Netflix has released the official trailer for the award-winning powerful documentary Strong Island directed by Yance Ford, that examines the racially charged murder of his brother. The film will launch on Netflix and in limited theatrical release on September 15, 2017.
Strong Island premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling, for Yance Ford.
In April 1992, on Long Island NY, William Jr., the Ford’s eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Director Yance Ford chronicles the arc of his family across history, geography and tragedy – from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City; from the presumed safety of middle class suburbs, to the maelstrom of an unexpected, violent death. It is the story of the Ford family: Barbara Dunmore, William Ford and their three children and how their lives were shaped by the enduring shadow of racism in America.
A deeply intimate and meditative film, Strong Island asks what one can do when the grief of loss is entwined with historical injustice, and how one grapples with the complicity of silence, which can bind a family in an imitation of life, and a nation with a false sense of justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64qugj_iDgDocumentary
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for Yance Ford’s Sundance Award-Winning Documentary STRONG ISLAND
Netflix has released the official trailer for the award-winning powerful documentary Strong Island directed by Yance Ford, that examines the racially charged murder of his brother. The film will launch on Netflix and in limited theatrical release on September 15, 2017.
Strong Island premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling, for Yance Ford.
In April 1992, on Long Island NY, William Jr., the Ford’s eldest child, a black 24 year-old teacher, was killed by Mark Reilly, a white 19 year-old mechanic. Although Ford was unarmed, he became the prime suspect in his own murder. Director Yance Ford chronicles the arc of his family across history, geography and tragedy – from the racial segregation of the Jim Crow South to the promise of New York City; from the presumed safety of middle class suburbs, to the maelstrom of an unexpected, violent death. It is the story of the Ford family: Barbara Dunmore, William Ford and their three children and how their lives were shaped by the enduring shadow of racism in America.
A deeply intimate and meditative film, Strong Island asks what one can do when the grief of loss is entwined with historical injustice, and how one grapples with the complicity of silence, which can bind a family in an imitation of life, and a nation with a false sense of justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64qugj_iDg
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for HUMAN FLOW, Artist Ai Weiwei’s Documentary on Global Refugee Crisis
Amazon has released the trailer for Human Flow, a documentary directed by world-renowned artist Ai Weiwei, that looks at the global refugee crisis. The film will be released in theaters on October 13.
Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. Human Flow is a witness to its subjects and their desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future. This visceral work of cinema is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses one of the questions that will define this century: Will our global society emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest and choose a path of openness, freedom, and respect for humanity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVZGyTdk_BY
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Netflix Debuts Trailer + Poster + Release Date for Documentary Short RESURFACE from Tribeca Film Fest
Netflix has released the trailer and poster for the documentary short film Resurface. The film premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Mention and will launch globally on Netflix on September 1, 2017.
After years of nightmares, depression, and seizures, Iraq war veteran Bobby Lane could see no way out of his trauma other than suicide. Then he met Van Curaza, a former big wave surfer who had since founded Operation Surf and dedicated his life to helping veterans find solace in surfing.
Backed by a growing body of research illustrating the healing power of the ocean on the mind and body, organizations such as Operation Surf and the Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation are using surfing to help veterans cope with physical and mental trauma. Resurface directed by Joshua Izenberg (Slomo) and Wynn Padula tells the story of Bobby and other veterans who have experienced the powerful and prescriptive effects of surf on the traumas of war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8W1yvrPA-U
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15 Films in EFA Documentary Selection 2017: ‘SCHOOL LIFE’ ‘THE WAR SHOW’ and More
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DEAD DONKEYS FEAR NO HYENAS[/caption]
15 European documentaries have been recommended for a nomination for this year’s 2017 European Film Awards.
Ten documentary festivals have recommended to the committee one film each which has had its world premiere at the respective festival’s latest edition. Based on their recommendations and the films individually submitted, the EFA documentary committee decided on the EFA Documentary Selection.
EFA Members will now vote for five documentary nominations. Based on these nominations, the EFA Members will then elect the ‘European Documentary 2017’ which will be announced during the awards ceremony on December 9 in Berlin.
