Documentary

Jonathan Hacker’s Jihadi Terrorism Documentary PATH OF BLOOD Eyes Summer Release

Described as a “documentary thriller,” the documentary Path Of Blood is a provocative and unprecedented glimpse into the world of jihadi terrorism. Path Of Blood is directed by Jonathan Hacker based on his acclaimed book of the same title. Paladin today announced that the company has acquired the film with plans for a multi-city summer release in 2018. Path Of Blood depicts Islamist terrorism as it has never been seen before. Drawn from a hoard of jihadi home-movie footage that was captured by Saudi security services, this is the story of Muslim terrorists targeting Muslim civilians and brought to justice by Muslim security agents. It is a stark reminder that all who are touched by terrorism are victimized by it. A powerful and sometimes shocking cinematic experience, Path Of Blood reveals how brainwashed youths, fuelled by idealism and the misguided pursuit of adventure, can descend into madness and carnage. The raw, unvarnished footage, to which the filmmakers negotiated exclusive access, captures young thrill-seekers at a jihadi “boot camp” deep in the Saudi desert, having signed on to overthrow the Saudi government. They plot to detonate car-bombs in downtown Riyadh, become embroiled in a game of cat-and-mouse with government forces and, as their plans unravel, resort to ever more brutal tactics. [caption id="attachment_27241" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Jonathan Hacker[/caption] Adopting a strictly objective approach, the film doesn’t editorialize and contains no interviews or “talking heads” commentary. The home video footage was shot by the terrorists themselves, allowing viewers to see them in all their complexity, while compelling audiences to draw their own conclusions. About the film, Hacker says, “I was shocked at how powerful the imagery was. The footage took the viewer behind the scenes with Al Qaeda and had a genuine intimacy. I felt, for the first time, that I was seeing these disturbed young men as real human beings.” Urman adds, “Path Of Blood is an intense, immersive look at one of the most important—and polarizing—issues of our time: terrorism. It is an eye-opening experience, unlike any non-fiction film I’ve seen, and it is bound to capture the interest of anyone who cares about the ever-evolving way in which documentaries can tell us about the world we live in.” The book of the same title, published by Overlook Press in the U.S. and Simon & Schuster U.K., is currently available.
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THE JUDGE Documentary on First Woman Judge on Middle East’s Shari’a Courts Sets Release Date | Trailer

The inspiring documentary feature The Judge from Emmy-Winning Director Erika Cohn, offers a unique portrait of Kholoud Al-Faqih who became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts – her brave journey as a lawyer, her tireless fight for justice for women, and her drop-in visits with clients, friends, and family. When she was a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into the office of Palestine’s Chief Justice and announced she wanted to join the bench. He laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts. The Judge, which debuted at Toronto International Film Festival will open in U.S. theaters nationwide wide starting April 13. Religious courts in the Middle East had historically banned women from adjudicating domestic and family matters – in both the Shari’a courts of Islam and the Rabbinic courts of Judaism – until Kholoud Al-Faqih, dares to challenge that history. With the support of a progressive Sheik, Kholoud becomes the first woman judge with her appointment to a Palestinian Shari’a court in the West Bank, bringing a subtle new perspective garnered from her early professional life working with battered women as an attorney in both the criminal and Shari’a courts. This feature-length documentary chronicles Kholoud’s appointment, her first years as a judge, and her tenacious ability to maintain her position despite attempts to marginalize and demote her. Through Kholoud’s eyes, the film examines the religious and legal stipulations between men and women according to Shari’a law, relaying how the worst aspects of misinterpreted Shari’a laws reflect a tragic misogyny – rape, beatings, and polygamy – stemming from misconstrued ignorance of the Qur’an. As Kholoud’s most compelling cases develop in gripping cinema vérité style, the film reveals precisely the kinds of misinterpretations of Shari’a law that Kholoud now has the power to correct. With unparalleled access and a critical cinematic eye, The Judge follows Kholoud in and outside of the courtroom as she asserts her right to equality and redefines how Shari’a law perceives, treats, and respects women. Illustrating a unique portrait of her sustained intervention, The Judge reveals that Shari’a is a system largely mischaracterized both in the Middle East and in the West. Amid a time of rapidly increasing global Islamophobia, the unprecedented Muslim Ban and potential future Muslim registry – The Judge illuminates how colonial occupation has impacted the legal and cultural worlds of the contemporary Islamic world, while reflecting a universal struggle for women’s control over their bodies, economic welfare, custodial rights, and marital status. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5VNYkwjG30 THEATRICAL RELEASE SCHEDULE Friday, April 13, 2018 Opens in New York City at Cinema Village Friday, April 20, 2018 Opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle Monica Film Center Thursday, April 26, 2018 Opens in Seattle at Northwest Film Forum Friday, April 27 , 2018 Opens in San Francisco at The Roxie Opens in Berkeley, CA at Rialto Cinemas® Elmwood Opens in Detroit at Cinema Detroit Friday, May 4 , 2018 Opens in Washington, DC at Landmark’s West End Cinema Additional Markets/Theaters TBA Soon
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See Trailer + Poster for ITZHAK – Documentary on Famed Violinist Itzhak Perlman

