Category Archives: Releases

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.

Coming to the World Channel’s Doc World series this Sunday, November 6: A GOAT FOR A VOTE

Jeroen van Velzen’s made its world premiere on Dutch television in 2014. Its festival circuit included Traverse City, Sarasota, Camden, Movies That Matter, and One World, among others.

A look at African democracy in a microcosm, van Velzen’s appealing project follows a secondary school presidential election in a small Kenyan village. The three-way race is between Said, a popular rich kid; Harry, a quiet boy from the poor side of the tracks; and Magdalene, who dreams of being the school’s first female president. While Said aims to charm his classmates by composing a catchy rap, Harry hits upon the idea of bribing voters with goat meat, and Magdalene attempts to disrupt the boys’ efforts by creating a unified female student voting bloc to place her in power. As a midlength, the film demonstrates compact observational storytelling – but perhaps a bit too compact, limiting van Velzen’s ability to fully flesh out his protagonists. Still, in a nation where many past federal elections have included charges of fraud and led to violence, this offers an interesting exploration of these young subjects’ perceptions of how political campaigns are meant to operate.

Coming to theatres and to VOD tomorrow, Friday, November 4: PETER AND THE FARM

Tony Stone’s portrait of an isolated farmer debuted at True/False at the beginning of the year. It went on to screen at New Directors/New Films, San Francisco, Melbourne, Camden, and Poland’s American fest, among other events.

Peter Dunning has worked his Mile Hill Farm for 35 years, and it has taken its toil. He came to Vermont as part of the back to the land movement, and for a time, Mile Hill was an idyllic place, drawing his friends and family together. Now 68 years old, Peter is alone, estranged from his grown children, his marriage having ended long ago, a victim of his depression and alcoholism. Somehow, he still maintains a wry humor, and a penchant for storytelling, preventing this artfully composed profile from feeling either exploitative or unrelentingly dark, leaving an indelible impression of the man and his work.