April 5, 2012 · 12:01 PM

Full Frame 2012 Overview

Launched fifteen years ago (originally as the Double Take Documentary Film Festival), the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival annually brings over one hundred new and retrospective non-fiction films to Durham NC over the course of four days. Typically screening each film only once, forcing audiences to decide between as many as five simultaneous choices, organizers generate a real sense of urgency around every screening. While I’ve sadly only been once, the festival proved to be a well curated event with a notably erudite and diverse audience drawn from the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Research Triangle.

Running April 12-15, Full Frame 2012 includes more than fifty new documentary features in addition to shorts and retro programming that includes a four film tribute to Stanley Nelson and a ten film series around the theme of family, featuring notable titles like Doug Block’s 51 BIRCH STREET, Marco Williams’ IN SEARCH OF OUR FATHERS, Alan Berliner’s INTIMATE STRANGER, and Lucia Small’s MY FATHER, THE GENIUS. Among the lineup are a number of fantastic films I’ve written about previously that screened at other festivals like Toronto, IDFA, and Sundance, but my eye was drawn to a number of titles making their premieres here that, for the most part, I haven’t seen yet but would put on the top of my list if I were attending. Continue reading →

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April 4, 2012 · 1:31 PM

In Theatres: SURVIVING PROGRESS

Coming to theatres this Friday, April 6: SURVIVING PROGRESS

Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks premiered their study of the pitfalls of progress at Toronto before heading to Vancouver, Montreal, IDFA, and Dubai before the end of the year. Since then, it’s screened at a number of additional festivals in addition to theatrical runs in Canada. First Run Features brings the film to the US for a theatrical run beginning at Cinema Village and the Film Society’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center in NYC this weekend and expanding on April 20.

Adapted from Ronald Wright’s A SHORT HISTORY OF PROGRESS, a treatise on how too-accelerated progress in technology, population, and consumption, may very well lead to the destruction of our civilization, Roy and Crooks gather the author and a number of other notable thinkers to explore the “progress traps” we’ve created for ourselves. While the interview subjects offer compelling food for thought, the filmmakers smartly eschew a strictly talking heads approach by incorporating stunning visuals from all over the globe. Moving from the ancient, defunct civilizations focused on in Wright’s book, the documentary hones in on the present and the underside of today’s interconnected world, where financial or environmental crises recognize no national or geographic border. Despite tackling a huge issue from often disparate, wide-ranging perspectives (though essentially linked by the commonsensical dictum that we should consume less), the film remains grounded and relatable, offering concrete examples of the problems we’re collectively facing, as well as a variety of solutions.

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April 4, 2012 · 12:01 PM

On DVD: MISS REPRESENTATION

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 10: MISS REPRESENTATION

Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s corrective to media’s objectification of women made its premiere at Sundance last year. It played at additional fests, including hometown San Francisco, and has hosted extensive community and educational screenings throughout the US and internationally. It made its broadcast premiere as part of Oprah’s Documentary Club.

I wrote about the film before Sundance here.

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April 3, 2012 · 12:01 PM

Special Screening: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF

Screening as part of a retrospective of Thom Andersen’s works during the Whitney’s 2012 Biennial tomorrow Wednesday, April 4 through Saturday, April 7: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF

Andersen premiered his essay on the cinematic Los Angeles at Toronto in 2003. The film screened extensively at other major festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Marseille, Karlovy Vary, and CPH:DOX.

Clocking in at nearly three hours, Andersen’s ambitious project is a masterful dissection of the various ways the city of Los Angeles has been depicted in film, and what these (mis)representations say about the real city and how the general public sees it. Divided into three sections, Andersen’s essay film explores the city as background, character, and subject, respectively, through clips from a remarkable number of films and a cogent narration, which, while essentially a lecture, is always engaging. By focusing on a city that is at the heart of the creation of illusions, the project holds a mirror to the undeniably influential film industry that has called it home for nearly its entire existence, and how it has been instrumental in creating and continuously reinventing a mythical version of Los Angeles – its geography, history, culture – that has been exported beyond the city limits to the rest of the world. The film is at once a piece of film criticism, an excavation of urban archaeology and anthropology, and a love letter to Andersen’s home since the age of seven.

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April 2, 2012 · 1:31 PM

Special Screening: HU ENIGMA

Coming to NYC’s Maysles Cinema as part of “Street Views,” a new series exploring connections between individuals and their environments, this Thursday, April 5: HU ENIGMA

Pedro Urano and Joana Traub Csekö’s unique exploration of Brazilian architecture and politics made its world premiere last November at CPH:DOX. Since then it has also screened at Brazilian fest Tiradentes, where it took home an award, and at Toulouse.

