New to DVD this week: WE COULD BE KING
Judd Ehrlich’s look at a high school football team debuted at Tribeca this Spring. It went on to be broadcast on ESPN.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Category Archives: Releases
On DVD: WE COULD BE KING
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA
Newly available on DVD this week: ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA
Shirley Clarke’s freeform profile of a modern jazz master debuted at Toronto in 1985. Rarely seen for years, the documentary was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, screened at Berlin in 2012, and was re-released theatrically that same year. In addition to the release of the restored version on DVD, the film comes to Blu-ray for the first time ever.
In what ended up as the pioneering director’s final film, Clarke set out to capture the freewheeling sense of her subject, jazz musician Ornette Coleman, without exactly crafting either a traditional biography or concert film. Elements of both appear, but they’re joined by eclectic flights of fancy, from re-enactments to video game effects, strobelike editing to bizarre lunar animations. Grounding the film is “Skies of America,” the avant-garde score Coleman composed for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra – in addition to footage of the performance on a day honoring native son Coleman in 1983, it plays in the background throughout Clarke’s unusually constructed, non-linear project, which attempts to convey a sense of Coleman’s humble beginnings; his relationship with his son, also a member of his band; his creative process; and his varied inspirations and influences. Frankly, it’s a tall order – despite its at times refreshing resistance to conventions, the film feels messy rather than strongly connected to Coleman’s work or approach, with the special video effects looking especially dated. Despite this, interviews with the soft-spoken Coleman – and for music lovers, his performance footage – make Clarke’s film a worthwhile, if uneven, watch.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
In Theatres: LEVITATED MASS
Coming to NYC theatres this Friday, November 14: LEVITATED MASS
Doug Pray’s charting of the construction of a massive art project premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival last year. Its fest circuit included DOC NYC, Florida, Cleveland, Napa Valley, Martha’s Vineyard, and Sebastopol Doc, among others. After a theatrical run in Los Angeles this past September, it now opens in NYC.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On VOD: PEOPLE’S PARK
Coming to VOD via iTunes today, Tuesday, November 11: PEOPLE’S PARK
Libbie D Cohn and JP Sniadecki’s single-take tour through a Chinese park debuted at Locarno in 2012. Its fest circuit has included Vancouver, Beijing Independent, Doclisboa, Viennale, Punto de Vista, Cinéma du Réel, New Directors/New Films, It’s All True, Edinburgh, Margaret Mead, RIDM, and the Whitney Biennial, among others. After its iTunes exclusive release, the film will be released on other major VOD platforms next Tuesday, November 18.
A project of Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, Cohn and Sniadecki’s film aims to bring an immersive aspect to traditional models of ethnographic documentary. In this case, the method employed is a continuous take which lasts for the entirety of the film’s 75 minute running time, absent the brief end credits. Shot in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province, the film presents the various goings-on within the bustling titular public space, bookended by the spectacle of public dancing. Along their measured, circuitous path through the park, Cohn and Sniadecki – the former shooting while seated in a wheelchair pushed by the latter, creating their own low-cost dolly, and in the process approximating a child’s perspective, perhaps intentionally, so as to engender a sense of exploration and wonderment – capture the anonymous masses enjoying their State-sanctioned leisure time, pouring drinks at picnic tables, rowing boats in the lake, buying shish kabobs, sitting for a chat, or, more often, acknowledging the presence of the filmmakers, whether by averting their gaze, flashing a quick peace sign, or simply looking back quizzically. As a result, the sense of immersion is constantly questioned, the camera a brief disruption to the everyday activities it attempts to document. Calling attention to itself, the film underscores its status as an experiment more than a genuine experience of immersion, which seems to be its point. Now, whether the film needed over an hour to establish that is the bigger question – it makes for a diverting virtual tour for a short jaunt, but isn’t quite commanding enough to prevent the mind from wandering away from the park and into other terrain.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On VOD: I AM SANTA CLAUS
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, November 11: I AM SANTA CLAUS
Tommy Avallone’s 365-day Santa profile premiered at the Hollywood Film Festival last month. After a series of one-night-only screenings last week, the Morgan Spurlock executive produced doc comes to VOD platforms.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: WALKING THE CAMINO
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, November 11: WALKING THE CAMINO: SIX WAYS TO SANTIAGO
Lydia Smith’s look at the famous Spanish pilgrimage premiered at Ashland last year. It went on to Newport Beach, Galway, American Doc, Heartland, and Hollywood, among others, followed by a limited theatrical release this Summer.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
On DVD/VOD: BRIDGEND
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11: BRIDGEND
John Michael Williams’ exploration of a rash of teen suicides seems to have bypassed film festival screenings and to go directly to to DVD, as well as to VOD exclusively via Netflix.