EFA Documentary Selection 2017
AUSTERLITZ Germany 94 min DIRECTED BY Sergei Loznitsa PRODUCED BY Sergei Loznitsa COMMUNION KOMUNIA Poland 72 min DIRECTED BY Anna Zamecka PRODUCED BY Zuzanna Krol, Anna Wydra, Izabela Lopuch & Hanka Kastelicova DEAD DONKEYS FEAR NO HYENAS Sweden, Germany, Finland 80 min DIRECTED BY Joakim Demmer PRODUCED BY Margarete Jangård, Heino Deckert & John Webster HOW TO MEET A MERMAID Netherlands, Denmark 90 min DIRECTED BY Coco Schrijber PRODUCED BY Frank van den Engel LA CHANA Spain, Iceland, USA 86 min DIRECTED BY Lucija Stojevic PRODUCED BY Lucija Stojevic, Greta Olafsdottir, Deirdre Towers & Susan Muska LIBERA NOS LIBERAMI Italy, France 90 min DIRECTED BY Federica Di Giacomo PRODUCED BY Francesco Virga & Paolo Santoni NOTHINGWOOD France, Germany 85 min DIRECTED BY Sonia Kronlund PRODUCED BY Laurent Lavolé & Melanie Andernach SCHOOL LIFE IN LOCO PARENTIS Ireland, Spain 99 min DIRECTED BY Neasa Ní Chianáin & David Rane PRODUCED BY David Rane, Montse Portabella, Angelo Orlando & Efthymia Zymvragaki STRANGER IN PARADISE Netherlands 72 min DIRECTED BY Guido Hendrikx PRODUCED BY Frank van den Engel TASTE OF CEMENT Germany, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Qatar 85 min DIRECTED BY Ziad Kalthoum PRODUCED BY Ansgar Frerich, Tobias Siebert & Eva Kemme THE GOOD POSTMAN Finland, Bulgaria 80 min DIRECTED BY Tonislav Hristov PRODUCED BY Kaarle Aho THE VENERABLE W LE VENERABLE W France, Switzerland 100 min DIRECTED BY Barbet Schroeder PRODUCED BY Margaret Menegoz & Lionel Baier THE WAR SHOW Denmark, Syria, Finland 100 min DIRECTED BY Andreas Dalsgaard & Obaidah Zytoon PRODUCED BY Miriam Nørgaard & Alaa Hassan ULTRA Hungary, Greece 81 min DIRECTED BY Balazs Simonyi PRODUCED BY Laszlo Jozsa, Balazs Simonyi, Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof, Hanka Kastelicova & Anna Zavorszky WEST OF THE JORDAN RIVER A L’OUEST DU JOURDAIN France 124 min DIRECTED BY Amos Gitai PRODUCED BY Patricia Boutinard Rouelle, Romain Icard, Stéphanie Schorter, Amos Gitai, Shuki Friedman & Laurent Truchotv
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Tribeca Film Festival Award-Winning Documentary BOBBI JENE Dances into Theaters on September 22 | Trailer
The Tribeca Film Festival award-winning documentary Bobbi Jene directed by Elvira Lind, looks at the exhilarating journey of a dancer finding her place in the world. The film swept the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival documentary awards, winning for Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. Bobbi Jene will be released in New York at the Quad Cinema on Friday, September 22, with additional cities to follow.
After a decade of stardom in Israel, American dancer Bobbi Jene Smith decides to leave behind her prominent position at the world-famous Batsheva Dance Company, as well as the love of her life, to return to the US to create her own boundary-breaking art. Tracking the personal and professional challenges that await her, Lind’s film lovingly and intimately documents the dilemmas and inevitable consequences of ambition. Observing the artist in both private and public settings, the film moves between uninhibited scenes of life at home, grueling rehearsals, and Bobbi Jene’s revealing choreography. Baring her body, her new work explores both the physical and emotional complexities of female sexuality. Bobbi Jene delves into what it takes for a woman to gain her own independence in the extremely competitive world of dance and to find self-fulfillment in the process.
Trailer: Bobbi Jene
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VIDEO: Watch Trailer for Documentary SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME World Premiering at Toronto Film Festival
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Sammy Davis, Jr. takes aim in a backstage photo with his dancers in a scene from the documentary SAMMY DAVIS, JR.: I’VE GOTTA BE ME. Photo Credit: The Estate of Altovise Davis[/caption]
The trailer premiered today for the new documentary Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me directed by the legendary documentary filmmaker Sam Pollard, which will have it’s world premiere this September at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me is the first major film documentary to examine Davis’ vast talent and his journey for identity through the shifting tides of civil rights and racial progress during 20th-century America.
Sammy Davis, Jr. had the kind of career that was indisputably legendary, so vast and multi-faceted that it was dizzying in its scope and scale. And yet, his life was complex, complicated and contradictory. Davis strove to achieve the American Dream in a time of racial prejudice and shifting political territory. He was the veteran of increasingly outdated show business traditions trying to stay relevant; he frequently found himself bracketed by the bigotry of white America and the distaste of black America; he was the most public black figure to embrace Judaism, thereby yoking his identity to another persecuted minority.
Featuring new interviews with such luminaries as Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg, Quincy Jones and Kim Novak, with never-before-seen photographs from Davis’ vast personal collection and excerpts from his electric performances in television, film and concert, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me explores the life and art of a uniquely gifted entertainer whose trajectory blazed across the major flashpoints of American society from the Depression through the 1980s.
I want to live, not merely survive
And I won’t give up this dream
Of life that keeps me alive.
