what (not) to doc

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, October 18:
THE PARIS OPERA

Director:
Jean-Stéphane Bron

Premiere:
Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2017

Select Festivals:
San Francisco, Seattle, BAFICI, BelDocs, Docs Against Gravity, Moscow, Locarno, Melbourne, New Zealand, Biografilm, Jerusalem

About:
An observational portrait of the French cultural institution over a tumultuous season.

A project in the vein of Frederick Wiseman’s institutional studies, Bron’s film provides audiences with a privileged behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the Opéra de Paris, whose expansive mandate covers not only opera but orchestral concerts, ballets, and more. Eschewing interviews for fly-on-the-wall scenes, the filmmaker is presented with a bounty of goings on which could fill at least two features, from the debut and quick departure of celebrity ballet director Benjamin Millepied to a national strike hindering full productions to the terror attacks at the Bataclan and elsewhere around Paris, placing other cultural activities under high alert. Beyond the above, other threads include the experiences of a new Russian singer as he adjusts to the Opera and the search for a bull to take on a special role in the opening production of the season. It’s to Bron’s credit that he juggles these events as well as he does, though at times the film does suffer from being overstuffed. Still, it does succeed in offering a rare glimpse of what goes into pulling off world-class performing arts productions.

Coming to theatres today, Wednesday, October 18:
LIBERATION DAY

Directors:
Morten Traavik and Uģis Olte

Premiere:
IDFA 2016

Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, Sydney, Göteborg, Vilnius, Movies That Matter, One World, Docville

About:
A controversial cult rock band from the former Yugoslavia is selected to be the first to play in North Korea.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

New on VOD via Mubi this week:
HOMELAND: IRAQ YEAR ZERO

Director:
Abbas Fahdel

Premiere:
Visions du Réel 2015

Select Festivals:
New York, Rio, Lussas Doc, Hamburg, Yamagata Doc, Doclisboa, CPH:DOX, Jihlava, Mar del Plata, Cinema Vérite, Göteborg, True/False, Vilnius, BAFICI, Taiwan Doc, Dokufest Kosovo, Vienna

About:
Life in Iraq, before and after the 2003 American-led invasion.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 13:
THE DEPARTURE

Director:
Lana Wilson

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sheffield, Bergen, Reykjavik, Vancouver, Mumbai, Moscow, Warsaw

About:
A Japanese priest who works as a suicide counselor must deal with the burden of his mission.

Former punk rocker-turned-Zen Buddhist priest Ittetsu Nemoto runs a one-man suicide prevention hotline. Called upon day and night by desperate people, Nemoto finds purpose in his calling, but he increasingly has little time for his wife or young son. When counseling those who reach out to him, he asks them to write down the people, things, and dreams they cherish most, then has them destroy each one in turn, to provide a tangible sense of what dying would take away from them. When he faces his own mortality via a health crisis, Nemoto must weigh what he too is willing to give up. Though a quiet, smaller project, Wilson’s affecting film carries a profound message about mortality, suffering, and sacrifice.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 13:
HUMAN FLOW

Director:
Ai Weiwei

Premiere:
Venice 2017

Select Festivals:
Telluride, Hamptons, Mill Valley, Haifa, Atlantic

About:
An overarching view of the global refugee crisis.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who has been documenting the refugee crisis via outlets like Instagram for some time, travels the world over a year, visiting more than 20 countries to try to capture the almost unfathomable scale of the greatest humanitarian crisis of the century. Not constraining his cameras to any one familiar locale, Ai instead bears witness to the seemingly endless movement of displaced persons throughout the world, from African rafts seeking landfall in Europe and Syrian tent cities in Jordan to Kurds in Turkey, Myanmar Rohingya seeking safety in Bangladesh, and visits to the US/Mexico border. While refugees are occasionally heard from, the film largely positions them as a silent mass entity, underscoring their statelessness and their multitude – a provocative approch that may not sit well with viewers seeking a closer human connection and the perspectives of individuals directly part of the crisis. Instead, headlines and statistics play on screen, and commentary comes from experts who also take a broader view. What’s undeniable, however, is that Ai has crafted disturbingly striking images that should leave an indelible impression on viewers.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, October 13:
FOR AHKEEM

Directors:
Jeremy S Levine and Landon Van Soest

Premiere:
Berlin 2017

Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Hot Docs, Tribeca, Sheffield, AFI Docs, Florida, Montclair, Documentary Edge, DOK.fest Munich, DMZ Docs, Message to Man, Milwaukee, Antenna

About:
An African-American teenage girl strives to graduate from high school.

I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program, saying:
After being expelled from her St Louis high school, Daje is given a final chance to succeed. Placed in an alternative school for delinquent youth, the strong-willed young woman initially excels, but a new relationship with her classmate Antonio changes both their lives. Set against the charged backdrop of Ferguson MO, Levine and Van Soest’s film is an intimate and frank story of the coming of age of an African-American teenager today.