New to DVD this week: SHOWRUNNERS: THE ART OF RUNNING A TV SHOW
Des Doyle’s exploration of the television creative process made its premiere at Dublin’s Stranger Than Fiction doc festival. Screenings followed in Zurich, Austin, New York and Los Angeles.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres across the US tonight, Wednesday, September 9: HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD
Jerry Rothwell’s rousing history of Greenpeace made its world premiere at Sundance, where it picked up the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award. It has since screened at Nantucket, Hot Docs, True/False, DOXA, San Francisco Green, Sebastopol Doc, Sydney, and Telluride Mountainfilm, among others. More information on tonight’s screening may be found at Fathom Events.
I previously profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, September 8: BLACKOUT
Callie T Wiser’s revisitation of an infamous citywide power outage debuted as part of PBS’ American Experience series this Summer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, September 9: WELCOME TO LEITH
Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K Walker’s in-the-moment investigation of an attempted community takeover debuted at Sundance earlier this year. Other festival appearances have included Nantucket, SXSW, Dallas, Ashland, RiverRun, Sarasota, Montclair, Telluride Mountainfilm, Sydney, AFI Docs, New Zealand, Melbourne, and Sidewalk, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 8: THE LAST IMPRESARIO
Gracie Otto’s profile of an unsung creative made its bow at BFI London in 2013. Other screenings have included DOC NYC, Hamptons, Dubai, Glasgow, Biografilm, and Sydney.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 8: MISERY LOVES COMEDY
Kevin Pollak’s candid exploration of stand-up debuted at Sundance earlier this year. It went on to screen at Tribeca and to be released on VOD platforms.
I previously wrote about the film before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 4: A SINNER IN MECCA
Parvez Sharma’s clandestine chronicle of a pilgrimage made its debut at Hot Docs earlier this year. It has since screened at Sheffield and at Outfest, where it picked up an award.
Already marked as an infidel as a result of his previous film, A JIHAD FOR LOVE, which explored homosexuality among Muslims, Sharma has put himself at further risk in this far more personal follow-up. Despite a ban on photography and a death penalty for homosexuals, the filmmaker set out to secretly film his hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is of the utmost significance to Islam. Carrying scars from his late mother’s rejection of his sexuality, Sharma hopes to find a way to reconcile his faith and his homosexuality, espousing an Islam that is more loving in contrast to the ultraconservative branch that characterizes the Saudi faith, and that of much of the rest of the Middle East. Traveling doubly incognito, hiding both that he is gay and that he is filming, Sharma’s struggles are largely internal – while others occasional notice his activity, there’s no consequence beyond disapproval, and no one picks up on his sexuality. The viewer is thrown into his hajj, selfie-style, complete with endless walking, massive crowds, and Sharma’s occasionally funny moments of snark, as when he points out the rampant commercialism that has placed a mall just adjacent to the holiest of sites. Even if the filmmaker’s post-pilgrimage epiphany that he’s somehow now a better Muslim is inadequately explained, the experience of going through the hajj with him is unique and transgressive – at least for non-Muslims – lending the project its primary fascination.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres and VOD tomorrow, Friday, September 4: STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE
Alex Gibney’s exploration of the pioneering Apple co-founder made its debut at SXSW earlier this year. Other fests have included Nantucket, San Francisco, Seattle, AFI Docs, and Melbourne, among others.
I previously wrote about the film for Nantucket’s program, saying:
When Steve Jobs died in 2011, he left behind not only the Apple empire, with all of its MacBooks, iPhones, iPods, and iPads, but millions of devoted – if not rabid – followers of his cult of better living through technology. An iPhone devotee himself, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney sets out to understand the world-shaping genius and why he continues to engender such reverence. In the process, Gibney offers not only a candid look at the iconoclast’s many successes, but a critical examination of his failings, both professional and personal. Drawing from a wealth of archival interviews with Jobs, as well as new footage of former colleagues, the film crafts an engrossing portrait of a complex, influential, and flawed figure.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s American Masters tomorrow, Friday, September 4: ALTHEA
Rex Miller’s portrait of a sports pioneer had its premiere at DOC NYC last year. Since then, it has screened at Full Frame, AFI Docs, Palm Beach, Athena, and the American Black Film Festival, among other events.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
In the 1940s and 50s, long before Arthur Ashe or Venus and Serena Williams, Althea Gibson was the first African-American tennis player to become World Champion. Her singles wins at Wimbledon and Forest Hills drew worldwide attention and was celebrated with a ticker-tape parade along Broadway. Reintroducing the pioneering athlete to a new generation, Rex Miller’s bittersweet tribute reveals how a street kid from Harlem reached the pinnacle of an unlikely sport during the height of racial segregation.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD this week: THE DECENT ONE
Vanessa Lapa’s portrait of infamous SS commander Heinrich Himmler made its world premiere at Berlin last year. It went on to screen at Documenta Madrid, DOK.Fest Munich, Planete+ Doc, Jerusalem, Telluride, Bergen, Rio, Reykjavik, Vancouver, and ZagrebDox, among others.
Uniquely constructed around a cache of personal letters and documents discovered in Himmler’s home at the conclusion of WWII, Lapa’s film foregoes outside perspectives to present the life and crimes of the Nazi leader through his own and his immediate family’s words. Beyond the extensive archival period footage employed, the film makes use of voiceover actors to enact letters between Himmler, his mistress Hedwig, his wife Marga, and their daughter Gudrun – while they occasionally over-emote, once the conceit is firmly established, it generally works to provide a candid sense of the administrator’s reprehensible beliefs and self-serving sense of morality. At one moment enumerating his duties in overseeing genocide, and the next sending love letters to his mistress, expressing concerns for the well-being of the concentration camp operators while hand-waving mass murder as a service to racial purity, Himmler presents himself as a master compartmentalizer who is somehow able to rationalize his actions, and those of his party, as inexplicably “decent.” Where Lapa makes a critical error is in doubting the stark power of the archival footage at her disposal – rather than present it undoctored, she instead unwisely employs sound effects and music that gravely cheapens its impact.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