I’ve gotta be me, I’ve gotta be me
The dream that I see makes me what I am.
I’m Puerto Rican, Jewish, colored, and married to a white woman.
When I move into a neighborhood, people start running in four ways at the same time.
–Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu8AV81ANTw
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THE WORK, Documentary Set Inside California’s Folsom Prison, Gets Release Date
The Work is a documentary film that follows a group of outsiders into California’s Folsom Prison to join inmates in an intense four-day therapy session intended to help prepare them to succeed back outside prison.
The film was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival 2017, and Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2017. Directed by Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous, The Work will open in New York on Friday, October 20, and in Los Angeles on Friday, October 27, with a national rollout to follow.
Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. The Work offers a powerful and rare look past the cinder block walls, steel doors and the dehumanizing tropes in our culture to reveal a movement of change and redemption that transcends what we think of as rehabilitation.
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THE PATHOLOGICAL OPTIMIST on Controversial Anti-Vaccination Dr. Andrew Wakefield Sets Release Date
The Pathological Optimist directed by Miranda Bailey documents Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the man behind one of the most highly controversial, intensely debated topics in modern medicine: the anti-vaccination movement. The film will be released theatrically by The Film Arcade on September 29th followed by a VOD release via Gravitas later this year.
With The Pathological Optimist, director Miranda Bailey brings us a character study of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, one of 13 co-authors of a notorious 1998 paper in the UK medical Journal The Lancet, but who became the very public face of what has come to be known as “The Anti-Vaccination Movement.” An expat from Britain who currently resides in Austin, Texas, Wakefield allowed Bailey and her team to follow him and his family for five years beginning in 2011 as he fought a defamation battle in the courts against the British Medical Journal and journalist Brian Deer. The results of that case – and the self-reflection, pronouncements, and observations of Wakefield, his legal team, wife, and his children – create a complex and incisive look at one of our era’s most fear-provoking and continuingly provocative figures. The Pathological Optimist takes no sides, instead letting Wakefield and the battles he fought speak for themselves.
The Pathological Optimist is the sophomore effort of prolific indie producer Miranda Bailey, whose debut Greenlit premiered to critical acclaim at SXSW in 2010. In a 15-year filmmaking career, Bailey has distinguished herself by producing over 20 films, among them the Oscar-nominated The Squid Whale and the Spirit Award-winning The Diary of a Teenage Girl, as well as James Gunn’s Super and the Sundance Film festival hit Swiss Army Man.
Bailey also recently completed production on her narrative feature debut You Can Choose Your Family, starring Jim Gaffigan.
“I’ve always gravitated towards controversial subject matters in the many films I’ve produced. The minefield of strong opinions and disagreements on who Andrew Wakefield is or what Andrew Wakefield has done intrigued me. What I found was a startling portrayal of a modern day sisyphus; punished by the media and the public yet continuing to push his rock up the hill over and over again.” stated Bailey.
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Documentary RAT FILM, Uses Rats to Explore History of Baltimore, Gets September Release Date | Trailer
Rat Film is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat to explore the history of Baltimore. The film directed by Theo Anthony will open in theaters on September 15, in New York at Film Society at Lincoln Center, and Baltimore at Parkway Theater.
Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Rat Film is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them–to explore the history of Baltimore. “There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it’s always been a people problem.”
Rat Film director Theo Anthony is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker currently based in Baltimore, MD. His work has been featured by the The Atlantic, Vice, Agence-France Presse (AFP), and other international media outlets. His films have received premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Anthology Film Archives. In 2015, he was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDy3Mtot7IA
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Sundance 2017 Documentary SCHOOL LIFE on Irish Boarding School, Sets Release Date | Trailer
The documentary School Life is a charming portrait of a year in the life of the only primary-age boarding school in Ireland and the two inspirational teachers at its heart. Directed by Irish husband-and-wife filmmakers Neasa Ní Chianáin and David Rane, the documentary was a favorite of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival (where it was known as In Loco Parentis). School Life will open in New York at the IFC Center on Friday, September 8, with additional cities to follow.
Headfort, a school not unlike Hogwarts with its 18th century buildings, secret doors and magical woodlands, has been home to John and Amanda Leyden for 46 years and a backdrop to their extraordinary careers. For John, rock music is just another subject alongside math, English and Latin, all of which are taught in a collaborative and often hilarious fashion. For his wife Amanda, the key to connecting with children is the book, and she uses all means to snare the young minds. The level of attention and the concern the Leydens have for their students lead to some remarkable developmental transformations as the children journey from being homesick and afraid to confident young people, tearful upon realizing that school is over and they must go home. As John and Amanda ponder retirement, the film poses a quietly profound question: Will their intimate and caring cultivation of future generations live on, or will it vanish like so many community-centered practices?