[caption id="attachment_24246" align="aligncenter" width="800"] ITZHAK[/caption] The trailer and poster dropped today for Alison Chernick’s documentary Itzhak, a intimate portrait of the famed violinist Itzhak Perlman. Itzhak will be released theatrically in New York on March 9th and in Los Angeles on March 16th with a national rollout to follow. From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to…Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life; “praying with the violin,” says renowned Tel Aviv violinmaker Amnon Weinstein. Alison Chernick’s enchanting documentary looks beyond the sublime musician to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, and the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. Itzhak himself is funny, irreverent and self-deprecating, and here his life story unspools in conversations with masterful musicians, family and friends, and most endearingly his devoted wife of 50 years, Toby. Itzhak and Toby’s lives are dedicated to their large, loving, Jewish family in NYC and their continual support of young musicians. As charming and entrancing as the famous violinist himself, Itzhak is a portrait of musical virtuosity seamlessly enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love.

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Documentary BREAKING POINT: THE WAR FOR DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE Opens in Theaters on March 2nd | Trailer

Breaking Point: The War For Democracy in Ukraine, from three time Oscar® winning director Mark Jonathan Harris, is described as a powerful and intimate look at the war and revolution in Ukraine through the eyes of ordinary people who risked their lives to create a more democratic, equitable, and independent country. The documentary opens in theaters on March 2nd in New York and March 9th in Los Angeles, with additional cities to follow. Breaking Point is the dramatic and inspiring portrait of people willing to give up their private, normal lives to unite in a collective effort to bring the rule of law and democracy to their country. Their battle to wrest power from the autocrats and plutocrats who control their governments is a struggle that is being waged around the world, from the Mideast to America. The outcome affects not only the future of Ukraine, but the future of democracy throughout the world. The principal characters are a children’s theater director, a doctor, a rabbi, a TV journalist, an investigative reporter, and a lawyer turned medic and her soldier husband. Their lives were transformed by the tumultuous, three-month revolution on the Maidan, which ended in the death of 123 protestors and the flight of corrupt President Viktor Yanukovych. When Russia retaliated by annexing Crimea and invading eastern Ukraine, the subjects went to war to defend and remake their country. The film depicts this intense and on-going struggle, which has so far killed 10,000 Ukrainians and displaced 1.9 million refugees. Director Mark Jonathan Harris is an Academy Award® winning documentary filmmaker and Distinguished Professor in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Among the many documentaries he has written, produced and/or directed are Huelga!, the landmark film about Cesar Chavez and The Redwoods, which won an Oscar® for Best Short Documentary and helped establish a redwood national park in 1968. The Long Way Home, a film he wrote and directed about the period immediately following the Holocaust, won the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary in 1997; and Into The Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, which he also wrote and directed, won the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary in 2000 and was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for inclusion in its National Film Registry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15KbznNoFSI
Release Dates:
March 2, 2018 – New York – Cinema Village March 9, 2018 – Los Angeles – Laemmle Music Hall March 9, 2018 – Chicago – Theater TBC ** Additional cities to follow **
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“Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1” Tells True Story of the Original Air Jordan | Trailer