The titular puzzle of Urano and Csekö’s film is an unusual, imposing university hospital in Rio de Janeiro. As is quickly established, the behemoth building which houses the hospital is only partially occupied – the other half, referred to colloquially as the “lame leg,” has never been completed. A sort of cousin to Cuba’s National Art Schools project, as featured in UNFINISHED SPACES, politics too had their role in the building’s ultimate fate. End cards and interviews with individuals connected to the hospital reveal the history of the structure as a utopian modernist project dating back to the 1950s, but it’s in the film’s striking imagery of the ruined side, sometimes shown in splitscreen, juxtaposed with the hospital activities in its better half, that its schizophrenia comes alive. The filmmakers’ exploration of both halves of the space is imbued with a deliberate, lyrical rhythm that builds to a surprisingly dramatic conclusion.

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April 2, 2012 · 12:01 PM

Indiewire @ Hulu Docs: Reel Religious

With Passover and Easter on the horizon, my latest Indiewire curation for Hulu documentaries looks at films that explore various facets of Jewish and Christian life. View all of the films now for free!

For more information about the selections, see my Indiewire article.

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March 30, 2012 · 12:01 PM

On DVD and TV: BEING ELMO

Coming to DVD next Tuesday, April 3 and to PBS’ Independent Lens next Thursday. April 5 and Monday, April 9: BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY

Constance Marks has been wowing audiences and juries with her portrait of Kevin Clash since the film’s premiere at Sundance last year. The film picked up a Special Jury Prize in Park City, and followed with awards from Traverse City and Nantucket, as well as audience acclaim at Hot Docs and Seattle, among others. It had a limited theatrical release last Fall.

I wrote about the film before Sundance here.

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March 29, 2012 · 12:01 PM

In Theatres: BULLY

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, March 30: BULLY

Lee Hirsch premiered his doc on young bullying victims (under the original title THE BULLY PROJECT) at Tribeca last year. It was picked up for distribution by The Weinstein Company, and has had a healthy festival life, screening at notable events like Hot Docs, the Hamptons, Silverdocs, and the Los Angeles Film Festival. The film gained a publicity boost when the backwards-thinking, out-of-touch MPAA gave it an R rating, effectively cutting off the younger viewers who would most benefit from it. Despite an appeal by the Weinsteins and a petition, the MPAA has not backed down from their rating, citing language concerns. As a result, the Weinsteins announced earlier this week that the film will be released unrated.

I included the film in my Tribeca coverage here.

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March 28, 2012 · 1:31 PM

On DVD/VOD: A SECOND KNOCK AT THE DOOR

Released on DVD/VOD earlier this month: A SECOND KNOCK AT THE DOOR

Christopher Grimes’ investigation of friendly fire deaths made its premiere on the festival circuit last Fall, screening at a handful of events and picking up awards at East Lansing, Sycamore, and Vegas Cine Fest. It has received a DVD/VOD release through Cinema Libre.

Grimes’ debut documentary explores the affecting stories of a number of families of US military accidentally slain by their fellow or allied combatants. The film effectively traces the recent history and changing perception of so-called “friendly fire,” including alterations to military notification policies intended to be more sympathetic to survivors. However, as illustrated through the stories of Sgt Lee Todacheene, PFC Jesse Buryj, and PFC David Sharrett II, among countless others, some cases of friendly fire remain either deliberately or unintentionally unreported and undisciplined, resulting in confusion, anger, and extended grief for the families. While the film demonstrates some roughness and a tendency to talking heads, there are also very effective, and disturbing, sequences from actual footage of friendly fire that bring the point very much home. Together with the heartfelt and passionate testimony of the profiled family members, this makes the film a valuable addition to the library of films exploring the US military.

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March 28, 2012 · 12:01 PM

In Theatres: SCENES OF A CRIME

Coming to NYC’s Cinema Village this Friday, March 30 and LA’s Laemmle’s Music Hall on April 13: SCENES OF A CRIME

Blue Hadaegh and Grover Babcock premiered their gripping examination of questionable police interrogation practices at Full Frame last year. It picked up the Grand Jury Award at both Full Frame and Doc NYC, as well as the 2011 IFP Gotham Award for Best Film Not Playing At A Theatre Near You.

I wrote about the film out of Silverdocs here.

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