Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, March 12:
OVER THE LIMIT
Director:
Marta Prus
Premiere:
IDFA 2017
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Moscow Doc, Visions du Reél, DOK.fest Munich, DocsBarcelona, Zagreb Dox, Krakow, Docpoint, Göteborg, Thessaloniki Doc, One World, Ambulante
About:
A brutally candid look at a rhythmic gymnast’s Olympic training.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, March 12:
CHEF FLYNN
Director:
Cameron Yates
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Berlin, Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, SXSW, San Francisco, Cleveland, BAFICI, Docaviv, Sydney, Nashville, Traverse City, DMZ Docs, Film Columbia
About:
A compelling coming of age portrait of a talented young chef.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres today, Friday, March 8:
ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS
Director:
Gabrielle Brady
Premiere:
Visions du Reel 2018
Select Festivals:
Tribeca, Docaviv, Edinburgh, Guanajuato, New Zealand, Melbourne, Dokufest, Camden, Reykjavik, Adelaide, Athens, Goteborg, DocPoint, ZagrebDox, RIDM, DOK Leipzig, New Zealand, Tallin Black Nights, Docs Against Gravity
About:
An impressionistic portrait of migration and limbo on Australia’s Christmas Island.
Christmas Island is a remote Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, and, as legend has it, is haunted by the titular spirits of the Chinese laborers who were brought there over a century ago to work its phosphate mines. But in Brady’s metaphor-heavy meditation, other, living ghosts now find themselves trapped on the island: asylum seekers. Unlike Christmas Island’s cast of red crabs making their dangerous migratory journey to the ocean, helped to safely cross roadways by conscientious residents, these human migrants are instead confined to a detention center for indefinite periods of time. Help comes in the form of trauma counselor Poh Lin Lee, whose sessions with her detainee are threaded through this project, but Lee herself is growing more and more demoralized by the limbo her patients are forced to endure. Brady doesn’t always successfully integrate the various threads here, preferencing atmosphere and immersion over clarity and engagement at times, but she nevertheless has crafted a thoughtful look at the ongoing crisis of migration in a distinctive way.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
New to VOD this week:
306 HOLLYWOOD
Directors:
Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín
Premiere:
Sundance 2018
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, Full Frame, Cleveland, Sarasota, Montclair, Aspen Ideas, Atlanta, Berkshire, Woods Hole, San Francisco Jewish
About:
A magical realist archaeological exploration of the filmmakers’ late grandmother’s home and possessions.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s Doc World this Sunday, March 10:
¡LAS SANDINISTAS!
Director:
Jenny Murray
Premiere:
SXSW 2018
Select Festivals:
Lima, Southern Circuit, Maryland
About:
The female leaders of the 1979 Nicaraguan revolution look back at their unsung accomplishments.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Friday, March 8:
TIME FOR ILHAN
Director:
Norah Shapiro
Premiere:
Tribeca 2018
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Mountainfilm, Provincetown, Traverse City, Global Peace, Hamptons, Mill Valley, GlobeDocs, United Nations Association, Hot Springs Doc, Milwaukee
About:
The story of Muslim Somali immigrant Ilhan Omar’s 2016 campaign for the Minnesota State Legislature.
Norah Shapiro’s campaign doc is being released at time when Omar is in the news for controversial statements made about America’s relationship to Israel. This project, of course, details an earlier time in her political career – not much earlier, as she only entered politics with the 2016 campaign chronicled here, when the community organizer decided to run against Phyllis Kahn for the Minnesota House of Representatives, an incumbent in office for more than four decades. Despite sexism within her Somali-American Muslim community, the growing tenor of Islamophobia around the country, and practical concerns about caring for her own family of three young children, Omar takes the plunge into politics, seizing the opportunity to bring the voice of her community into a sphere that has long felt exclusionary. While following the tried and tested conventions of campaign doc storytelling, including a late-developing scandal that threatens to undermine Omar’s efforts and underscores the prejudices she faces, Shapiro excels in capturing her subject’s charisma and determination, and the hopeful and inspiring message of bringing previously unheard voices into the political process.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 8:
BLACK MOTHER
Director:
Khalik Allah
Premiere:
True/False 2018
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Sheffield, New Directors/New Films, Sarasota, Montclair
About:
An essay offering a meditation on Jamaican identity, history, and spirituality.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Festival:
The 26th SXSW Film Festival
Dates:
March 8-17
About:
The popular Austin event includes approximately 60 new documentary features among its 140-odd feature and episodic presentations this year. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
New to DVD this week:
THE NEW RADICAL
Director:
Adam Bhala Lough
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Docaviv, Sidewalk, Philadelphia, Indie Memphis, Stockholm
About:
A profile of two crypto-anarchists as they face off against systems of control.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Festival:
The 21st One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival
Dates:
March 6-17
About:
Approximately 85 new documentary features screen in Prague and 35 other cities through this notable Czech festival. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
what (not) to doc 