Beginning in 2007, the titular South Wales town has seen scores of deaths by suicide – mostly by hanging, absent suicide notes, and by young people. From the first reported discovery of the body of eighteen-year-old Dale – who had been missing for several months – in an amusement park, to the subsequent suicide of one of his best friends, David, six weeks later, theories have abounded of a serial killer, suicide pacts, Internet cults, or other nefarious explanations. As more teenagers fell victim, the media circus grew, particularly when young women started to kill themselves. Williams’ film examines this unusual incidence rate from an inside perspective, through interviews with family members and friends of the deceased, witnesses who found bodies, and coroners and other authorities. While some offer explanations – the dead-end nature of Bridgend itself, a former market town with no major industry or opportunities left save its nightlife, or the idea of contagion, with the first suicide serving as a trigger to others predisposed to taking their own lives – the film’s strength lies in the haunting presence of the departed – one young man interviewed here was later to take his own life – and in the emotional resonance their loss has had on those left behind.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: PORTRAIT OF JASON
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11: PORTRAIT OF JASON
Shirley Clarke’s seminal look at black gay male identity debuted at the New York Film Festival in 1967. Milestone Films and the Academy Film Archive debuted the restored film at Berlin last year, followed by a theatrical re-release and festival screenings at London, Poland’s American Film Festival, CPH:DOX, and the upcoming IDFA. This release also marks the first time the film has ever been available on Blu-ray.
I wrote about the film upon its theatrical re-release here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD/VOD: THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11: THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME
Sterlin Harjo’s excavation of the past through music bowed at Sundance this year. It has gone on to screen at Seattle, deadCENTER, Milwaukee, and IMAGINEnative, among others.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
In Theatres: VIRUNGA
Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 7: VIRUNGA
Orlando von Einsiedel’s chronicle of Congo’s imperiled national park bowed at Tribeca. Its extensive fest circuit has included Hot Docs, DOXA, Mountainfilm at Telluride, AFI Docs, Edinburgh, Traverse City, Melbourne, Camden, Reykjavik, Antenna, and Abu Dhabi.
Congo’s Virunga National Park is a breathtakingly beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site that serves as a sanctuary for the world’s dwindling population of mountain gorillas, not to mention a rich diversity of other fauna and flora. Charged with overseeing this national treasure are Belgian park warden Emmanuel de Merode and his deputy, Rodrigue Mugaruka Katembo, dedicated to protecting the wildlife from poachers, and increasingly concerned by the presence of armed guerrilla fighters M23, who threaten to reignite civil war. Joining them at the center of von Einsiedel’s film are Andre Bauma, a caretaker of the park’s endangered gorillas, and Melanie Gouby, an intrepid French journalist whose undercover work here lends the doc some of its most enraging moments. As is soon revealed, the park, and this quartet, are threatened by a far more dangerous foe – the oil industry. British company SOCO International is deadset on exploiting Virunga for its oil deposits, and is willing to partner with M23 to clear out the park of anyone that stands in their way. Expertly melding elements of social issue doc, investigative journalism, and thriller, von Einsiedel crafts a compelling, vital exposé of corporate greed and environmental disregard.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 