Category Archives: Releases

Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, April 21:
CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY

Director:
Matt Tyrnauer

Premiere:
Toronto 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Miami, CPH:DOX, Sarasota, Hong Kong

About:
In the 1960s, writer and activist Jane Jacobs faces off against NYC’s ruthless urban planner, Robert Moses.

With her acclaimed 1961 book, THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES, Jane Jacobs challenged conventional wisdom about urban planning by foregrounding the diversity and complexity of the use of city spaces by the actual individuals and communities that resided within them. She took particular exception to the concept of urban renewal, seeing it as a destructive force which unnaturally segregated spaces, ignoring the organic manner in which these urban ecosystems had developed over generations. When Jacobs’ beloved NYC was threatened by Robert Moses with a widespread redevelopment plan which would see whole neighborhoods destroyed in order to install a highway through lower Manhattan, the activist showed the power of communities to rally together to save their homes, as detailed in Tyrnauer’s vibrant and topical chronicle, which doubles as a love letter to the city.

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18:
THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL

Director:
Holly Morris

Premiere:
Los Angeles 2015

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Sidewalk, Woodstock, Sun Valley, One World, DC’s Environmental, Florida, San Francisco Green, DOXA, Documenta Madrid

About:
A profile of elderly women who subsist on their beloved but toxic land in Chernobyl’s radioactive exclusion zone.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to DVD this upcoming Tuesday, April 18:
RUBY RIDGE

Director:
Barak Goodman

Premiere:
American Experience (February 2017)

About:
The story of a tragic standoff between US marshals and a separatist family.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, April 14:
CHASING TRANE: THE JOHN COLTRANE DOCUMENTARY

Director:
John Scheinfeld

Premiere:
Telluride 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Toronto, IDFA, Pan African

About:
An exploration of the life and music of the legendary jazz musician.

Though he only lived to 40 years of age, John Coltrane left an indelible mark in music, recognized as one of the most innovative and impactful jazz performers and composers of the 20th Century. Scheinfeld’s film pays tribute to his talent and vision, offering a biographical portrait brimming with music and atmosphere, and featuring the insights of a score of Coltrane fans, from his contemporaries to a new generation of musician, as well as admirers like Cornel West and Bill Clinton. While detailing the jazzman’s numerous achievements, Scheinfeld doesn’t shy away from the darker side of his biography, including Coltrane’s struggles with alcohol and heroin addiction, yet the focus always remains reverentially on its impact on his evocative, pioneering music.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, April 14:
FINDING OSCAR

Director:
Ryan Suffern

Premiere:
Telluride 2016

Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Boulder, Mill Valley, Sedona, Sun Valley, United Nations Association, Austin

About:
Investigators seek justice for the victims of a state-sponsored Guatemalan massacre.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
During Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war, an estimated 200,000 civilians were killed or disappeared. Among these were the 200 residents of the rural village of Dos Erres, who were massacred by an elite government commando unit in 1982. Two young boys survived to be raised, unwittingly, by the very soldiers who slaughtered their families. Suffern’s film follows the quest to finally find justice for the people of Dos Erres.

Coming to theatres and VOD this Friday, April 14:
MISSION CONTROL: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF APOLLO

Director:
David Fairhead

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Sarasota

About:
Members of NASA’s Mission Control recount the triumphs and tragedies of the US space program through the end of the Apollo missions.

Fairhead’s love letter to the bygone years of American space exploration focuses on the engineers, project leaders, and technicians of Mission Control, figures who typically never received the spotlight despite their essential roles in the Space Race. His film combines extensive talking head interviews with these surviving men (the boy’s club environment is awkwardly mitigated by bookend interviews with two present-day female NASA employees), along with new animation and a wealth of archival footage, including extensive period footage of Mission Control, space missions, propaganda/educational films, and news broadcasts. Subjects relate their path to working for NASA, their trial-and-error invention, and the parts they played in the Space Race, including immersive retellings of such pivotal moments as the first three-man mission in space, the lunar landing, and the rescue of the Apollo 13 astronauts, making for an engaging, enjoyable, and respectful look back at NASA’s glory days.