Category Archives: Releases

Coming to HBO tomorrow, Tuesday, August 4: BACK ON BOARD: GREG LOUGANIS

Cheryl Furjanic’s portrait of the Olympic diving champion made its bow at AFI Docs last year. Its fest circuit also included DOC NYC, New Orleans, Hamptons, Palm Springs, Big Sky, Cleveland, Hot Springs Doc, Ashland, Frameline, Outfest, and other fests on the LGBT circuit, including Portland, Seattle, Miami, Denver, Honolulu, and Boston.

I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
This strikingly candid profile explores the triumphs and tragedies of Greg Louganis, considered by many the greatest diver of all time. A four-time Olympian, Louganis became a household name and an inspiration to countless athletes, but after he publicly revealed his sexuality and HIV status, the backlash cost him dearly. BACK ON BOARD follows Louganis as he simultaneously faces the loss of his home and the possibility of redemption, returning to the diving board to mentor the 2012 US Olympic diving team.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, August 3: TOE TAG PAROLE: TO LIVE AND DIE ON YARD A

Alan Raymond and Susan Raymond’s exploration of life in prison without the hope of parole makes its world premiere on the acclaimed cable network.

Set in the maximum-security California State Prison in the Mojave Desert, the film focuses on its Progressive Programming Facility, also referred to as Yard A or the Honor Yard, a program specifically geared to inmates sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. For this population of 600, Yard A provides a refuge from the culture of violence that plagues most prisons: Beyond offering opportunities to focus on spirituality, art, and music, a pre-requisite of participating in the program is the eschewal of longstanding prison mores like drugs, gang activity, and self-imposed racial segregation. The filmmakers profile several of the inmates, identifying their crimes, and showcasing the programs they’re engaged in, from painting murals to anger management. While some interviewees cling to their claims of innocence, others own up to their crimes, reconciled to the reality that, barring a legislative change, they will die in prison, since, as one inmate notes, life without parole is essentially just another kind of death sentence. Coming at a time when prison reform has entered the national dialogue, the Raymonds’ candid film also draw attention to the nation’s often excessive sentencing laws, which finds nonviolent and violent offenders alike caught in the prison-industrial complex, including juvenile offenders deprived of any hope of release no matter whether they are rehabilitated or not.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, July 28: REVENGE OF THE MEKONS

Joe Angio’s exploration of the enduring band had its world premiere at DOC NYC in 2013. Its fest circuit also included Cucalorus, Leeds, Milwaukee, DOXA, Sarasota, and In-Edit Barcelona, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to Logo as part of their Logo Documentary Films series tonight, Monday, July 27: MATT SHEPARD IS A FRIEND OF MINE

Michele Josue’s personal reflection on her fallen friend debuted at Mill Valley in 2013. Screenings followed at DOC NYC, IDFA, Cleveland, CNEX Taipei Doc, St Louis, Miami LGBT, Toronto’s Inside Out, and Russia’s Side by Side LGBT fests, among others.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to PBS’s POV tonight, Monday, July 27: TEA TIME

Maite Alberdi’s loving look at a group of longtime friends debuted at SANFIC last year. It went on to screen at IDFA, True/False, Miami, Ambulante, BAFICI, Doc Aviv, Seattle, Sydney, and Sheffield, among others.

Since they graduated from high school, a close group of Chilean women have hosted a small tea party once a month – for the past sixty years. One of these women is Maria Theresa, Alberdi’s grandmother, and the film’s primary guide to the proceedings. These lively meetings have sustained them through radical changes to their nation and to more personal changes to their lives, from marriages and divorces, to births and deaths, with seemingly the only constant being the enduring friendship and love between this tight circle. Shot over the course of several years which saw their own measure of change, as the friends have to confront sickness and aging among their own group, Alberdi’s film offers the viewer a place at the table to listen in to the gossip, recognize each woman’s quirks, and to be charmed by them all while witnessing the elaborate pastry spreads they’ve painstakingly organized.

New to DVD this week: I AM FEMEN

Alain Margot’s profile of the controversial Ukrainian feminist group debuted at Visions du Réel last year. Screenings have followed at CPH:DOX, Locarno, Haifa, Thessaloniki Doc, Stockholm, and Santa Barbara, among others.

Margot’s film is the second Femen documentary to make its way on the international festival circuit and into limited release after Kitty Green’s UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL, which debuted at Venice in 2013. While I have not written here about Green’s film, its take on the “sextremist” group is far more critical, even sinister, postulating that the true leader of the group is actually a man, Viktor Sviatsky, and that the women he recruits aren’t particularly that invested in Femen’s causes and instead are picked to look beautiful topless and generate media attention. Margot’s take is far more straightforward, and doesn’t even hint at any of these allegations, which Femen members substantiated in their promotion of Green’s film, though they note that Viktor was ejected from the group in 2012. Margot’s film begins in 2012 as well, and focuses primarily on one of the founders, artist Oksana Shachko, also featured in Green’s film. Through the course of the doc, Oksana and her fellow activists stage protests around a number of causes, opening with the condemnation of the Ukrainian justice system for failing to punish the rapists/murderers of one of their Femen sisters, and proceeding to animal abuse and support for Pussy Riot, among others. Margot provides some degree of background on Oksana, such as her early interest in religious iconography and desire to join a convent, but mostly concentrates on her activist work, and the sacrifices she’s willing to make in the name of justice. If Margot’s film lacks the surprise of Green’s, it manages to find a compelling figure in Oksana, one who can speak articulately about the intersection of sex, bodies, and politics that motivates Femen’s actions.