Category Archives: Releases

Coming to NYC’s Quad Cinema today, Friday, April 26 and to VOD next Tuesday, April 30: ONE NIGHT STAND

Elisabeth Sperling and Trish Dalton’s chronicle of the making of four musicals over the course of just 24 hours debuted at NewFest in 2011, winning the doc audience award. It went on to screen at Austin, Denver, Miami, RiverRun, and Nashville, among others, and previously came to theatres for a one-night-only event this past January. The doc will be available on iTunes next week.

I previously wrote about the doc upon its initial release here.

Coming to DVD (in a double-disc release with ONLY THE YOUNG) next Tuesday, April 30: TCHOUPITOULAS

The Ross Brothers’ exploration of nocturnal New Orleans made its world premiere at SXSW last year. Its fest circuit included Silverdocs, BAMcinemaFest, CPH: DOX, Hot Docs, and Dallas, among others.

I included the doc in my SXSW roundup here.

Coming to DVD (in a double-disc release with TCHOUPITOULAS) next Tuesday, April 30: ONLY THE YOUNG

Elizabeth Mims and Jason Tippet’s study of friendship in adolescence debuted at True/False last year. Its festival circuit included stops at San Francisco, Hot Docs, Silverdocs, and AFI Fest, picking up awards at the latter two fests.

I included the doc in my Hot Docs roundup here.

Coming to theatres via Cinedigm’s Docurama initiative next Tuesday, April 30: ¡VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS!

Victor Kossakovsky’s stunning exploration of global opposites made its debut as one of the opening night films for Venice in 2011. It has had an extensive festival run, including Message to Man, DOK Leipzig, Doha Tribeca, IDFA, Docpoint, Ambulante, Documentary Fortnight, True/False, It’s All True, San Francisco, and Hot Docs, among many others. The film is part of Cinedigm’s new seven-film program bringing feature documentaries to theatres weekly in up to fifteen US markets, including NYC, LA, Pasadena, Encino, San Diego, Palm Desert, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, Cleveland, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Hartford, New Haven, Ithaca, Richmond, and Helena. The films are also available for additional theatrical-on-demand screenings via Tugg. In NYC, the film will screen on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

I previously wrote about the doc out of Hot Docs here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, April 23: THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE

Sarah Burns, David McMahon, and Ken Burns’ exploration of the miscarriage of justice around a horrific crime had its world premiere at Cannes last year. The film’s festival circuit also included Telluride, Toronto, and DOC NYC, among others. In addition to a theatrical and VOD release, the doc was broadcast on PBS last week.

I previously wrote about the film out of Toronto here.

Coming to LA’s Downtown Independent and Chicago’s Facets Cinematheque this Friday, April 19 and to NYC’s Cinema Village on Friday, May 3: UNMADE IN CHINA

Tanner King Barklow and Gil Kofman’s misadventures in Chinese filmmaking made its debut at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, where it took home an award for best doc. It received another award at Edmonton, and has played a handful of other fests since, including St Louis and Sun Valley.

American indie film director Kofman is hired by Chinese producers to adapt and direct one of his screenplays, CASE SENSITIVE, for a Chinese audience. Although he is able to use some of his own team, the majority of the crew is Chinese, and, as he finds out, his backers aren’t exactly hands off. When Barklow learned about the project, he followed along, documenting the making of the film, and, as Kofman notes at the doc’s beginning, its unmaking. Adapting the old adage that films are made three times, in the writing, the shooting, and the editing, Barklow and Kofman bemusedly demonstrate how each of these facets are undermined during their China experience – scripts are rewritten by an overzealous and distrustful translator, without informing the director; equipment is sold by the crew for a quick buck; a passionate DP is fired for being too demanding, against Kofman’s wishes; the director’s edit is recut to produce an indecipherable narrative; and contract agreements are ignored, leading to non-stop work, headaches, and unpaid salaries. Films about the making of films, and especially behind-the-scene docs about disastrous projects, are nothing new – it’s a subgenre in itself – and, in many ways, Barklow and Kofman’s film follows the expected trajectory to provide an audience with the appropriate mixture of gleeful schadenfreude and genuine sympathy. What is different here is the Communist Chinese context and the smart decision to highlight the absurdity of the situation rather than a misplaced sense of righteous outrage. Not enough of CASE SENSITIVE is shown for the viewer to really make an absolute judgement on its artistic merit, but one suspects it was probably never going to be an Oscar contender anyway. Given this, the film isn’t about how the Chinese system ruined a would-be masterpiece, but more about how the corruption unmade the American filmmakers’ expectations of how films should be made. As such, it provides a funny, engaging, and simultaneously insider and outsider look at the compromises placed on creativity and art in a traditionally controlling system that is awkwardly flirting with at least the pretense of more openness.