what (not) to doc

Coming to Logo tonight, Thursday, August 3:
FORBIDDEN: UNDOCUMENTED AND QUEER IN RURAL AMERICA

Director:
Tiffany Rhynard

Premiere:
Outfest 2016

Select Festivals:
San Diego Latino, Charlotte, NewFest, LGBT fests in Rochester, Santa Barbara, Boston, Kansas City, Honolulu, Memphis, and Miami

About:
A young gay Latino, brought to the US at 18 months old, fights for immigration reform.

Now in his early 20s, Moises Serrano has become an immigration activist, sharing his undocumented, unafraid story in various speaking engagements, in contrast to the kind of growing xenophobic rhetoric most pointedly represented here in Donald Trump’s infamous candidacy speech, shown here. Although the title of Rhynard’s workmanlike film strangely references Moises’ sexuality and rural upbringing, neither of these carry much narrative weight compared with the topic of immigration reform. The bulk of this profile consists of fairly repetitive speeches given by the young activist, and his concerns over unfair tuition rates applied to undocumented college students. While Moises is an appealing, charismatic subject, as presented here, his story doesn’t wholly sustain feature-length treatment.

New to VOD this week:
HILLEMAN: A PERILOUS QUEST TO SAVE THE WORLD’S CHILDREN

Director:
Donald Rayne Mitchell

Premiere:
Scinema 2016

Select Festivals:
American Documentary, New Hope

About:
A profile of Dr Maurice Hilleman, credited with developing most childhood vaccines.

Mitchell’s film follows the now-familiar conventions of the unheralded hero profile – “the most important X the public has never heard of” – and in this case positions Hilleman as “the greatest scientist of the 20th century” for his pioneering work in eliminating many childhood diseases via vaccines. Responsible for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, as well as those addressing a host of other diseases, from hepatitis B to the flu, there’s reason to recognize the microbiologist’s achievements in the same way that Salk and Sabin are celebrated for their polio vaccines. Mitchell constructs a fairly conventional, overly narrated biographical portrait more suited to PBS than to theatrical, drawing from archival material as well as more recent interviews with Hilleman before he passed away.

New to VOD this week:
I AM THE BLUES

Director:
Daniel Cross

Premiere:
IDFA 2016

Select Festivals:
SXSW, Hot Docs, Pan African, Raindance, Salem, Docs Against Gravity, IndieBo

About:
An ethnomusicological tour of the American South.

I previously wrote about the doc here.