Coming to DVD and VOD today, Monday, January 9:
SOUTHWEST OF SALEM: THE STORY OF THE SAN ANTONIO FOUR
Director:
Deborah S Esquenazi
Premiere:
Tribeca 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sheffield, DocuWest, AFI Docs, Frameline, Outfest, Inside Out
About:
Four Latina lesbians seek exoneration for a shocking miscarriage of justice.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to HBO tomorrow, Saturday, January 7: BRIGHT LIGHTS: STARRING CARRIE FISHER AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS
Directors:
Alexis Bloom & Fisher Stevens
Premiere:
Cannes 2016
Select Festivals:
Telluride, New York, Chicago, AFI Fest
About:
A portrait of the famed mother/daughter celebrities, who recently died just one day apart.
It’s hard not to watch Bloom and Stevens’ loving film as a bittersweet elegy in the wake of Fisher and Reynolds’ passing, though of course there was no predicting at the time of its making that Fisher, at the least, would be dead just days after Christmas 2016. Reynolds, on the other hand, is shown in the film to be slowing down and experiencing some health concerns, lending an air of prescient urgency to this enjoyable celebrity profile. Bloom and Stevens deftly manage to convey the breadth of both women’s lives and careers, while more intimately capturing the messy but loving bond between them. Living next door to one another, they demonstrate a caring, symbiotic relationship, but they also reference past tensions. This is nicely showcased in an early clip in which Reynolds puts a teenage Fisher on the spot to perform, begrudgingly, speaking to the inescapable complexity that came from growing up with celebrity. Ultimately, however, it’s clear that the two legends had long ago made their peace, and audiences are fortunate to have this bouncy, entertaining chronicle of their lives together.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, January 6: ACCIDENTAL COURTESY: DARYL DAVIS, RACE & AMERICA
Director:
Matt Ornstein
Premiere:
SXSW 2016, special jury award
Select Festivals:
Cleveland, Atlanta, Nashville, Montclair, Bergen
About:
A portrait of an African-American man who befriends KKK members.
Daryl Davis is a long-time professional musician, but it’s his avocation that makes him more distinct: Unable to understand how someone who didn’t know him could hate him, the middle-aged African-American man has regularly contacted and eventually befriended dozens of members of the Ku Klux Klan for decades. While often initially finding resistance, his perseverance, and, critically, his willingness to listen, has led to unlikely friendships and understanding, and, in several cases, contributed to diehard KKK members leaving the organization and renouncing their racist worldview. Ornstein follows Davis around the country as he speaks with current and past members of hate groups, in addition to being confronted by Black Lives Matter activists who find his form of activism ineffective and inappropriate. While Davis is able to hold his own, and recognizes the slow nature of the kinds of relationships he has built, he still sees the value in maintaining dialogue with opponents in our polarized, echo-chamber society. Although Ornstein captures some thought-provoking interactions and effectively conveys Davis’ mission, he stumbles in devoting too much of the film to his subject’s frankly much less interesting music background.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to A&E tomorrow, Saturday, January 17: LIFE, ANIMATED
Director:
Roger Ross Williams
Premiere:
Sundance 2016, US Documentary Directing Award
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, DOC NYC, True/False, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Full Frame, San Francisco, DocAviv, Transilvania, Sundance London, Los Angeles, Sheffield, Sydney
Notable Recognition:
The doc has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
Disney animated films provide a means of communication between a family and their autistic son.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 6: A DIFFERENT AMERICAN DREAM
Director:
Simon Brook
Premiere:
Thessaloniki Doc 2016
Select Festivals:
Margaret Mead, Reykjavik, American Indian Film Festival, Red Nation
About:
Native Americans reflect on the impact of the oil industry on their land.
The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is located in the Badlands of North Dakota, site of the largest shale oil field on the continent. In the wake of its discovery, the oil industry descended on the community, enriching a handful in the short-term but harming thousands more, in the view of several tribe members featured in Brook’s doc. While it’s clear that the filmmakers are earnest about giving voice to and defending the rights of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes that call Fort Berthold home, the film is workmanlike at best in its construction, and lacks a compelling, forward momentum, choosing instead to introduce talking head after talking head voicing their sad but familiar complaints about the environmental and cultural damage being done by the oil industry.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix this Saturday, January 7: MISS SHARON JONES!
Director:
Barbara Kopple
Premiere:
Toronto 2015
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Nantucket, Montclair, Dallas, Sarasota, Sydney, DocPoint, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, New Zealand, SXSW, IDFA, AFI Docs
About:
The soul singer struggles to recover after a cancer diagnosis.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to VOD on Netflix this week: THE LAND OF THE ENLIGHTENED
Director:
Pieter-Jan De Pue
Premiere:
Sundance 2016, World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Best Cinematography
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, True/False, Karlovy Vary, Hong Kong, Hot Docs, Docs Against Gravity, Biografilm, Sydney, New Zealand, Melbourne, Munich, Camden
About:
A hybrid exploring the wild, wild west of Afghanistan.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
New to VOD this week: DON’T BLINK – ROBERT FRANK
Director:
Laura Israel
Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2015
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Palm Springs, Berlin, Portland, Hong Kong, Full Frame, IndieLisboa, Munich Dokfest, Provincetown, Jerusalem, Melbourne, London
About:
An impressionistic portrait of the pioneering documentary photographer and filmmaker.
Frank is best-known for his provocative, candid 1958 book of black-and-white photography, THE AMERICANS, produced over the course of a nine-month trip through 30 states, and as the director of the notorious unreleased 1972 Rolling Stones documentary, COCKSUCKER BLUES. Like that chronicle of the band’s 1972 tour, Israel takes a somewhat freeform approach here, rather than a traditional, strictly biographical one. As signaled by its title, the film barrages the viewer with examples of the artist’s striking work – sometimes too quickly, frankly – and otherwise peppers the proceedings with background and present-day scenes showing the still very active nonagenarian at work. While sometimes not wholly satisfying as a result, the effort is distinctive and matches its subject quite appropriately.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to DVD today, Tuesday, January 3: AT THE FORK
Director:
John Papola
Premiere:
Tugg’s theatrical-on-demand, Summer 2016
About:
A look at farming and food choices.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, January 3: EERO SAARINEN: THE ARCHITECT WHO SAW THE FUTURE
Director:
Peter Rosen
Premiere:
NYC’s Architecture & Design Film Festival 2016
Notable Screenings:
American Masters
About:
A profile of the pioneering architect.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
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