Including unfiltered interviews with fashion, sports, music and pop culture icons, the documentary film Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 tells the true story and features first-hand personal experiences around the irreverent shoe that powered its way into our culture and changed the world. Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 was written and directed by Dexton Deboree, co-founder of the award-winning creative agency, Los York and would be in limited theaters and available digitally on July 13, 2018. “The AJ1 is more than a shoe. It’s a symbol of a much greater meaning across genders, race, geography and time. Now more than ever, what this shoe represents, its impact on society and its role in really creating, defining and redefining a lot of our modern culture makes it a story that has to be told,” said Writer-Director Dexton Deboree. Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 explores the dynamic journey of the Air Jordan 1 from its unlikely beginnings to its role in disrupting long-established rules of the NBA, changing the game of basketball, birthing sneaker culture and influencing a social and cultural revolution. Highlighting icons from across the cultural spectrum – including Spike Lee, Anthony Anderson, Michael B. Jordan, DJ Khaled, Lena Waithe, Kenya Barris, Jason Sudeikis, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook, hip-hop legend Chuck D, as well as rising stars Gizzle, Christian Combs, and Kid Ink, and many more – the film takes a raw and riveting look at a movement that so heavily shaped the culture in which we live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p79nXVeyj4s
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Moving Documentary A BOND UNBROKEN Sets February 13th Release Date | Trailer

[caption id="attachment_26915" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] A Bond Unbroken. Nguyen Hoang Minh, at his home in My Tho.[/caption] The moving documentary A Bond Unbroken narrated by Renowned Broadcast Journalist Bob Woodruff which traces the emotional 40-Year journey of Navy SEALs to reunite with their Vietnamese combat interpreter will be released starting February 13, 2018, across digital, On-Demand and DVD via Cinedigm. In the deadly jungles of Vietnam over 40 years ago, the Navy SEALs forged an enduring bond of friendship with their Vietnamese combat interpreter. Through brutal fire-fights and night-time ambushes, Nguyen Hoang Minh fought as a member of the SEAL platoons in the Mekong Delta and helped keep them alive. Though wounded numerous times, he never backed down or gave up the fight, and the SEALs began to feel that Minh was “one of us.” When the Communists overran Vietnam, Minh could not get out, and the SEALs’ brave comrade was lost to them forever. Or so they thought. Until one Navy lieutenant’s relentless search found him and the SEALs brought him to America for a reunion. A Bond Unbroken captures that remarkable reunion decades in the making, and presents another side of the battle-tough, covert warrior SEALs. Their actions change Minh’s life and dramatically impacted his family and the Vietnamese-American community. “A Bond Unbroken” is narrated by veteran broadcast journalist Bob Woodruff and features the song “The Great Unknown,” written and performed by three-time Grammy Award® winner Rob Thomas (“Smooth”), who in addition to his solo career is also the lead vocalist for Matchbox Twenty. “The emotional threads in this story were just so compelling that I knew it needed to be told,” says director Mary Ann Koenig. “We wanted to demonstrate intrinsic parts of the SEAL credo that we had come to understand, those of honor and integrity and fidelity. Along the way it became clear that these SEALs have hearts of gold, and that was an element I didn’t anticipate. Their ongoing efforts to raise money to support their old colleague and his family in Vietnam and to bring him to America for a reunion, have made it a privilege to take the four-year journey and make the world aware of this story.”

