Category Archives: Releases

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 12: HEIST: WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM?

Frances Causey and Donald Goldmacher’s exposé on corporate power made its premiere at the 2011 Mill Valley Film Festival. The doc went on to screen at a number of Occupy events, along with select festival engagements and a limited theatrical release.

I previously wrote about the film here.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 12: DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL

Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s appreciation of the fashion industry icon premiered at Venice in 2011. It went on to screen at Telluride, IDFA, San Francisco, and Silverdocs, among other festivals, and enjoyed a limited theatrical release last Fall.

I wrote about the film out of Silverdocs here.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, February 12: GIRL MODEL

Ashley Sabin and David Redmon’s provocative look at the dark side of international modeling premiered at Toronto in 2011. It’s gone on to screen at numerous festivals, including Camden, CPH: DOX, IDFA, Tallinn Black Nights, SXSW, Cleveland, Full Frame, DOXA, the Southern Circuit, and Rome, where it claimed two awards. It enjoyed a limited theatrical release this past Summer and is coming to POV next month.

I included the film in my Toronto coverage here.

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, February 12: PLANET OF SNAIL

Seung-Jun Yi’s acclaimed profile of a disabled couple premiered at IDFA in 2011, taking home the fest’s top prize. Its festival circuit has included Thessaloniki Doc, Tribeca, Planete Doc, Tempo Doc, Hot Docs, and Silverdocs, among others, and it enjoyed a theatrical run at NYC’s Film Forum this past Summer.

I included the doc in my IDFA coverage here.

Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, February 5: BROOKLYN CASTLE

Katie Dellamaggiore’s profile of the impact of a chess program on junior high school students premiered at SXSW last year, picking up an audience award in the process. It went on to screen extensively at other festivals, including Cleveland, Hot Docs, Dallas, and Silverdocs, among others. It becomes available on iTunes and Movies on Demand today.

I wrote about the doc out of SXSW here.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, February 5: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN

Linda Goldstein Knowlton’s exploration of cross-cultural adoption made its premiere at Hot Docs in 2011, where it won an audience award. Its festival circuit has included Vancouver, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Portland, and Sidewalk, among others. It continues to play around the US via theatrical screenings organized via Tugg.

I wrote about the doc out of Hot Docs here.

Available on DVD/VOD and screening tonight on PBS’ Independent Lens: AS GOES JANESVILLE

Brad Lichtenstein’s look at the wide-ranging impact of the closure of a GM plant premiered on Independent Lens last October. In addition to its national broadcast, the doc’s festival run has included Chicago, Milwaukee, Albuquerque, Kansas, and Oregon, with Big Sky coming up this month. FilmBuff has made the film available on VOD platforms including iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, Roxionow, Xbox, and Playstation.

Lichtenstein exposes the US financial crisis in microcosm, focusing on a small Wisconsin town over three years, beginning in 2009. Faced with the closure of a long-standing, job-providing GM auto plant, Janesville’s citizens are facing desperate times. While some workers are able to keep their jobs, they’re essentially forced to relocate or lose all their benefits, leading to subjects like Angie and Gayle leaving their families in order to provide for them. Others, like Cindy, depend on unemployment and federally-funded re-education programs, in the hopes that they’ll be able to find better jobs in the end. Meanwhile, local business leaders try to kickstart the economy by banding together to woo new enterprises to set up shop in their town, promising costly incentives in the form of tax breaks and reduced regulation. In the midst of this, Republican Governor Scott Walker begins his all-out assault on unions, precipitating massive protests and a divisive recall election. Balancing multiple threads, Lichtenstein’s eye-opening doc reveals the heavy price of partisan politics, corporate greed, and failed economic policies – with the average citizen left wondering how s/he will pay the bills.

Tied to tonight’s Independent Lens’ re-broadcast is the launch of BizVizz, a new iPhone app aiming to provide citizens with information about corporate accountability. Featuring 300 companies and nearly 1000 brands, the app displays a corporation’s tax data, government subsidies, and campaign donation records, helping consumers who want more transparency from the businesses they support. For more information about the app or to download it, visit its website.

Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, February 5: JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH WITH BILL MOYERS: 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

The seminal six-part series pairing comparative mythology scholar and author Joseph Campbell and noted public television journalist Bill Moyers was originally broadcast on PBS in the summer of 1988. A companion book was released at the same time, expanding on the conversations from the documentary series.

The program, which has proven to be among PBS’ most popular, introduced Campbell and his simple but profound mantra, “Follow your bliss,” to millions. College students at Sarah Lawrence – where Campbell was on faculty – and on campuses around the US were already familiar with his writing, especially through his influential The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which popularized the concept of the hero’s journey and was a mainstay of comparative religion and mythology courses. In Moyers’ series, Campbell emerged as an open, kindly, octogenarian sage, a friendly grandfatherly figure whose every utterance was entrancing – demonstrating not only the titular power of myth but that of storytelling in general. As a high school freshman, my speech and debate coach, Barbara Weiss, had us watch the series as we prepared for the upcoming season. While she found value in what Campbell and Moyers were discussing, it was clear, given the nature of the extracurricular activity she oversaw, that Weiss especially wanted us to be entranced by how Campbell expressed himself, by the way that he could launch into fascinating example after fascinating example at the slightest nudge by Moyers. The program left its mark on me then, confirmed as I rewatched it on the occasion of Athena’s re-issue of the series, which includes all six one-hour episodes, new introductions by Moyers, the initial two-part 1981 BILL MOYERS JOURNAL interview between the men that inspired the series, and an interview with George Lucas on Campbell’s influence on his modern-day mythmaking in STAR WARS. There’s a natural rapport to the conversation that Campbell and Moyers have in the main series, an ease in the way they move from discussions of the hero archetype to the purposes served by myths, from considerations of various myths across different yet surprisingly similar historical cultures to the influence of myths in the modern day. Recorded just before Campbell’s death, Moyers’ interviews captured the elder’s wisdom and disseminated it beyond the halls of academia to the benefit of all who create and absorb stories.