what (not) to doc

New to VOD this week:
ON PUTIN’S BLACKLIST

Director:
Boris Ivanov

Premiere:
Vancouver 2017

About:
An investigation of Russia’s foreign adoption ban and what it reveals about the nation’s broader international politics.

Ivanov’s film begins as an exploration of the complicated nature of international adoptions of Russian children, only to note how the ban of this practice ends up disrupting the plans of several families and the potentially bright futures of countless Russian orphans. Ivanov suggests a larger, more insidious, and wholly politically-motivated reason for the ban and how it is reflective of the new Cold War: Putin’s desire to undercut America’s global dominance. In this case, the ban is connected to homophobic rhetoric, anti-gay laws, and the persecution of LGBT people in Russia, and involves countries that recognize same-sex marriage. But the film continues to broaden out further and further, away from the ostensible focus on adoption to draw in by now quite familiar stories of further abuses of power and human decency by the state, including attacks on NGOs, artists like Pussy Riot, and pretty much anyone else who doesn’t tow the xenophobic, jingoistic party line. The result is a very messy, unfocused project that seems to aspire to a political critique but isn’t able to properly juggle the massive topic in a sensible or satisfying manner.

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed today, Tuesday, May 15:
RANDOM ACTS OF LEGACY

Director:
Ali Kazimi

Premiere:
Hot Docs 2016

Select Festivals:
Chicago, Asian American fests in San Diego, Philadelphia, and San Francisco

About:
The discovery of an Asian-American family’s home movies prompts a search for their origins.

Chancing upon a collection of home movies from the 1930s-’50s featuring people of color – an unusual find from an era where virtually all such recorded footage was of affluent white people – director Ali Kazimi was intrigued. As recounted here, he was able to identify the filmmaker as Silas Fung, a Chinese-American based in Chicago, and tracks down surviving family members to learn more, supplemented by unfortunately excessive narration by the filmmaker, as well as commentary by historians. While the latter provides some context about the experience of Asian Americans in pre- and postwar US society and occasional insights that the family members themselves perhaps didn’t articulate in interviews, the filmmaker’s narration is largely unnecessary and lessens the overall impact of the project’s most compelling element: Fung’s films, and how they visually construct a sense of an aspirational upwardly mobile and assimilationist identity for his family.

Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 15:
ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM

Directors:
Reuben Atlas and Sam Pollard

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
AFI Docs, Montclair, Traverse City, Indie Memphis, Cucalorus, St Louis, Milwaukee, Napa Valley

About:
An exploration of the manufactured controversy that led to the downfall of a powerful community-based advocacy group.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 11:
MOUNTAIN

Director:
Jennifer Peedom

Premiere:
Sydney 2017

Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, London, Melbourne, New Zealand, Helsinki, Tallinn Black Nights, Hamptons

About:
A meditation on the allure of mountains.

Set to a classical score performed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and featuring an almost non-stop barrage of breathtaking images of mountains and the various adventure sports performed on them, Peedom’s film is a celebration of mountains and their mystique. At its best, the film mesmerizes the viewer with vertiginous shots, montages of extreme climbing, skiing, parachuting, BASE jumping, and whatnot, with the musical accompaniment underscoring the grandeur. Unfortunately, these moments are almost immediately undercut by the tiresome faux philosophical narration, never as profound as it apparently is meant to be taken. While drawn from a like-minded reflection on the influence of mountains on us, Robert Macfarlane’s memoir, MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND, this element of the film serves as a distraction, one that tries to hard to seem profound when set against the actual profundity of nature itself.

Coming to theatres and to VOD today, Friday, May 11:
ONE OCTOBER

Director:
Rachel Shuman

Premiere:
Full Frame 2017

Select Festivals:
IFF Boston

About:
A portrait of New York City in October 2008.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 11 and to VOD this coming Tuesday, May 15:
THE LAST HORSEMEN OF NEW YORK

Director:
Mary Haverstick

Premiere:
Theatrical release (May 2018)

About:
NYC’s horse-drawn carriage workers defend their livelihood.

New York City’s horse-drawn carriages have been the subject of intense debate for several years. While many view them as a quaint, old-fashioned throwback catering to tourists around Central Park, opponents have claimed that the industry is inhumane to horses, subjecting them to cruel treatment and exposure to inhospitable conditions. Fighting for their profession are the carriage drivers, men and women who deny the allegations of mistreatment to their animals, and argue that there are more powerful interests behind the controversy, as shown in Haverstick’s project, one decidedly sympathetic to the latter. The carriage drivers and their allies instead allege that real estate developers with an interest in the property currently housing the horse stables are influencing political will against the profession. While believable, this thesis is unfortunately undercut by the inclusion of defensive and at times suspect arguments, and by largely sidestepping legitimate concerns about the welfare of the animals.

Image ©Jason Gamble Harter

Director:
Sandra Adair

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Dallas

About:
A candid profile of a collage artist and his process.

In her directorial debut, Adair, Richard Linklater’s longtime editor, profiles artist Lance Letscher, whose work consists of collaged images meticulously cut out of a variety of sources, from children’s books to scientific journals, as he takes on a commission in metal, a material in which he has not typically worked. As the artist demonstrates his painstaking and not uninteresting process, admirers offer somewhat too fawning praise. While the film attempts to make a case for his renown, and despite representation by a NYC gallery, there’s an overwhelming feeling that Letscher is very much primarily a local Austin art scene figure. This regional specificity broadens out a bit with more universal themes as he reveals some of the personal, often traumatic history that has informed his work, but this project remains primarily of interest to a specialized audience.