:
Toronto 2016
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Thessaloniki Doc, CPH:DOX
About:
A consideration of the work of independent journalists, through the lens of the pioneering I F Stone.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On TV: THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, May 8:
THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES
Director:
Brett Story
Premiere:
True/False 2016
Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Hot Docs, Art of the Real, Camden, Reykjavik, Ann Arbor, DOXA
About:
A reflection on the far-reaching impact of America’s mass incarceration epidemic.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
In Theatres: JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT
Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 5:
JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT
Director:
Pappi Corsicato
Premiere:
Tribeca 2017
About:
An affectionate profile of the maverick artist and filmmaker.
Corsicato’s film offers an archivally rich rundown of Julian Schnabel’s artistic and filmmaking career since the 1970s, detailing how he got his start as an artist, the significance of his collaboration with gallery owner Mary Boone, the resultant critical and financial acclaim, and his later turn to filmmaking. Interviews with Schnabel himself are supplemented by a chorus of admirers from family members to past collaborators and fellow art and film world luminaries, while a career retrospective serves as a further excuse to reflect on his work. Scant attention is paid to the controversies his work has attracted, resulting in a serviceable, but fairly one-note, portrait.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On VOD: THE MARS GENERATION
Coming to Netflix today, Friday, May 5:
THE MARS GENERATION
Director:
Michael Barnett
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
A look at the would-be astronauts of the future.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
