Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens next Monday, June 23:
THE WITNESS
Director:
James Solomon
Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2015
Select Festivals:
Palm Springs, Big Sky, Boulder, Hong Kong, Sarasota, Atlanta
Notable Recognition:
The doc has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards.
About:
Kitty Genovese’s brother searches for the truth behind her notorious 1964 murder.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to HBO this coming Monday, June 23:
BEWARE THE SLENDERMAN
Director:
Irene Taylor Brodsky
Premiere:
SXSW 2016
Select Festivals:
DOC NYC, Nantucket, IDFA, Hot Docs, Montclair, Seattle, Docuwest, Fantasia, New Zealand, Melbourne
About:
An insidious Internet meme inspires a shocking murder attempt.
I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket, saying:
Offering a sensitive investigation of a disturbing true-life crime, Irene Taylor Brodsky chronicles the 2014 case of a pair of 12-year-old Wisconsin girls who attempted to murder their friend to appease the Slenderman, an Internet bogeyman they were convinced otherwise would harm their families. In the wake of this strange crime, the girls’ parents and authorities try to make sense of this Web legend and how quickly and firmly it became cemented in the minds of impressionable young people. Eschewing sensationalism and facile answers, Brodsky tells a complex cautionary tale that questions how much parents truly know about what their kids do online.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to VOD today, Tuesday, January 17:
HUNTWATCH
Director:
Brant Backlund
Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015
Select Festivals:
Santa Barbara, Sedona, Boulder, Newport Beach
About:
A man makes it his life’s work to save Arctic seals.
I previously wrote about the doc here.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
Coming to theatres this Friday, January 20 and to VOD next Friday, January 27:
THE SUNSHINE MAKERS
Director:
Cosmo Feilding Mellen
Premiere:
DOC NYC 2015
About:
A secret history of the popularization of LSD in 1960s America.
I previously wrote about the film for DOC NYC’s program, saying:
A real-life BREAKING BAD for the psychedelic set, Cosmo Feilding Mellen reveals the entertaining, untold story of Nicholas Sand and Tim Scully, the unlikely duo at the heart of 1960s American drug counterculture. United in a utopian mission to save the planet through the consciousness-raising power of LSD, these underground chemists manufactured a massive amount of acid – including the gold standard for quality LSD, Orange Sunshine – as they tried to stay one step ahead of the feds.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
HOT GIRLS WANTED: TURNED ON
The online world of porn and its impact on real life is explored in this new Netflix docuseries.
Festival Section:
Special Events
Program:
Docuseries Showcase
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Film Forum tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18:
LEONARD COHEN: BIRD ON A WIRE
Director:
Tony Palmer
Premiere:
London’s Rainbow Theatre (1974), Krakow’s Leonard Cohen Festival (2010)
Select Festivals:
Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Copenhagen Jewish Film Festival, In-Edit, Midnight Sun
About:
Life on tour with Leonard Cohen in 1972.
In the Spring of 1972, Palmer followed Leonard Cohen on his European (and Israeli) tour, capturing several performances often marred by poor sound equipment, backstage moments, press junkets, and interactions with fans. Cohen’s dissatisfaction with the concert film resulted in a re-edit and delay of its premiere until 1974, after which it more or less vanished aside from bootleg VHS copies. Thought lost, original footage was discovered in 2009 by the son of Cohen’s manager, prompting Palmer to reconstruct a version closer to his original intention. This new/old version debuted in 2010 but was not released theatrically in the US until now, in recognition of the performer’s death this past November. While offering a look at the young Cohen performing some of his best loved songs, the film is more of a candid chronicle of the singer’s life on tour and, especially, how he dealt with mishaps, than it is a standard concert doc, thankfully. Palmer is present for the performer’s insistent attempts to woo an attractive groupie, while also witnessing a gaggle of annoying, entitled fans demanding refunds after a technically-plagued gig, and, in its emotional climax, Cohen quitting the stage in Jerusalem when he’s not feeling the music, only to finally make a poignant return after much backstage discussion.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Recommendations, Releases
THE HISTORY OF COMEDY
A sneak-preview of two episodes of a new CNN docuseries exploring the genre across historical, social, and political lines.
Festival Section:
Special Events
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to theatres this Friday, January 20 and to DVD/VOD next Tuesday, January 24:
ANTARCTICA: ICE AND SKY
Director:
Luc Jacquet
Premiere:
Cannes 2015
Select Festivals:
Busan, Vancouver, Adelaide, Cleveland, Seattle, Traverse City, SF Green, Washington DC Environmental, Helsinki, Bergen
About:
A glaciologist looks back on his pioneering work exposing the dangers of climate change.
In 1956, while in his early 20s, Claude Lorius set off on the first of countless expeditions to study glaciers, most to Antarctica. Based on the observations he made in these early years, he began to speak out about the dangers posed by manmade elevations of global temperature – and, of course, was largely ignored. Now in his 80s, the glaciologist reflects on his lifelong work as he is shown returning to the much changed region – but the bulk of the film captures the Frenchman in his earlier years, via a treasure trove of footage shot by him and his fellow researchers. Sadly, as he did in his original, anthropomorphic version of THE MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, Jacquet unnecessarily doctors this footage, in this case employing a garrulous voice actor to narrate the material to within an inch of its life, and employing a ceaselessly distracting score to make it even harder to appreciate this intriguing period footage, effectively ruining what could have been a compelling project.
Filed under Documentary, Film, Releases
ABSTRACT: THE ART OF DESIGN
This new Netflix docuseries provides viewers with an in-depth look at today’s leading designers.
Festival Section:
Special Events
Program:
Docuseries Showcase
Continue reading
Filed under Documentary, Film, Film Festivals, Recommendations, Sundance
Coming to NYC’s Made in NY Media Center this Friday, January 20:
FRAUD
Director:
Dean Fleischer-Camp
Premiere:
Hot Docs 2016
Select Festivals:
Sheffield, BAMcinemaFest, Fantastic Fest, Hamptons, Denver, AFI Fest, Sidewalk
About:
A family’s home movies reveal the dark side of consumer culture.
As Fleischer-Camp’s film opens, audiences are thrown into the prosaic world of a typical American nuclear family – dad, mom, and preteen son and daughter – through shaky, quickly-cut home movie scenes, complete with an ever-present timestamp. A creeping feeling soon descends over the footage, as suggestions of family financial troubles emerge, first leading to an impromptu yard sale and then to decidedly more desperate measures signaled by the project’s title. Camp – and particularly his editor, Jonathan Rippon – craft an unsettling tale, but, to spoil the conceit that is itself also suggested as a dual meaning from its title, the film is not a documentary. The filmmakers instead took hours of raw documentary material – the family’s home movies – and meticulously repurposed them, pulling from some other sources in a few cases – to create a wholly fictional story. Audiences utterly ignorant of the project’s origins could unquestioningly buy into what’s shown onscreen, though inconsistencies or blatant errors – such as an errant timestamp noting that Hurricane Sandy taking place in September instead of November – might provide more attentive viewers with clues that everything is not what it seems. The clever hybrid calls into question ideas of documentary truth and the seductive power of narrative, while also serving up an extreme, but not utterly inconceivable portrait of consumerism run amok.
Filed under Film, Recommendations, Releases
what (not) to doc 