New to VOD this week:
KINGS, QUEENS, & IN-BETWEENS
Director:
Gabrielle Burton
Premiere:
Cleveland 2016
Select Festivals:
Southern Circuit, Buffalo, Newark, LGBT fests in Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Bern
About:
Drag performers in Columbus OH explain gender, sex, sexuality, and drag.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, March 10 and to HBO this coming Monday, March 13:
CRIES FROM SYRIA
Director:
Evgeny Afineevsky
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
An overarching account of the impact of Syria’s civil war on its people.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Thursday, March 9:
UNCERTAIN
Directors:
Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands
Premiere:
Tribeca 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, Seattle, AFI Docs, Tempo Doc
About:
A Southern Gothic study of three residents of a small Texan town.
Named after the Texas/Louisiana bordertown, population 94, McNicol and Sandilands focus their attention on three distinct stories centered on three men at different ages, all in some way haunted by past or present concerns: 74-year-old Henry, a recently widowed fisherman and tour guide; middle-aged Wayne, a former addict with a prison background, currently on a quest to kill his sworn enemy, a wild boar named Mr Ed; and 21-year-old Zach, a diabetic heavy drinker who recently had his troubled mother committed. Their stories slowly play out against a shared background portending a greater existential threat – an aquatic weed is wreaking havoc with the fragile ecosystem of the community’s lake, potentially destroying the town’s only real source of livelihood. Capturing their setting with evocative lensing and an unhurried pace, the filmmakers deftly craft a humanistic, and surprisingly hopeful, portrait.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD this week:
BURLESQUE: HEART OF THE GLITTER TRIBE
Director:
Jon Manning
Premiere:
limited theatrical engagements (February 2017)
About:
A survey of the neo-burlesque scene in Portland OR.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New on VOD via Google Play and VUDU this week:
THE SWIRL (EL REMOLINO)
Director:
Laura Herrero Garvín
Premiere:
Ambulante 2016
Select Festivals:
Locarno, Camden, Washington DC Environmental, DocsMX, Oaxaca, Morelia
About:
A trans farmer and her sister navigate life in an oft-flooded Chiapas village.
The small community of El Remolino – literally translated as “the swirl” – annually faces extreme flooding, located as it is along a raging river in Chiapas, Mexico. Trying to maintain their precarious existence here are Esther, a mother who documents her life via camcorder, and Pedro, her openly MTF transgender sister, a farmer. Garvín’s observational slice-of-life portrait is well made, presenting her subjects as fleshed out individuals while also taking on larger social issues that have an ongoing impact on their lives, from climate change to gender and sexuality.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD this week:
NOTFILM
Director:
Ross Lipman
Premiere:
BFI London 2015
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Dublin, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Film Comment Selects series, BAFICI.
About:
The story behind Samuel Beckett’s only film project, FILM.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, March 7:
OKLAHOMA CITY
Director:
Barak Goodman
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
A look back at the events which led to the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, March 7:
WE ARE X
Director:
Stephen Kijak
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
SXSW, Vancouver, Seattle, BFI London, Shanghai, Guanajuato, IDFA
About:
A profile of Japanese super band X Japan and its charismatic frontman, Yoshiki X.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, March 7:
THE C WORD
Director:
Meghan O’Hara
Premiere:
Hamptons 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Cleveland, Martha’s Vineyard, Napa Valley, Traverse City, Newport
About:
A personal battle with cancer prompts a reconsideration of the way Western society approaches the disease.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
The 19th edition of Prague’s One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival kicks off today, Monday, March 6 and runs through Wednesday, March 15. Over 100 new and recent documentary features will screen at the event, with some highlights noted below:
Among the titles in the Czech Competition are: Zuzana Piussi’s CZECH ALLAH, on Czech society’s response to Islam and the migrant crisis; Tomáš Kudrna’s IDA’S IDEA, about a woman’s Roma children’s choir; and Eva Tomanová’s I WON’T SELL MY SOUL, which explores the controversy of child surrogacy in the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, the International Competition includes such films as: Alexandre Dereims’ WE ARE HUMANITY (pictured), about the struggles of the indigenous people of a remote Indian Ocean island; Petr Lom’s BURMA STORYBOOK, on a Burmese dissident poet; and Marc Silver’s TO END A WAR, a candid look at the hardfought Colombian peace process. And the Right to Know competition features work like: Mina Keshavarz’s BRAVING THE WAVES, about an entrepreneurial Iranian woman as she faces off against local authorities; Roser Corella’s GRAB AND RUN, which explores the Kyrgyz custom of bride kidnapping; and Elina Hirvonen’s BOILING POINT, on the rise of fascistic nationalists in modern Finland.
The festival’s many noncompetitive strands explore the migrant crisis in Dreams of Europe, with films like Pia Lenz’s I’M OKAY, which looks at two foreign youth trying to adjust to life in Germany; normalcy and difference in Who is Normal Here?, in docs including Maria Teresa Larraín’s SHADOW GIRL, following the filmmaker back to her native Chile as she loses her eyesight; the role of family, in Family Happiness, through Jasna Krajinovic’s THE EMPTY ROOM, about the family of a radicalized Belgian Muslim; society and environment, in So-Called Civilzation, with films like Fredrik Oskarsson’s NUCLEAR NEIGHBOUR, which follows a young mother’s transformation into an anti-nuclear power activist; urban space, in Faces of the City, through Anders Eklund’s GAMING THE REAL WORLD, which explores a Swedish city’s use of Minecraft to encourage participatory urban planning; media in the Power of the Media; with Hans Busstra’s CYBERJIHAD, exploring virtual world techniques used by terrorist groups; and social upheaval in Journeys to Freedom, including Alistair Cole’s COLOURS OF THE ALPHABET, which looks at the problems resulting from schooling not being done in students’ native language.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Releases
what (not) to doc 