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Documentary LIVES WELL LIVED Celebrates Wit, Wisdom and Experiences of Seniors | Trailer

Lives Well Lived, the award-winning documentary by Sky Bergman that celebrates the incredible wit, wisdom and experiences of people aged 75 to 100 years old, will open on April 20th at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, Town Center in Encino and Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, California; other cities will follow. Through their intimate memories and inspiring personal histories encompassing over 3000 years of experience, forty people share their secrets and insights to living a meaningful life. These men and women open the vault on their journey into old age through family histories, personal triumph and tragedies, loves and losses – seeing the best and worst of humanity along the way. Their thoughtful perspectives reveal a treasure of life lessons and a reminder of the greatest role models in our own families. “My inspiration for the Lives Well Lived project was my 103 year old grandmother who enjoyed exercise, making the best lasagna you’ve ever tasted and being with family. She showed me by example, that age is truly just a number. In our society, the elderly are often overlooked and I wanted to bring that generation to the forefront. Our greatest role models are those living full and meaningful lives in their later years. It has been a six-year long labor of love to see this film to fruition: from the first days filming in my grandmother’s kitchen, to the moment of the final edits, it is a great honor to share the stories of the amazing people featured in the film.” – filmmaker Sky Bergman.

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Crime Documentary OPERATION ODESSA to World Premiere at 2018 SXSW Film | Trailer

[caption id="attachment_26843" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Caption: Leonid “Tarzan” Fainberg with unidentified Soviet Admiral posing beside a foxtrot submarine purchased on behalf of the Cali Cartel. | Credit: International Fugitive Nelson Tony Yester[/caption] Operation Odessa is a true crime documentary about a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy and a Cuban spy who sold a Soviet submarine to a Colombian drug cartel for $35 million. Operation Odessa directed by Tiller Russel will make its world premiere at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, followed by its debut on Showtime on Saturday, March 31 at 9 PM ET/PT. An early ’90s gangster epic that hopscotches from Brooklyn to Miami and Cali to Moscow, the film tells the true story of three friends who set out to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel and the DEA for the score of a lifetime. What really happened to the sub, the money and the three amigos has remained a shadowy underworld myth until now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct6hXDt_yqM
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LEANING INTO THE WIND, Portrait of Artist Andy Goldsworthy Sets Release Date | Trailer

Leaning Into The Wind – Andy Goldsworthy, Thomas Riedelsheimer’s followup to his 2001 sleeper hit Rivers and Tides, a portrait of innovative British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy, will open on Friday, March 9 at New York’s Film Forum with a national rollout to follow. Sixteen years after the release of the groundbreaking film Rivers and Tides – Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time director Thomas Riedelsheimer has returned to work with the artist. Leaning into the Wind – Andy Goldsworthy follows Andy on his exploration of the layers of his world and the impact of the years on himself and his art. As Goldsworthy introduces his own body into the work it becomes at the same time even more fragile and personal and also sterner and tougher, incorporating massive machinery and crews on his bigger projects. Riedelsheimer’s exquisite film illuminates Goldsworthy’s mind as it reveals his art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQYGbfVfpm0
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Sundance 2018: First-time Filmmaker Rudy Valdez’s THE SENTENCE Acquired by HBO

The documentary feature film The Sentence is first-time filmmaker Rudy Valdez’s moving film about the aftermath of his sister’s incarceration, and is described as a searing look at the devastating consequences of mandatory minimum sentencing. The Sentence, which had its premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition category has been acquired by HBO for a planned release later this year. The Sentence draws from hundreds of hours of footage to tell the story of Cindy Shank, a woman who received a 15-year mandatory sentence for conspiracy charges related to crimes committed by her deceased ex-boyfriend? – something known, in legal terms, as “the girlfriend problem.” Cindy’s brother Rudy Valdez’s method of coping with this tragedy is to film his sister’s family for her, both the everyday details and the milestones? – moments Cindy herself can no longer share in. But in the midst of this nightmare, Valdez finds his voice as both a filmmaker and activist, and he and his family begin to fight for Cindy’s release during the last months of the Obama administration’s clemency initiative. Whether their attempts will allow Cindy to break free of her draconian sentence becomes the aching question at the core of this deeply personal portrait of a family in crisis. Valdez said, “This film has been more than ten years in the making and we wanted to make sure we found the right home, especially given the intimate nature of the story. In partnering with HBO, we’re excited about working together to get this film out into the world and make as huge an impact as possible.” Image: Cynthia Shank, Autumn Shank, Ava Shank and Annalis Shank appear in The Sentence by Rudy Valdez, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
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“This Is Home: A Refugee Story,” to Air on EPIX in 2018 Following World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival

