Category Archives: Releases

Coming to ESPN as part of its 30 for 30 series tomorrow, Saturday, December 10: CATHOLICS VS CONVICTS

Patrick Creadon’s look back at an infamous college football rivalry debuted at Chicago this Fall. It has also screened at Denver.

In 1988, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the University of Miami Hurricanes were both undefeated, led by coaches with a contentious history. The rivalry consumed both campuses, inspiring Pat Walsh, an entrepreneurial student with athletic dreams of his own, to risk official censure by expanding his illegal dorm-room t-shirt-making business with a new release: a shirt boldly emblazoned with the slogan “Catholics vs Convicts.” Pressing the dichotomy between the teams – the traditional, conservative Notre Dame against the upstart Miami, whose players had had some run-ins with the law – the shirt was an instant hit and added fuel to the fire in the countdown to the teams’ gridiron face-off. Creadon, who was a Notre Dame student at the time and Walsh’s roommate, weaves the story of the infamous t-shirt through this recounting of the legendary rivalry and memorable game. While the background on the shirt doesn’t quite have enough heft to carry the project to the extent it’s focused on here, it offers an unusual angle through which to appreciate the larger story.

Coming to theatres and VOD tomorrow, Friday, December 9: HARRY BENSON: SHOOT FIRST

Justin Bare and Matthew Miele’s profile of the noted photographer had its debut at the Hamptons last year. It went on to screen at GlobeDocs, Tallgrass, Gold Coast, and Greenwich, among other festivals.

Photographer Harry Benson became well-known after he shot The Beatles landmark 1964 US tour, capturing iconic images like the Fab Four’s hotel pillow fight and their face-off with Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay). In the decades since, he developed a body of work of celebrity portraiture, covering actors, sports figures, and politicians, including the most reclusive of figures. As Bare and Miele demonstrate in their appreciative but light tribute, Benson’s work isn’t limited to the lighter side, and includes more serious subjects, from the civil rights movement to conflict zones. While they interview the charismatic and still-working octogenarian, the filmmakers never really find a narrative lens through which to approach their subject, resulting instead in a general survey of his illustrious career and iconic images.

New to DVD this week: FOR THE LOVE OF SPOCK

Adam Nimoy’s personal reflection on his famed father had its premiere at Tribeca this Spring. Screenings also included Fantasia, Sedona, Sitges, and at the San Francisco and San Diego Jewish fests.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, December 6: ALL EYES AND EARS

Vanessa Hope’s look at US/China relations debuted at San Francisco’s CAAMFest last year. Other festival screenings include Tribeca, Vancouver, Global Peace, Mill Valley, Bahamas, Karlovy Vary, and Galway. The doc now comes to VOD platforms including iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu, and Microsoft Movies & TV in the US, as well as on Blueshare in China.

Hope centers her film on former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who served in the post from 2009-2011. Following him and some of his accompanying family members around China, including his daughter Gracie, who was adopted from China as an infant, Hope is granted prime access and the authorization to shoot a high-level official diplomat as he tours around different areas in the country, but at the same time subject to Chinese interference, staging interactions with the ambassador and people on the street while also surreptitiously monitoring their movements. While the affable Huntsman demonstrates the careful balancing act that is his job, a more personal view comes via Gracie, whose bicultural background lends a symbolic weight to the Huntsmen family’s presence in China, which Hope seizes upon, making her the film’s sometime narrator. Though not quite afforded enough space in the thought-provoking film, a third figure emerges in Chen Guangchen, a noted attorney whose activism highlights human rights issues which complicate Huntsman’s position and the financial stakes at the core of the present-day US/Chinese relationship.