Category Archives: Releases

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, July 15: GARNET’S GOLD

Ed Perkins’ portrait of a man on a Quixotic quest debuted at Tribeca in 2014. Additional screenings have included Edinburgh, Biografilm, AmDocs, Documentary Edge, Docville, and South Africa’s Jozi festival, among other events.

Nearing 60 years old, Garnet Frost sadly reflects on a life that, in his estimation, hasn’t amounted to much. For the past two decades, he’s been haunted by a lost opportunity, at least in retrospect. While hiking in a remote part of Scotland, he lost his way and nearly lost his life. Just before he was rescued, Frost chanced upon a strange staff that he later determined was the marker for a cache of hidden treasure secreted there in 1746. Seeking a sense of worth – perhaps more figurative than literal, though both apply – the grizzled Frost assembles a small group of supporters, sheepishly borrows funds from his scene-stealing mother, and sets out to try to locate the lost treasure, based on little more than hazy memories of landmarks that might point him in the general direction. Surprisingly little time is spent on the actual treasure hunt – likely an admission that his protagonist has no chance of stumbling upon the same terrain he accidentally found twenty years prior – making this project more about a man at least finally reaching for a goal more than attaining it, which is well enough, though not without some meandering along the way. Still, Perkins’ film boasts such stunning cinematography which transports the viewer into the space of Garnet’s journey that these occasional excesses may be forgiven.

New to VOD this week: QUEEN MIMI

Yaniv Rokah’s portrait of a longterm homeless woman and her unlikely celebrity had its world premiere at Vail last year. Other screenings have included Sarasota, Haifa, Hot Springs Doc, San Francisco Doc, and the Bahamas.

For decades, Mimi Haist, now 90 years old, has been homeless, though the generosity of a Santa Monica laundromat owner has provided her with an unorthodox place to sleep each night, as well as an unofficial job. She’s a beloved fixture in the neighborhood, with her feisty attitude winning her ardent admirers over the years, including the occasional actor or actress. A friendship with comedian Zach Galifianakis, in particular, has been maintained since before his career blossomed, with Mimi accompanying him to red carpet events, and, ultimately, becoming the recipient of a more transformative gift. While Rokah delves a bit deeper into his subject’s history to try to ascertain how she ended up on the streets, this thread feels at odds with the lighter tone he uses up to this point – itself a somewhat odd choice given the serious topic of homelessness. The filmmaker is also too much of a presence in the film, lending it a rough and stretched thin feel, and suggesting the whole enterprise might have worked better in short form instead.

Coming to NYC’s Rooftop Films tonight, Monday, July 11, to theatres this Wednesday, July 13, and to VOD exclusively through Netflix this Friday, July 15: TONY ROBBINS: I AM NOT YOUR GURU

Joe Berlinger’s immersive look at the motivational speaker’s popular seminar debuted at SXSW earlier this year. The film has also screened at Hot Docs, Sheffield, Sarasota, Montclair, and Nashville.

Tony Robbins has made a career of offering pop psychology for a price to an audience hungry for personal transformation, whether in the realms of finance, relationships, or health. Berlinger, who has attended past seminars, invites viewers to attend the favorite of Robbins’ many speaking events – the intensive six-day “Date With Destiny.” When viewed within the context of a concert film, rather than a critical exploration (which this most certainly is not), Berlinger’s project offers a “you are there” experience, allowing the audience to witness the pyrotechnics both literal and metaphorical that take place when the toothy-grinned, gruff-voiced, and oddly charismatic host confronts attendees about issues that are holding them back from being fulfilled. The film captures several interventions, marked at the same time by both their clear emotional intensity and their too-surface treatment, as Robbins quickly cuts through any deep analysis to zero in, for good or ill, what he surmises to be at the root of the seminar attendee’s reason for speaking up – a young woman asking about diet concerns is cajoled into a teary admission of estrangement from her father; another woman is pressured into breaking up with her overly-nice boyfriend on the phone in the middle of the seminar audience (end cards reveal they get back together). While it’s clear that the self-selecting environment – audience members pay $5000 for the seminar – draws individuals predisposed to seek and accept all manners of advice, a more detached viewer is not likely to become convinced here. Extending the concert film comparison here, existing fans will find much to be enthusiastic about, while those who never cared for this kind of music won’t be rushing out to buy the next album.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, July 8: AT THE FORK

John Papola’s exploration of large-scale farming and food choices makes its debut theatrically via Tugg this month.

Perhaps hoping to distinguish his film from numerous others focused on similar concerns, Papola, a meat-eater married to Lisa, a vegetarian, uses their story as a starting point to look into the conundrums faced by both farmers and consumers seeking quality yet inexpensive food while still treating animals humanely. Papola and his wife pop up throughout the film, but this personal aspect to the story is not particularly developed nor does it ultimately have a satisfying narrative pay-off, making it feel like an ultimately unnecessary, somewhat half-formed, storytelling crutch. Leaving this aside, what remains is a sometimes effective survey of several farms using a variety of methods to raise chickens, cows, and pigs for the market, with forthright farmers noting the dilemmas they must face to balance productivity with animal welfare. Working in concert with these producers, Papola is granted notable access to their farms, resulting in a project that eschews the kind of undercover surveillance that has uncovered disturbing abuses within the industrial farming system in past nonfiction on the subject. While the filmmaker doesn’t stop eating meat, he does provide a call to action in the film’s credits to suggest helpful steps that consumers can take towards a better, more humane way of approaching food choices, including options that can remain palatable to other omnivores who are also unlikely to radically change their diets.