Coming to OVID.tv today, Thursday, April 14:
RED HOLLYWOOD
Director:
Thom Andersen, Noël Burch
World Premiere:
Locarno 1996
Select Festivals:
San Sebastian, Vancouver, Ann Arbor, Art of the Real
About:
An essay film exploring the work of studio directors who were on the Red Scare blacklist.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD in re-release this Friday, April 15:
THE FUNDAMENTAL GILBERT AND GEORGE
Director:
Gerald Fox
World Premiere:
UK television broadcast (1997)
Select Festivals:
NewFest
About:
An exploration of the world of Britain’s most eccentric, celebrated, and controversial artistic double act in which life and art are inextricably linked.
The doc screened at NewFest, for which our program notes read:
Take a trip through the heady, genteel, and elemental worlds of Britain’s unofficial godfathers of contemporary art, Gilbert and George. Gerald Fox’s documentary tours the life and work that they have inextricably entwined in their neo-gothic, minimalist, 25-year routine in London’s East End. During the making of this film, Gilbert and George develop a new series of works entitled “The Fundamentals” – studies of their spunk, piss, and blood. Whether attending the opening of a retrospective of their work, having their suits tailored, or taking us on a tour of their collection of rare homoerotica, they remain somehow strangely in performance. Are they gay lovers, geniuses, iconoclasts, anachronisms? The answers are all here and nowhere to be found. This film is probably the closest thing you will ever see to a biography of the internationally renowned “Living Sculptures,” and a marvelous thing indeed.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel’s AfroPoP series today, Monday, April 11:
SHE HAD A DREAM
Director:
Raja Amari
World Premiere:
IDFA 2020
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Zurich
About:
Charismatic, young, Black, and working-class, Ghofrane Binous became politically active during the Tunisian national elections.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to theatres for a limited engagement today, Monday, April 11 and tomorrow, Tuesday, April 12:
NAVALNY
Director:
Daniel Roher
World Premiere:
Sundance 2022
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Docville, Cleveland, Hot Docs, San Francisco, Seattle, Sun Valley, Full Frame
About:
After Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent implicated in attacks on other opponents of the Russian government, he partners with journalists and international news organizations to investigate his attempted assassination and find proof of the Kremlin’s involvement.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, April 8:
COW
Director:
Andrea Arnold
World Premiere:
Cannes 2021
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Telluride, IDFA, Busan, BFI London, Melbourne, Jerusalem, Beijing, Hamburg, Hamptons, Reykjavik, Mill Valley, Chicago, Jihlava, AFI Fest, Tokyo, Rio
About:
A close-up portrait of the daily lives of two cows.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, April 8:
¡VIVA MAESTRO!
Director:
Ted Braun
World Premiere:
US theatrical release (April 2022)
About:
A portrait of world-renowned conductor Gustavo Dudamel as he responds to the unexpected and daunting obstacles of social unrest in his homeland of Venezuela with powerful music-making and an innovative and triumphant concert that celebrates the power of art to renew and unite.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix today, Thursday, April 7:
RETURN TO SPACE
Director:
E Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
World Premiere:
Netflix release (April 2022)
About:
Elon Musk and SpaceX engineers embark on a historic mission to return NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and revolutionize space travel.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to OVID.tv today, Thursday, April 7:
UNCLE HOWARD
Director:
Aaron Brookner
World Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Berlin, New York, Seattle, BAFICI, Jerusalem, Warsaw, San Sebastian, Biografilm, Cleveland
About:
The filmmaker sets out to rediscover his uncle’s pioneering films.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Thursday, April 7:
LA MAMI
Director:
Laura Herrero Garvín
World Premiere:
IDFA 2019
Select Festivals:
Doc Fortnight, Docaviv, Docs Against Gravity, Zurich, SXSW, Doc Point, Tempo Doc, Malaga, Cleveland, Morelia, Guanajuato
About:
Night after night, La Mami, in charge of the women’s restroom at the mythical Cabaret Barba Azul, offers care to the women who work there dancing.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to The WORLD Channel’s America Reframed tomorrow, Thursday, April 7:
SAPELO
Director:
Nick Brandestini
World Premiere:
Visions du Reel 2020
Select Festivals:
Nashville, BendFilm, Riverrun, Anchorage, St Louis, Bahamas, Portland, Tallgrass, Encounters, Woods Hole, DocEdge, deadCenter, Sarasota, Salem
About:
A portrait of the vanishing Geechee African American community of the titular Georgian barrier island.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
what (not) to doc 