This Is Home: A Refugee Story which world premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, will make its television debut on the premium pay television network EPIX, later in 2018. Directed by Alexandra Shiva (How to Dance in Ohio), This is Home is an intimate portrait of four Syrian refugee families arriving in America and struggling to find their footing. Displaced from their homes and separated from loved ones, they are given eight months of assistance from the International Rescue Committee to become self-sufficient. As they learn to adapt to challenges, including the newly imposed travel ban, their strength and resilience are tested. After surviving the traumas of war, the families arrive in Baltimore, Maryland and are met with a whole new set of challenges. They attend cultural orientation classes and job training sessions where they must “learn America” – everything from how to take public transportation to negotiating new gender roles. This Is Home goes beyond the statistics, headlines, and political rhetoric to tell deeply personal stories, putting a human face on the global refugee crisis.
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Audi Dublin International Film Festival 2018 Announces Rich Line-up of Irish Documentaries

[caption id="attachment_26613" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot[/caption] With the festival about a month away, the Audi Dublin International Film Festival taking place February 21st to March 4th, 2018, gave a taste of their exciting 2018 film program by announcing this year’s Irish documentary line-up. Festival Director, Gráinne Humphreys said, ‘This year’s Irish documentary line-up, full of World and Irish Premieres reveals a preoccupation with the tensions between long-held traditions and the contemporary society. These extraordinary films ask questions of what we can treasure and protect, what can be re-invented and what we need to learn to let go of. These profound and searching documentaries give a glimpse of what’s in store when the full Audi Dublin International Film Festival programme is announced on 24th January’. One farmer’s courageous struggle to maintain a centuries-old lifestyle in the shadow of a huge multinational is traced in the Irish Premiere of Feargal Ward’s The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid; the walk of the Camino is re-invented as a Kerry curragh sea journey in the Irish Premiere of Dónal Ó’Céilleachair’s The Camino Voyage featuring Brendan Begley and Glen Hansard; and Paul Duane traces a hypnotic musical journey that brings us to the earliest Western music still in existence in the World Premiere of While You Live, Shine. A less welcome tradition, that of dissident Republican vigilantism in pockets of the North, is shockingly explored in the Irish Premiere of Sinéad O’Shea’s much-anticipated A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot. The Troubles also reverberate through the Irish Premiere of Donal Foreman’s The Image You Missed, which sees the filmmaker grapple with the legacy of his estranged father, Arthur MacCaig, and the decades-spanning archive of the conflict in Northern Ireland that he created. Each year the Arts Council’s Reel Art scheme, in association with ADIFF and Filmbase, commissions two films that offer filmmakers a chance to make highly creative, imaginative and experimental documentaries on an artistic theme. Receiving their World Premieres at this year’s festival in the IFI are Rouzbeh Rashidi’s Phantom Islands, a visceral exploration of the boundaries between documentary and fiction and Niall McCann’s reflective encounter with Irish musician and artist Adrian Crowley in The Science of Ghosts. Lastly, major Irish filmmaker Pat Collins returns to documentary with Twilight, a beautiful evocation of the end of day, that was filmed over two years in Baltimore, West Cork.
Irish Documentaries at ADIFF 2018
The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid The Science of Ghosts Phantom Islands Twilight Light While You Live, Shine The Image You Missed The Camino Voyage
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Documentary

Release Dates:

Irish Documentaries at ADIFF 2018