Coming to Spike TV tonight, Wednesday, March 1:
TIME: THE KALIEF BROWDER STORY
Director:
Jenner Furst
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
A six-part docuseries exploring the consequences of the wrongful incarceration of a 16-year-old.
I profiled the series before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 28:
RACHEL CARSON
Director:
Michelle Ferrari
Premiere:
American Experience (January 2017)
About:
A portrait of the woman whose writing popularized the environmental movement.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, March 1:
CONTEMPORARY COLOR
Directors:
Bill Ross and Turner Ross
Premiere:
Tribeca 2016
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Hot Docs, New Orleans, San Francisco, Montclair, Seattle, Sydney, Bonnaroo, AFI Docs, Guanajuato, Melbourne, Sidewalk, Camden, Denver, St Louis, Indie Memphis, Sound Unseen
About:
A chronicle of a one-night-only musical collaboration conceived by David Byrne celebrating color guard.
Inspired to showcase color guard – which involves troupes performing synchronized movements incorporating flags and rifles to live or pre-recorded music – Byrne commissioned ten musicians to create original songs/soundtracks to accompany a demonstration of the craft at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The Ross brothers, together with an impressive assemblage of cinematographers, were there to capture the concert, as well as some behind-the-scenes details. The result is a visually vibrant concert doc, one very different from the duo’s past output, and likely best appreciated by music/performance doc fans.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 28:
THE RACE UNDERGROUND
Director:
Michael Rossi
Premiere:
American Experience (January 2017)
About:
The story of America’s first subway.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 28:
MAGNUS
Director:
Benjamin Ree
Premiere:
Tribeca 2016
Select Festivals:
Munich, Traverse City, Moscow, Zurich, Vancouver, Hamptons
About:
A profile of Norwegian chess wunderkind Magnus Carlsen.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, February 28:
BE HERE NOW: THE ANDY WHITFIELD STORY
Director:
Lilibet Foster
Premiere:
Los Angeles 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Springs Doc, Santa Barbara, Documentary Edge, Sedona
About:
An actor and his family struggle against a devastating cancer diagnosis.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28:
KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE
Director:
Robert Greene
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Berlin, True/False, Indielisboa, DocAviv, Sydney, BAMcinemaFest, New Zealand, Melbourne, Sydney
About:
An actress researches a particularly challenging role.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 28:
SOUND OF REDEMPTION: THE FRANK MORGAN STORY
Director:
NC Heikin
Premiere:
Los Angeles 2014
Select Festivals:
Hot Springs Doc, Palm Springs, Virginia, Vancouver, Atlanta, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision
About:
A profile of a musician and his struggles with drug addiction and crime.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, February 27:
TICKLED
Directors:
David Farrier and Dylan Reeve
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, True/False, Cleveland, Sarasota, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Montclair, Seattle, Sydney, Auckland
About:
Journalists embark on a wild investigation into an online fetish subculture.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New on DVD this week:
HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO
Director:
Abbas Fahdel
Premiere:
Visions du Réel 2015
Select Festivals:
New York, Rio, Lussas Doc, Hamburg, Yamagata Doc, Doclisboa, CPH:DOX, Jihlava, Mar del Plata, Cinema Vérite, Göteborg, True/False, Vilnius, BAFICI, Taiwan Doc, Dokufest Kosovo, Vienna
About:
Life in Iraq, before and after the 2003 American-led invasion.
Split into two distinct sections – “Before the Fall” and “After the Battle” – Fahdel’s epically-lengthed yet intimately-scaled film provides viewers with a look at the activities of several Iraqis, many of them his own family members, in the lead up to and in the aftermath of the initial 2003 attack. Taking a loose, observational approach, the film feels more like a home movie at times, and serves as a survey rather than creating in-depth portraiture. This actually suits it well, particularly in the first part, which captures individuals who don’t have a full sense of what’s to come but think they have seen it all before. Digging wells to deal with expected resource shortages, and taping windows to prevent glass shattering, they seem practical rather than concerned, and otherwise try to go on with their everyday lives, seemingly comfortable enough despite the reminders that they’re living in a repressive regime. The tone changes in the project’s second half, with an Iraq overrun with foreigners, frustrations beginning to mount over disruptions in daily life, and, of course, reckoning with lives lost – including, as revealed in the film’s conclusion, one of its most engaging young subjects. It’s a deeply humanistic, and often difficult to watch, time capsule of a nation forced to contend with the tragedy of war.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
