Category Archives: Releases

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed today, Tuesday, November 15: BY BLOOD

Marcos C Barbery and Sam Russell’s look at the contested identities of freed slaves had its world premiere at New Orleans in 2014. It also screened at Big Sky, Cleveland, deadCENTER, and the San Diego Black film fests.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS tonight, Monday, November 14: SOUNDBREAKING: STORIES FROM THE CUTTING EDGE OF RECORDED MUSIC

Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre’s series on music recording history debuted at SXSW. Its fest circuit has also included DOC NYC and San Francisco, among other events.

I previously wrote about the series for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Produced in association with The Beatles’ legendary producer, the late Sir George Martin, this upcoming PBS series ably takes on the daunting challenge of chronicling the history of music recording and producing. Organized thematically, each episode features scores of original interviews with some of the most celebrated recording artists of all time, from Paul McCartney and Roger Waters to Adele and Questlove, as it offers a behind-the-scenes look at the interaction between performer and technology in creating unforgettable music. Moving between past and present, the well-produced series tells the stories behind the sounds that have defined generations.

Coming to PBS tomorrow, Tuesday, November 15: RIKERS

Marc Levin, Mark Benjamin, and Rolake Bamgbose’s candid exploration of the notorious jail just had its world premiere at DOC NYC this past weekend. It now comes to Thirteen/WNET.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
From executive producer Bill Moyers and a team of producers that includes Marc Levin (CLASS DIVIDE) comes the first film to focus exclusively on former detainees of Rikers Island, offering searing testimonials about the deep-seated culture of systemic violence and corruption that has plagued the notorious NYC jail for decades. From the trauma of entry, through the jail’s brutal systems of control and punishment, to the challenges of life after prison, RIKERS serves as an indictment of mass incarceration.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, November 14: UNDERFIRE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF PFC TONY VACCARO

Max Lewkowicz’s tale of a soldier’s stunning photos of WWII made its premiere at Shanghai. It went on to screen at Margaret Mead, Tallgrass, Edmonton, San Diego, and GZDOC, among other events.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, November 11: DON’T LOOK DOWN

Daniel Gordon’s chronicle of Sir Richard Branson’s death-defying ballooning odysseys debuted at Tribeca this Spring. It also screened at the Newport Film Festival.

In 1987, not too long after Branson launched his upstart Virgin Airlines, he hit upon an out-of-the-box promotional idea: an attempt to beat the record for a cross-Atlantic hot air balloon journey, piloted by himself, a novice, and aided by veteran pilot Per Lindstrom – and, of course, plastering the Virgin logo on the giant balloon itself. A few years later, the savvy promoter attempted to recapture the buzz generated from that first, successful trip by ballooning across the Pacific – things didn’t go quite as smoothly, as recounted here. Despite the viewer knowing that, of course, Branson and Lindstrom survived these adventures, Gordon ably constructs an engaging, urgent retelling that serves up a nice amount of tension regardless, taking full advantage of access to breathtaking footage from the trips, archival materials from the press blitz, and interviews with the principals involved.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 11: NATIONAL BIRD

Sonia Kennebeck’s look at the consequences of whistleblowing on the US drone program had its world premiere at Berlin this year. Its festival circuit also included Tribeca, San Francisco, Sheffield, Sydney, Melbourne, Camden, Hamburg, and Zurich, among others.

Kennebeck profiles three individuals directly involved with the military drone program. Daniel, who finds himself the subject of an FBI raid, is an anti-establishment peace activist who has some undisclosed connection to drones. Lisa, a former drone technical expert who helped identify targets, is haunted by the collateral damage of her work, visiting Afghanistan to see the consequences on innocent civilians of so-called surgical precision strikes. Finally, Heather, a former analyst, tasked with deciphering often-unclear drone imagery to determine if someone is a child or a combatant, suffers from PTSD, but must fight to get treatment since she was not in physical combat. Because of the potential of being charged as traitors under the 1917 Espionage Act, Kennebeck’s subjects are often constrained from revealing too much about what they know or even what their roles specifically are, in some ways dulling the potential impact of the film, but in other ways lending it an ominous undertone that suits the subject matter, and sparking necessary questions from the viewer about the human costs of this modern form of combat.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, November 11: THE ANTHROPOLOGIST

Seth Kramer, Daniel A Miller, and Jeremy Newberger’s look at climate change through cultural anthropology had its world premiere at DOC NYC last year. Screenings followed at Cleveland, Dallas, RiverRun, Minneapolis, IFF Boston, Cucalorus, and San Francisco Green, among other fests.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
At the core of Kramer, Miller, and Newberger’s film are the parallel stories of two women: Margaret Mead, who popularized cultural anthropology in America; and Susie Crate, an environmental anthropologist currently studying the impact of climate change. Uniquely revealed from their daughters’ perspectives, Mead and Crate demonstrate a fascination with how societies are forced to negotiate the disruption of their traditional ways of life, whether through encounters with the outside world or the unprecedented change wrought by melting permafrost, receding glaciers, and rising tides.

Coming to Showtime tomorrow, Saturday, November 5: ZERO DAYS

Alex Gibney’s look at cyberwarfare made its bow at Berlin this year. Screenings have followed at Nantucket, AFI Docs, Sydney, Edinburgh, Biografilm, Jerusalem, and New Zealand, among other festivals.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 4: THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES

Brett Story’s meditation on the impact of the prison system across America premiered at True/False this year. Additional screenings included Hot Docs, Art of the Real, Camden, Reykjavik, Ann Arbor, DOXA, and New Orleans, among other events.

The United States leads the world in mass incarceration, making the criminal justice system a sadly perennial topic for documentary filmmakers. Story’s project takes a distinctly different approach in her consideration of the prison-industrial complex – chiefly, she never shows a prison on camera or enters into a cell. Instead, the film offers a series of vignettes demonstrating the less visible signs of our society’s penchant for criminalization and punishment and the consequences for individuals, communities, families, and economies. Stories range from a former prisoner turned park chess player and a man who has developed a cottage industry in supplying prison-approved goods for sale to the family members of the incarcerated, to a former Kentucky coal town now dependent on a prison for jobs and an African American woman who demonstrates racially-motivated policing through her experience of serving two weeks in prison for a minor trashcan violation on her own property. While diffuse in its scope by design, the film effectively builds to a damning indictment of the systemic injustices of policies in dire need of a radical overhaul.