Festival:
The 42nd Cinéma du Réel
Dates:
March 13-22
About:
This Paris event presents nearly 50 new and recent documentary features. Continue reading
Cinéma du Réel 2020 Overview
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
In Theatres: HUMAN NATURE
Coming to theatres today, Thursday, March 12:
HUMAN NATURE
Director:
Adam Bolt
World Premiere:
SXSW 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Hot Docs, Full Frame, AFI Docs, CPH:DOX
About:
An exploration of the potential implications of a major DNA technology.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD/VOD: STUFFED
New to DVD and VOD this week:
STUFFED
Director:
Erin Derham
World Premiere:
SXSW 2019
Select Festivals:
Seattle, Woods Hole, Vancouver, Nashville, Maui
About:
An exploration of the misunderstood world of taxidermy.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: 5B
New to DVD this week:
5B
Directors:
Dan Krauss and Paul Haggis
World Premiere:
SFFILM Doc Stories 2018
Select Festivals:
Cannes
About:
At the dawn of the AIDS crisis, nurses and caregivers defied fear and stigma to establish the world’s first AIDS hospital ward.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT
New to DVD this week:
RECORDER: THE MARION STOKES PROJECT
Director:
Matt Wolf
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, AFI Docs, London, New Orleans, Melbourne, Montclair, Maryland, SF DocFest, Sidewalk, Heartland, Antenna
About:
The story of a woman who recorded television news around the clock for thirty years.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD: LIFELINE/ CLYFFORD STILL
Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, March 10:
LIFELINE/ CLYFFORD STILL
Director:
Dennis Scholl
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2019
About:
An in-depth exploration of the life and work of the American Abstract Expressionist artist.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Clyfford Still’s striking compositions and idiosyncratic personality made him one of the preeminent figures of the American Abstract Expressionist movement. Through interviews and previously unreleased recordings, Still’s artistic philosophy and his relationships with contemporaries Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock are revealed. After his death, the legacy of the enigmatic artist faces further uncertainty, as museums vie to be the permanent home of the Still collection—if they can meet the strict demands of his will.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
On DVD/VOD: COLOSSUS
Coming to DVD and VOD today, Tuesday, March 10:
COLOSSUS
Director:
Jonathan Schienberg
World Premiere:
DOC NYC 2018
Select Festivals:
St Louis
About:
A US-born teenager copes with the deportation of his undocumented family members.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
The personal impact of America’s immigration policies on families is deeply felt in this intimate portrait of 15-year-old Jamil Sunsin and his family. Jamil, born in the US, only finds out his parents and older sister are undocumented when they are deported to Honduras following a routine traffic stop. Traumatized by violence there, Jamil returns to Jersey City to stay with relatives and seek a better life, but this imposed separation weighs heavily on all members of the family.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Special Screening: MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL
Coming to NYC’s Pure Nonfiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10:
MOSSVILLE: WHEN GREAT TREES FALL
Director:
Alexander John Glustrom
World Premiere:
Full Frame 2019
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, New Orleans, Hot Springs Doc, Washington DC Environmental, BendFilm, Raindance, Durban, Indie Grits, Montclair, Wild & Scenic, Planet in Focus
About:
An intimate profile of one man’s struggle against environmental racism.
The film screened as part of DOC NYC, for which our program notes read:
Mossville, Louisiana, a community founded by formerly enslaved African Americans, was once a thriving, safe haven. Today it’s a breeding ground for petrochemical plants and their spewing black clouds. Many residents are forced from their homes; those that stay suffer from prolonged exposure to contamination and pollution. Amid this chaos stands one man, Stacey Ryan, who refuses to abandon his family’s land and fights for basic human rights in this powerful portrait of resilience.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Special Screening: CHANGING THE GAME
Coming to NYC’s DCTV Presents screening series tonight, Monday, March 9:
CHANGING THE GAME
Director:
Michael Barnett
World Premiere:
Tribeca 2019
Select Festivals:
Palm Springs, Mountainfilm, Watch Docs, Sidewalk, Virginia, Nashville, Flyway, Guth Gafa, Salem, Frameline, Outfest, BFI Flare
About:
A profile of several trans high school athletes.
Within the gender-segregated world of high school athletics, there are no universal rules about the rights of transgender competitors. Michael Barnett’s sympathetic film chronicles the wins and losses of three such athletes in Texas, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, each contending with rules whose fairness is called into question in one way or another. Texan wrestler Mack is forced to compete in the girls’ division, where he is undefeated, despite his desire to wrestle fellow boys, and receives the vitriol of cis gendered girls’ parents and others for the advantage testosterone affords him. Andraya, a sprinter, is allowed by Connecticut’s more equitable laws to compete against girls, but that doesn’t prevent angry adults from crying foul. In New Hampshire, Sarah, a competitive skier, becomes a transgender rights activist when her state’s laws requires her to have gender reassignment surgery in order to race in the girls’ category. Whether they want to or not, these teens have become public faces of the debate, simply for wanting to participate in the competitive sports their peers take for granted. For them, and their supportive parents, guardians, or coaches, the argument is a simple one – if their gender is to be respected, there cannot be any half-measures – while for their opponents, there are thorny questions of fairness due to physiological advantages or disadvantages of the athletes’ biological sex that cannot be dismissed solely as cut-and-tried transphobia (which also is clearly in evidence, of course). Barnett doesn’t fully explore these difficult quandaries, but his film offers an intimate look at the youth caught within the unfortunate dilemma.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
On VOD: HILLARY
Coming to VOD via Hulu today, Friday, March 6:
HILLARY
Director:
Nanette Burstein
World Premiere:
Sundance 2020
Select Festivals:
Berlin
About:
A revealing portrait of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I profiled the docuseries before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
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