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SFFILM Selects 10 Finalists for 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants
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The Feeling of Being Watched[/caption]
SFFILM has selected ten finalists for the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund which will award $125,000 to support feature-length documentaries in postproduction.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund is a partnership with the Jenerosity Foundation and was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. Finalists were selected from more than 300 applicants, and winners will be announced in early September.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing important films that have gone on to earn great acclaim. Previous DFF winners include Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s Bay Area Documentary Award, and will be released this fall by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction, which won a Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; among many others.
Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly half a million dollars to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2017 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to an expanded gift from the Jenerosity Foundation.
2017 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND FINALISTS
The Feeling of Being Watched Assia Boundaoui, director/producer; Jessica Devaney, producer When a filmmaker investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, she uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes and Su Hyeon Kim, producers What is the experience of coming-of-age in the Black Belt region of the US? This film presents the lives of two young men in a series of visual movements that replace narrative arc with orchestral form. Heaven Through the Back Door Anna Fitch and Banker White, co-director/producers; Sara Dosa, producer Heaven Through the Backdoor is a contemplative documentary that tells the story of Yo (Yolanda Shae), a fiercely independent 88-year old woman whose unique brand of individualist feminism impacts how she chooses to live in the final years of her life. (Former SFFILM FilmHouse Resident) How to Have an American Baby Leslie Tai, director/producer; Jillian Schultz, co-producer There is a city in Southern California that abounds with pregnant women from China. Told through multiple perspectives, How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage behind the closed doors of the Chinese birth tourism industry. (SFFILM FilmHouse Resident, SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker) The Judge Erika Cohn, director/producer; Sara Maamouri, co-producer The Judge provides rare insight into Shari’a law (Islamic law), an often misunderstood legal framework for Muslims, told through the eyes of Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s religious courts. (SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker) El Lugar de la Memoria Juan Pablo González, director; Makena Buchanan, Jamie Gonçalves, and Ilana Coleman, producers As economic and social conditions become dire, a wave of suicides among young people disrupts life in a small Mexican town. Through daily rituals and ceremonies amongst the people in this community, El Lugar de la Memoriapresents a reflection on the reconfiguration of rural life in Mexico. A Machine to Live In Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke, co-directors; Sebastian Alvarez, producer; Andrew Benz, co-producer Hovering over what remains of Brazil’s modernist future, this film looks at how social control, rational design, and space-age architecture gave rise to a vast landscape of transcendental and mystical utopias. Midnight Family Luke Lorentzen, director; Kellen Quinn, producer; Daniela Alatorre,and Elena Fortes, co-producers In Mexico City, 16-year-old Juan Ochoa struggles to legitimize his family’s unlicensed ambulance business, as corrupt police in the neighborhood begin to target this cutthroat industry. Pahokee Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan, co-director/producers; Maida Brankman, producer Pahokee, Florida (pop. 6,094): one hour by car across Palm Beach County from the presidential opulence of Mar-a-Lago. Against a backdrop of industrial agriculture and economic isolation, high school students from different racial and cultural backgrounds forge a sense of meaning and community via elaborate and colorful rites of passage. Pigeon Kings Milena Pastreich, director/producer; Michael Sherman and Matthew Perniciaro, producers Keith London, the godfather of Birmingham Rollers, and his mentee, Choo Choo, survive life in South Central LA through their dedication to somersaulting pigeons. image via The Feeling of Being Watched
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VIDEO: Watch Official Trailer for “Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators”
The Orchard has released the official trailer for Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators, a documentary film about Curious George creators, Hans & Margret Rey. The film directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki will be released by The Orchard On Digital and On Demand August 15th.
Featuring a narrow escape from the Nazis on makeshift bicycles, Monkey Business explores the extraordinary lives of Hans and Margret Rey, the authors of the beloved Curious George children’s books.
Curious George is the most popular monkey in the world. Since his introduction in the first publication in 1941, the beloved series has sold over 75 million books in more than 25 languages. MONKEY BUSINESS explores the lesser-known tale of George’s creators, Hans and Margret Rey. Originally from Hamburg, Germany, the Reys first met when Hans was dating Margret’s older sister. Years later, having heard that Hans was wasting his artistic talents as a bookkeeper in Rio, Margret traveled to Brazil to persuade him to marry her and do something creative together. After their four-week honeymoon to Paris turned into a four-year residency, they accidentally became children’s book authors when a publisher suggested they create a book out of a cartoon Hans had drawn. Being German Jews, however, their life in Paris abruptly came to an end in June 1940 when the Reys were forced to escape from the Nazis by riding makeshift bicycles—a manuscript of the first Curious George book was one of the few possessions they could smuggle out with them. Arriving in New York as refugees, they started their life anew and over the next three decades they created a classic that continues to touch the hearts and minds of children around the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayjx-0wZxpg