On VOD this week:
FIRE AT SEA
Director:
Gianfranco Rosi
Premiere:
Berlin 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Toronto, Telluride, New York, DocAviv, Sydney, Melbourne, It’s All True, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, New Zealand, Reykjavik
Notable Recognition:
The doc has been nominated for the Academy Awards.
About:
An intimate portrait of Lampedusa, an island at the heart of Europe’s migration crisis.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD via iTunes today, Tuesday, February 14:
MARINONI: THE FIRE IN THE FRAME
Director:
Tony Girardin
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2014
Select Festivals:
Global Visions
About:
A portrait of a curmudgeonly racing bike manufacturer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 14:
THE BAD KIDS
Directors:
Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
True/False, Cleveland, Full Frame, Dallas, Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, DocAviv, and Atlantic
About:
A coming-of-age story set in a high school for at-risk students.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD this Friday, February 17:
NATIONAL BIRD
Director:
Sonia Kennebeck
Premiere:
Berlin 2016
Select Festivals:
Tribeca, San Francisco, Sheffield, Sydney, Melbourne, Camden, Hamburg, Zurich
About:
A profile of several whistleblowers who have spoken out against the US drone program.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tonight, Tuesday, February 14:
A NEW COLOR: THE ART OF BEING EDYTHE BOONE
Director:
Marlene “Mo” Morris
Premiere:
Mill Valley 2015
Select Festivals:
Pan African, Sebastopol Doc, Through Women’s Eyes, Oakland, IFF Boston, SF Jewish, Harlem, Sarasota, San Diego and Nashville Black film festivals
About:
A portrait of an African-American mural artist and activist.
Morris follows Edythe Boone, better known as Edy, over the course of three years, telling the septuagenarian’s story and showcasing her efforts to foster art – and social activism – among diverse communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, her home since relocating her family from Harlem to escape the crack epidemic. As Edy is shown working with children on art projects, she reveals her background, which includes an early upbringing by an Orthodox Jewish family, and contributions to local murals focused on African-American, women, and HIV/AIDS issues, and, to a broader extent, to public art which helps uplift disadvantaged communities. Edy is an appealing, positive subject, but Morris’ storytelling is unfortunately erratic, pingponging between two many themes and too-awkwardly shoehorning a consideration of Black Lives Matters. While Edy’s nephew, Eric Garner, was a victim of excessive police force, the film’s attempt to address this feels too separate from the rest of the project and not sufficiently developed, making it an ill fit for what is otherwise a likeable, if smaller, profile of the inspirational power of art.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s American Experience tonight, Tuesday, February 14:
RUBY RIDGE
Director:
Barak Goodman
Premiere:
American Experience (February 2017)
About:
The story of a tragic standoff between US marshals and a separatist family.
A companion piece that grew out of Goodman’s fellow American Experience project, OKLAHOMA CITY, this is a harrowing account of the deadly 192 confrontation between Randy Weaver and government forces that contributed to the motivations for the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing. While the subject of media fascination at the time, Ruby Ridge is less remembered today, making this hourlong chronicle a worthwhile primer, particularly given the present tenor of political dissatisfaction. Weaver and his wife Vicki, driven by apocalyptic beliefs and economic hardship, left Iowa to live off the grid and raise their family on a mountaintop in northern Idaho. Seeking some social contact, they began to attend gatherings at a nearby Aryan Nations compound, despite not fully embracing white supremacist beliefs. There, Weaver, seeking some extra cash, agreed to illegally saw off shotguns, leading to an attempt by an ATF agent to turn him into an informant. Refusing, Weaver instead hid out in his home for the better part of a year and a half, refusing to appear in court to deal with his weapons charge – and instigating the standoff that was to follow. Faced with a fugitive from justice, US marshals will called in to arrest Weaver, but the confluence of his remote home, tendency to carry arms, association with the Aryan Nations, and a fear he might harm his wife and children led to grave missteps that ultimately cost lives on both sides of the confrontation – and fomented anti-government sentiment in the process. In addition to other participants, including a US marshall and James “Bo” Gritz, who helped mediate Weaver’s eventual surrender, Goodman most affectingly relates this tragic episode through the perspective of Sara, the Weavers’ eldest child.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD via Amazon this week:
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 PBS’s Independent Lens tomorrow, Tuesday, February 14:
TOWER
Director:
Keith Maitland
Premiere:
SXSW 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Seattle, Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Melbourne, Fantasia, the Hamptons, BFI London, Sitges, Mill Valley
Notable Recognition:
The doc was shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
An animated re-telling of a sniper’s attack on school campus in 1966.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s AfroPoP tonight, Monday, February 13:
OMO CHILD: THE RIVER AND THE BUSH
Director:
John Rowe
Premiere:
Washington DC Independent Film Festival 2015
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Cleveland, Sun Valley, Tallgrass, Denver, Palm Beach, BendFilm, United Nations Association
About:
A man takes a stand against an ancient tribal practice.
The Karo (or Kara) people of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley have long held onto a superstitious belief called mingi, which views physical disability, or unusual conditions of birth, as a curse that must be snuffed out lest it somehow infect the rest of the tribe. As a consequence, children born out of wedlock, physically deformed, twins, or whose upper teeth emerge before their lower teeth are put to death or separated from the tribe and left to die by exposure. This heartbreaking practice continued until the interventions of Lale Labuko, a young Karo tribesman who received a formal education outside of the tribe and later returned, offering to adopt mingi children himself and calling on tribal elders to end the tradition. Over several years, Rowe documents Labuko’s mission to change the culture of his people and to rescue the unwanted children. While the film lacks dynamism, adopting a slow-paced, direct-to-camera oral history approach that robs it of urgency, it is well-shot and hopeful, allowing it to connect with audiences.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, February 13:
ACCIDENTAL COURTESY: DARYL DAVIS, RACE & AMERICA
Director:
Matt Ornstein
Premiere:
SXSW 2016
Select Festivals:
Cleveland, Atlanta, Nashville, Montclair, Bergen
About:
A portrait of an African-American man who befriends KKK members.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
