what (not) to doc

Courtesy of Cherry Grove Archives Collection

Director:
Michael Fisher

World Premiere:
BFI Flare 2018

Select Festivals:
NewFest, LGBT fests in Rochester, Long Island, Winston-Salem, Miami, Atlanta, Dublin, and Washington DC

About:
On the Fire Island community that has long been a safe haven for LGBT people.

Located just off Long Island, New York’s Fire Island is a regular LGBT Summer destination, and has been for decades, as is quickly established in Michael Fisher’s modest oral history, with its parade of talking heads interviewees noting what year they first came to the island. Ranging from pre-Stonewall days to just a few years ago, this group reflects on all manner of topics related to Fire Island, and, in particular, the community of Cherry Grove, from the supposed origins of the island’s name and its development as a gay mecca to its impact for LGBT individual’s self-expression before Stonewall, as well as the devastation wrought by the AIDS epidemic. With such a wide-ranging mandate, the film is unavoidably choppy and prone to nostalgic anecdotal recollections, which are sometimes hit or miss and often marred by an overly busy and distracting score, but the personal approach to subcultural history, and the snippets of archival material used, are worthwhile.

Photo courtesy Universal Pictures

Director:
Mat Hodgson

World Premiere:
VOD release (June 2019)

About:
The story of Panamanian boxing champion Roberto Durán.

Durán is known to boxing fans as a multi-class world champion with an exceptionally long career for the sport, competing from 1968 until 2001. Mat Hodgson’s professional, albeit conventional, sports doc recounts the fighter’s rise and fall, played out against the backdrop of Panamanian politics to not always successful effect. From underprivileged beginnings, Durán elevated his economic and social status through boxing, becoming an icon in his country and gaining fame on the international boxing circuit, eventually fighting America’s beloved Sugar Ray Leonard in a contentious fight and later infamous “No más” rematch, reviewed here in depth. In addition to reviewing the boxer’s life and career, Hodgson provides an interesting look at how boxing promotion operates, and how the sport developed in popularity and financially over Durán’s career. The project never quite transcends its genre to explore the deeper issues it seems to want to, but succeeds as a sports doc for devoted fans.

Coming to VOD via HBO digital download tonight, Monday, June 3:
SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND

Directors:
Kate Davis and David Heilbroner

Premiere:
Tribeca 2018

Select Festivals:
Traverse City, Chicago, San Francisco Black, New York African Diaspora, Woods Hole, Bahamas, Nashville

About:
An investigation of the controversial death of the titular African-American activist while in police custody.

I previously wrote about the doc here.