what (not) to doc

Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, October 31:
NO MAN’S LAND

Director:
David Byars

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Montclair, Denver, St Louis, Mill Valley, Ashland, Camden

About:
An inside look at the controversial occupation of Oregon’s Malheur Wildlife Refuge by right-wing militants.

Last year, when an armed group of self-styled “patriots,” frustrated by the policies of the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management, occupied Malheur, they cagily drew the attention of both traditional and social media, quickly becoming the subject of a national debate that encompassed concepts of state rights, federal over reach, gun control, and racial and religious bias in how “homegrown terrorism” is defined. Director David Byars managed to embed with the militants, led by Ammon Bundy, and is well-positioned to present their personalities and rationale for their extreme action, though as the days pass, both take on a desperate, paranoid air, with over dramatic macho posturing unable to disguise a lack of a clear plan. Balancing out their anger and discontent are the viewpoints of journalists who covered the story, as well as the nearby community of Burns OR, who are fearful of the protestors and the violence they expect will come in their wake. Byars film emerges as a remarkably intimate chronicle of the 41 day standoff, and of the disturbing anti-federalist sentiment at its heart that continues to reverberate across the country today.

Coming to theatres and to VOD via Netflix today, Friday, October 27:
JOAN DIDION: THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD

Director:
Griffin Dunne

Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2017

Select Festivals:
Woodstock, Middleburg

About:
An expansive portrait of the celebrated, influential author and journalist by her nephew.

As much a look at America over the past half century as it is a tribute to one of its most insightful chroniclers, Dunne’s film is engaging, candid, and as accessible to newcomers to Didion’s work as it is to her devotees. Despite her small frame, Didion’s presence on camera is imposing, perhaps even more so in the central interview of the film now, in her 80s, than in the archival materials following her eruption onto the literary scene in the early 1960s after several years writing for Vogue. Dunne covers her major work, from PLAY IT AS IT LAYS to more recent achievements like THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, while framing the film largely through the lens of her long personal and professional partnership with husband John Gregory Dunne until his death in 2003. Through it all, Didion’s matter-of-fact reflections, accompanied by excerpts from her writing, underscore her uncanny ability to encapsulate and illuminate existential truths.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 27:
BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY

Directors:
David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg

Premiere:
SXSW 2017

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, San Francisco, Hot Docs, Telluride Mountainfilm, Seattle, Human Rights Watch, AFI Docs, Hot Springs Doc, Traverse City, Los Angeles, Provincetown

About:
A revealing profile of the well-known educational television personality turned science advocate.

The doc screened at Nantucket, for which our program notes read:
Everybody’s favorite television scientist takes center stage in this captivating portrait. Bill Nye’s earliest collaborators and those closest to him – as well as the quirky “Science Guy” himself – trace his path from charismatic engineer to world renowned science rock star. Directors David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg present an illuminating profile that showcases both Nye’s wit and wisdom and his increasingly important position as an outspoken voice on climate change.

Coming to VOD via Mubi tomorrow, Friday, October 27:
A GERMAN YOUTH

Director:
Jean-Gabriel Périot

Premiere:
Berlin 2015

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Art of the Real, Cinéma du Réel, Visions du Réel, BAFICI, San Francisco, IndieLisboa, Docaviv, Moscow, Transilvania, Melbourne, Sarajevo, Bergen, Hamptons, New Horizons

About:
A rich portrait of key members of the Red Army Faction, composed entirely through found footage.

Without offering explicit condemnation or valorization, Périot chronicles the shift of the Baader-Meinhof group from intellectual debate to violent revolution through a progression of talk show appearances, political student films, protest footage, and news reports, grounding their evolution within the larger public debate in the mid-1960s that saw the younger generation referenced in the film’s title question authority of the previous generation, one tinged with a Nazi past that they had not yet openly addressed. The film identifies key RAF figures like journalist Ulrike Marie Meinhof, artists Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, attorney Horst Mahler, and filmmaker Holger Meins, among others, before their later radicalization, as they reflected the growth of progressive far-leftist movements around Germany and the world and took on symbols of the establishment, such as Axel Springer and his monopoly on the news media. As Périot artfully charts their move to increasing militancy, he engages with fundamental questions which position these figures as revolutionaries to some, terrorists to others, and which resonate with the modern day.