what (not) to doc

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, January 6: A DIFFERENT AMERICAN DREAM

Director:
Simon Brook

Premiere:
Thessaloniki Doc 2016

Select Festivals:
Margaret Mead, Reykjavik, American Indian Film Festival, Red Nation

About:
Native Americans reflect on the impact of the oil industry on their land.

The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation is located in the Badlands of North Dakota, site of the largest shale oil field on the continent. In the wake of its discovery, the oil industry descended on the community, enriching a handful in the short-term but harming thousands more, in the view of several tribe members featured in Brook’s doc. While it’s clear that the filmmakers are earnest about giving voice to and defending the rights of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes that call Fort Berthold home, the film is workmanlike at best in its construction, and lacks a compelling, forward momentum, choosing instead to introduce talking head after talking head voicing their sad but familiar complaints about the environmental and cultural damage being done by the oil industry.

New to VOD this week: DON’T BLINK – ROBERT FRANK

Director:
Laura Israel

Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2015

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Palm Springs, Berlin, Portland, Hong Kong, Full Frame, IndieLisboa, Munich Dokfest, Provincetown, Jerusalem, Melbourne, London

About:
An impressionistic portrait of the pioneering documentary photographer and filmmaker.

Frank is best-known for his provocative, candid 1958 book of black-and-white photography, THE AMERICANS, produced over the course of a nine-month trip through 30 states, and as the director of the notorious unreleased 1972 Rolling Stones documentary, COCKSUCKER BLUES. Like that chronicle of the band’s 1972 tour, Israel takes a somewhat freeform approach here, rather than a traditional, strictly biographical one. As signaled by its title, the film barrages the viewer with examples of the artist’s striking work – sometimes too quickly, frankly – and otherwise peppers the proceedings with background and present-day scenes showing the still very active nonagenarian at work. While sometimes not wholly satisfying as a result, the effort is distinctive and matches its subject quite appropriately.