what (not) to doc

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, December 4:
THERE ARE JEWS HERE

Director:
Brad Lichtenstein

Co-Director:
Morgan Elise Johnson

Premiere:
San Francisco Jewish 2016

Select Festivals:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Jewish fests in West Virginia, Palm Beach, Savannah, Atlanta, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Pittsburgh, Rochester, and Charlotte

About:
A look at several small, struggling Jewish communities around America.

Outside of major urban centers known for their large Jewish populations like New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami, there are numerous small communities around the US that serve as home for approximately one million Jews. Lichtenstein and Johnson’s film explores four such off-the-beaten-track places, in Texas, Pennsylvania, Montana, and Alabama. In some cases, the Jewish community was once thriving but now is on the verge of vanishing altogether, with barely enough adult members to achieve minyan, or the official quorum needed to hold certain religious services. In other locations, forward-thinking synagogues have started programs to help grow their community by attracting Jews from outside of the state to relocate. While the film would have been stronger with a more focused profile on fewer communities, it remains an intriguing exploration of Jewish American identity, faith, and legacy.

Coming to DVD and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, December 4:
LETTER FROM MASANJIA

Director:
Leon Lee

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2018

Select Festivals:
NYC Asian American, DOXA, Bergen, Calgary, Lunenberg, Newburyport, Chagrin Doc, United Nations Association

About:
A Chinese dissident prisoner makes a desperate attempt to reveal his plight to the outside world.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to HBO tonight, Monday, December 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.

In July 2015, Sandra Bland was arrested in Texas, an outrageous response to a traffic violation captured in dashcam and witness cellphone footage. Three days later, her body was found in a jail cell, the death ruled a suicide. Davis and Heilbroner give voice not only to Bland’s family, who resist this conclusion and call foul play, but also to the woman herself, benefitting from “Sandy Speaks,” the opinion videos she shot herself. In these video entries, Bland transcends the status of victim to remind viewers of her life, and, especially, her engagement on the very same issues that claimed it, discussing abuse of power by police and the Black Lives Matter movement. This aspect of the film is its strongest and most satisfying; otherwise, its investigative structure suggests explosive revelations that never emerge, resulting in inconclusive findings at best, corroboration of the official police version at worst.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, November 30:
UNITED SKATES

Directors:
Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown

Premiere:
Tribeca 2018

Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Hot Docs, AFI Docs, London, Denver, Vancouver, Urbanworld, New Zealand, Melbourne, Los Angeles, Sidewalk

About:
An exploration of skating rink culture within African American communities.

Around the country, rollerskating rinks are quickly vanishing, victims of dwindling audiences and real estate development. While many viewers may hold fond memories of childhood birthday parties held in these spaces, for many African American communities, rinks have been a social gathering site long into adulthood, with different cities developing their own style and swagger. Winkler and Brown conduct a survey of several of these communities, uncovering a vibrant subculture that has been threatened by both racist policies and harsh economic reality. While they take on far too much, sacrificing focus and a deeper appreciation of historical context to instead profile a couple of locations too many, resulting in an uneven film with multiple endings, the filmmakers do demonstrate the importance of the skating rink as a locus of celebration and self-expression, and the impact its closure has had on communities of color.

Coming to theatres for a one-night event across the US tonight, Thursday, November 29:
MEOW WOLF: ORIGIN STORY

Directors:
Morgan Capps and Jilann Spitzmiller

Premiere:
SXSW 2018

Select Festivals:
Tallgrass, BendFilm, Santa Fe, Denver

About:
The story of the inexplicably popular Santa Fe-based artist collective.

Founded in 2008 by a group of young artists decidedly outside of Santa Fe’s very mainstream arts culture, the intentionally randomly-named group emerged to create an alternative space for art and music in the community. As detailed in Capps and Spitzmiller’s project, largely an oral history by members of the collective, they achieved unlikely financial success through their large-scale, immersive installations – so much so that they have been able to expand into other cities. Skirting the line between art and entertainment – if not arguably crossing it completely – the collective seemingly has been able to tap into audience desires for a kind of perpetual adolescence or even childhood, inviting play and exploration, despite – or perhaps because – the work itself is garish, crude, and fairly one-note. The film’s subtitle, in its reference to a familiar trope of comic books and fantasy films, underscores this kind of preoccupation with pop culture/entertainment. On the whole, the film is too celebratory, never really interrogating some key questions behind the group, whose membership seems on the surface to be a fairly homogenous, white one, though interviewees do occasionally offer thoughts on Meow Wolf’s growth and the clash of art vs commerce.