Coming to VOD today, Monday, January 12 and to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 13: THE CASE AGAINST 8
Ben Cotner and Ryan White’s behind-the-scenes look at the Supreme Court fight over marriage equality debuted at Sundance last year, claiming a directing award. Its circuit also included SXSW, DOC NYC, Nantucket, Cleveland, DOXA, Hot Docs, Sarasota, and Dallas, among others. The Oscar shortlisted doc now comes to iTunes and to DVD.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s American Experience tomorrow, Tuesday, January 13: KLANSVILLE USA
Callie T Wiser’s exploration of the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s makes its debut as part of the 27th season of the venerable PBS program, and is based in part on the book by the same name by sociologist David Cunningham.
Wiser provides a brief but informative history lesson on the origins, rise, fall, rebirth (thanks to 1915’s THE BIRTH OF THE NATION), and second fall of the white supremacist organization before focusing in specifically on its eventual re-emergence and unanticipated growth after the Supreme Court struck down Plessy vs Ferguson‘s “separate but equal” doctrine in 1954’s Brown vs Board of Education. While the growth of the civil rights movement provided the impetus for the dormant for decades group to return in the segregationist South, Wiser’s film seeks to explain how its traditionally most progressive state, North Carolina, became the KKK’s new base of power. While North Carolina sought a middle ground of gradual reform, a disaffected class of the white working poor grew increasingly resentful of the strides made by African Americans. The Klan offered a way to channel this group’s desire to not be on the bottom rung of society, with added incentive provided by their religious and anti-communist rhetoric. At the center of the North Carolina Klan was their Grand Dragon, Bob Jones, responsible for the massive expansion of the group, and the key figure of Wiser’s conventionally constructed, and very heavily narrated doc. She does a serviceable job of revealing the KKK’s history during this period, though the film’s limited running time precludes further expansion of its more interesting aspects, particularly the efforts of the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee to undermine Jones and dismantle his group’s credibility and power structure.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed on the WORLD Channel tomorrow, Tuesday, January 13: TRASH DANCE
Andrew Garrison’s profile of vehicular choreography made its bow at SXSW in 2012, garnering a special jury mention. Screenings followed at New Orleans, Full Frame, Silverdocs, SF DocFest, DocuWest, Warsaw, Heartland, DOXA, Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera, and Napa Valley, among others.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 13: VESSEL
Diana Whitten’s exploration of the fight for reproductive rights on the high seas debuted at SXSW this Spring, where it picked up both a special jury prize and an audience award. Its fest circuit has also included Nantucket, DOC NYC, Hot Docs, Sheffield, Jerusalem, Sarasota, and IFF Boston.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, January 12: EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL
Darius Clark Monroe’s confrontation with his own dark past bowed at SXSW last year. Its fest circuit has included New Orleans, Full Frame, Dallas, Los Angeles, BlackStar, and BAMcinemaFest, among others.
I previously wrote about the film upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD this coming Tuesday, January 13: EXPEDITION TO THE END OF THE WORLD
Daniel Dencik’s Arctic Circle odyssey had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in 2012. Screenings followed at True/False, Docville, Thessaloniki Doc, Planete+ Doc, Karlovy Vary, Los Angeles, AFI Docs, and Traverse City, among others.
I included the doc in my True/False coverage here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to select theatres starting today, Thursday, January 8: MEN OF THE CLOTH
Vicki Vasilopoulos’ profile of master tailors had its world premiere at DOC NYC in 2013. Other screenings include Montclair, LA Femme, and Hamptons Take 2 Doc fests.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
Italians Nino Corvato, Joe Centofanti, and Checchino Fonticoli are master tailors who have spent years perfecting all the skills necessary to construct flawless custom-made suits for their clients in NYC, Philadelphia and Penne, Italy, a fascinating process broken down step by step here. As they grow older, they fear their Old World knowledge will vanish with them. Enter Joe Genuardi, a tailoring apprentice who reflects the resurgence of popular interest in artisanal craftsmanship as an alternative to corporate mass production, providing hope for the future of the craft.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres this Friday, January 9 and also screening as part of the JCC in Manhattan’s CineMatters series this weekend: FAREWELL HERR SCHWARZ
Yael Reuveny’s investigation into her great-uncle’s disappearance during the Holocaust debuted at Haifa in 2013, where it won the Best Israeli Documentary. Other fest berths included DOK Leipzig, Cottbus, and at the Miami, Toronto, and Palm Beach Jewish fests, among others.
Reuveny is part of Israel’s third generation, the grandchild of Holocaust survivor Michla Schwarz, whose stories of survival and loss the filmmaker grew up listening to. Michla – who believed herself to be her family’s sole survivor after her beloved brother Feiv’ke failed to make a pre-arranged meeting at a train station in Lodz, Poland – moved to Israel, raised a family, and cursed Germany for the rest of her unhappy life. Reuveny recognizes that her own decision to move to Germany would not have been met with approval by Michla – as it is, her mother, Etty, Michla’s daughter, isn’t particularly happy about it either – but Reuveny was drawn there because of the fate of Michla’s family. Shortly before her grandmother’s death, Yael learns that Feiv’ke survived the concentration camps, but surprisingly elected to stay in the same small German town where he had been imprisoned, changed his name to Peter, and married a German woman. Reuveny sets out to understand why – and why Feiv’ke never showed up in Lodz or ever contacted Michla – and in the process explores the impact of Michla and Feiv’ke’s splintering on three generations of their families. While personal quests can more often than not feel incredibly self-indulgent, in this case Reuveny successfully broadens the questions raised by the decisions of her great-uncle and his offspring – not to mention her own – into a thoughtful consideration of modern Jewish identity and the legacy of the Holocaust.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
New to DVD this week: AI WEIWEI: THE FAKE CASE
Andreas Johnsen’s detailing of the Chinese government’s continued persecution of the activist artist debuted at IDFA in 2013. It also screened at Hot Docs, One World, Istanbul, Tempo, Tampere, and DocsBarcelona, among others.
I previously wrote about the film upon its theatrical release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America Reframed series tonight, Tuesday, January 6: PURGATORIO
Rodrigo Reyes’ meditation on the US/Mexico border debuted at Guadalajara in 2013. It went on to screen at Los Angeles, New Orleans, Ann Arbor, San Diego Latino, Chicago, Documentary Fortnight, and Traverse City, among others.
Reimagining the dangerous, expansive, and heavily politicized border between America and its southern neighbors as the middle, purifying realm in Dante’s allegorical DIVINE COMEDY, Reyes dispenses with explicit rhetoric in this essay film to instead present a series of snapshots of life along this limbo region. To the South, there is poverty, violence, drugs, and crime – a general sense of lawlessness pervades. To the North, there’s a dogged focus on the border, from those who would try to help desperate, thirsty people making the treacherous journey, to their opposing number, who make it their mission to remove any potential aid. Despite this confrontation with such bleakness, the film’s haunting camerawork is able to find beauty where the viewer would least expect.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 