Festival:
The 9th DMZ Docs
Dates:
September 21-28
About:
Held near the Korean Demilitarized Zone, this annual South Korean documentary event presents more than 60 features with the aim to champion dialogue, coexistence, and peace. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to theatres this Friday, September 22:
UNREST
Director:
Jennifer Brea
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Sheffield, CPH:DOX, SXSW, RiverRun, Cleveland, Nashville, New Zealand, Melbourne
About:
A personal and candid look at life with a debilitating and widely misunderstood medical condition.
My pre-Sundance profile of the doc may be found here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to theatres this Thursday, September 21:
HISSEIN HABRE, A CHADIAN TRAGEDY
Director:
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Premiere:
Cannes 2016
Select Festivals:
Toronto, IDFA, New York, London, Dubai, CPH:DOX, Hong Kong
About:
Victims of the African dictator relate the personal impact of his crimes against the people of Chad.
Haroun briefly provides much-needed context for Western audiences unfamiliar with Habré, a brutal dictator who ruled Chad between 1982 and 1990. While Haroun lived in exile during this period, others weren’t so fortunate, with the regime responsible for the deaths of approximately 40,000 political prisoners and the torture of hundreds of thousands more. Other than linking Habré’s power to relationships with the US, France, and several other players, the filmmaker foregoes further political history to instead give voice to the dictator’s many victims, using as interlocutor a former prisoner, Clément Abaïfouta, chairman of the Association of the Victims of the Crimes of the Hissein Habré Regime. Using a fairly standard survey approach, the film benefits more from its topicality – emerging on the festival circuit just as Habré was found guilty of crimes against humanity by a court in his home-in-exile, Senegal – than from any particularly special craft, as it allows the viewer to bear witness to its subjects’ difficult testimony.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Already in SF Bay Area theatres, and coming to NYC/LA this Friday, September 22:
THE FORCE
Director:
Peter Nicks
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
CPH:DOX, True/False, Full Frame, Seattle, Human Rights Watch, BAMcinemaFest, Melbourne, Cleveland, San Francisco, Sarasota
About:
An immersion into the beleaguered Oakland Police Department as it attempts to reform its scandal-ridden image.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Festival:
The 21st Urbanworld Film Festival
Dates:
September 20-24
About:
This NYC event, which showcases film and episodic content by African American and multicultural filmmakers, presents approximately two dozen feature-length presentations, with documentaries consisting of less than half that number. Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Overviews, Recommendations
Coming to DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, September 19:
ELLA BRENNAN: COMMANDING THE TABLE
Director:
Leslie Iwerks
Premiere:
New Orleans 2016
Select Festivals:
Miami, Mill Valley, Santa Barbara, Boulder, Dallas,
About:
A profile of the New Orleans restaurateur, known for Commander’s Palace.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to Starz this coming Monday, September 18:
THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES
Director:
Jared P Scott
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Sheffield, Telluride Mountainfilm, Antenna Doc, Waimea Ocean Festival, Wild & Scenic
About:
Global unrest viewed through the lens of climate change.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 15:
RAT FILM
Director:
Theo Anthony
Premiere:
Locarno 2016
Select Festivals:
Rotterdam, True/False, SXSW, Florida, Maryland, Art of the Real, Docaviv, Doclisboa, Vancouver, Mar del Plata, Torino
About:
A provocative essay about Baltimore’s rodents emerges as a simultaneous cultural anthropology of race and class.
I previously wrote about the film here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres and to VOD via Netflix tomorrow, Friday, September 15:
STRONG ISLAND
Director:
Yance Ford
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
Select Festivals:
Berlin, True/False, Thessaloniki Doc, New Directors/NewFilms, CPH:DOX, Full Frame, Hot Docs, Montclair, Encounters, Sheffield, AFI Docs
About:
The filmmaker interrogates the 1992 murder of his brother, which went unprosecuted, and its personal aftermath.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to Logo tonight, Thursday, September 14:
KEVYN AUCOIN: BEAUTY & THE BEAST IN ME
Director:
Lori Kaye
Premiere:
Outfest 2017
About:
A portrait of a beloved celebrity makeup artist.
Recognized as a celebrity in his own right, Kevyn Aucoin crafted a wildly successful career working with supermodels, actresses, performers, and cosmetics companies, and as an author of beauty books beginning in the early 1980s. After his untimely death in 2002, a treasure trove of video recordings taped by Aucoin were discovered, providing an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at his life and work. Kaye combines these with period interviews with the artist and with family, past boyfriends, and a host of celebrity clients/friends, including Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Paulina Porizkova, Andie MacDowell, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Elevating her project from simple tribute, however, the filmmaker grounds much of the narrative in an exploration of Aucoin’s feelings of being an outsider: given away for adoption as a newborn, realizing at the age of six that he was gay, and growing up in conservative Louisiana worked a number on him. While his adoptive parents came to accept his sexuality, his biological mother, interviewed here, re-scarred Aucoin after he found her as an adult when she rejected him due to her religious beliefs. Kaye constructs an insightful look at Aucoin’s life and career spent battling these demons.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
what (not) to doc 