Coming to DVD today, Tuesday, May 9:
HOLY HELL
Director:
Will Allen
Premiere:
Sundance 2016
Select Festivals:
Hot Docs, Nashville, Montclair, Minneapolis-St Paul, DocAviv, Martha’s Vineyard, Biografilm
About:
An inside look at life as a cult member.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 9:
MOM AND ME
Director:
Ken Wardrop
Premiere:
Telluride 2015
Select Festivals:
Nantucket, Cleveland, RiverRun, Edinburgh, Sydney, Denver
About:
An exploration of the unique bond between mothers and sons.
I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s lineup, saying:
Just before Mother’s Day, a local talk radio show in Oklahoma City – “the manliest city in the United States” – asks male listeners to call in and talk about their relationships with their moms. The responses frame this warm, often humorous film. Exhibiting surprising vulnerability and sharing alternately charming and poignant stories, callers are a diverse group, from a contrite prisoner eager to reconnect with his wronged mom to a bachelor whose mother badgers him for grandkids. Ultimately, what emerges is a multifaceted exploration of a bond that is unique for each mother-son pair, yet wonderfully universal at the same time.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, May 9:
KEDI
Director:
Ceyda Torun
Premiere:
!f Istanbul 2016
Select Festivals:
Full Frame, Sheffield, Seattle, Melbourne, Vancouver, DocPoint, Goteborg, Salem, Palm Springs
About:
Istanbul through the eyes of its colorful street cats.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Stranger Than Fiction series tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9:
ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL
Director:
Steve James
Premiere:
Toronto 2016
Select Festivals::
New York, Chicago, IDFA, Palm Springs, True/False, Cleveland, Full Frame, Dallas, Hong Kong, Montclair
About:
A small Chinatown bank becomes the only institution to face criminal charges as a result of the 2008 financial crisis.
While America’s financial institutions were bailed out following the economic meltdown of 2008 because they were deemed “too big to fail,” the Abacus Federal Savings Bank, it is argued in Steve James’ latest film, became the sacrificial lamb for the industry. Founded by Thomas Sung, a Chinese lawyer and American immigrant, and run by two of his daughters, Abacus prided itself on serving New York’s Chinatown community with mortgages and small business loans. When evidence arises that a loan officer was engaging in fraud, the family reports the crime, only to find the bank under siege by an ambitious DA, with the Sungs’ reputation on the line. James crafts a compelling legal and family drama as Abacus seeks vindication in the courts.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations
Coming to the World Channel’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9:
GOOD LUCK SOUP
Director:
Matthew Hashiguchi
Premiere:
Cleveland 2016
Select Festivals::
CAAMFest, American Doc, Chagrin Doc, Asian American fests in Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston
About:
The filmmaker explores the complexity of identities in his extended mixed-race family.
Taking an understandably personal but ultimately unfocused approach to his subject matter, the biracial Japanese/Italian Hashiguchi, who grew up in a predominantly white, Irish-Catholic part of Cleveland, ruminates on his ambivalence towards his Japanese American heritage while also surveying various family members about their own experiences. What first seems like a rough-hewn and familiar but appealing portrait of the filmmaker’s grandmother, Eva – an 88-year-old Japanese-American born in California and interned during WWII – too soon gives way to interviews with Hashiguchi’s immediate and extended family members. While their perspectives on overt or subtle racism, passing, and embracing or rejecting elements of their ethnic backgrounds offer some interest, the project as a whole never fully coheres.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9:
ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I F STONE
Director:
Fred Peabody
Premiere:
Toronto 2016
Select Festivals:
IDFA, Thessaloniki Doc, CPH:DOX
About:
A consideration of the work of independent journalists, through the lens of the pioneering I F Stone.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to NYC’s Q/A/F series tonight, Monday, May 8:
THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975
Director:
Göran Hugo Olsson
Premiere:
Sundance 2011
Select Festivals:
Berlin, New Directors/New Films, Full Frame, Miami, Hot Docs, Silverdocs
About:
The Black Power movement, as seen through the lens of Swedish journalists in the 1960s and ’70s.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, May 8:
THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES
Director:
Brett Story
Premiere:
True/False 2016
Select Festivals:
New Orleans, Hot Docs, Art of the Real, Camden, Reykjavik, Ann Arbor, DOXA
About:
A reflection on the far-reaching impact of America’s mass incarceration epidemic.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres today, Friday, May 5:
JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT
Director:
Pappi Corsicato
Premiere:
Tribeca 2017
About:
An affectionate profile of the maverick artist and filmmaker.
Corsicato’s film offers an archivally rich rundown of Julian Schnabel’s artistic and filmmaking career since the 1970s, detailing how he got his start as an artist, the significance of his collaboration with gallery owner Mary Boone, the resultant critical and financial acclaim, and his later turn to filmmaking. Interviews with Schnabel himself are supplemented by a chorus of admirers from family members to past collaborators and fellow art and film world luminaries, while a career retrospective serves as a further excuse to reflect on his work. Scant attention is paid to the controversies his work has attracted, resulting in a serviceable, but fairly one-note, portrait.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
Coming to Netflix today, Friday, May 5:
THE MARS GENERATION
Director:
Michael Barnett
Premiere:
Sundance 2017
About:
A look at the would-be astronauts of the future.
I profiled the doc before Sundance here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Releases, Sundance
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