Documentary

Director Steve James with Chaz Ebert

One week after its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, close to 200 people braved the inclement weather to attend the Rooftop Films and Piper-Heidsieck hosted  sneak preview of the new Roger Ebert documentary, “LIFE ITSELF” at The Paley Center for Media in New York City. On hand to see the screening were the late critic’s wife Chaz Ebert, Director Steve James, Actress Yael Stone (Orange Is The New Black), Director Alex Ross Perry, and indie actress Kate Lyn Shiel along with noted film critic A.O. Scott (The New York Times) who conducted a Q&A with Chaz, Steve and filmmaker Rahmin Bahrani.

Roger Ebert documentary LIFE ITSELF

In 2013, we lost Roger Ebert—arguably the nation’s best-known and most influential movie critic. Based on his memoir of the same name, Life Itself recounts Ebert’s fascinating and flawed journey—from politicized school newspaperman, to Chicago Sun-Times movie critic, to Pulitzer Prize winner, to television household name, to the miracle of finding love at 50, and finally his “third act” as a major voice on the Internet when he could no longer physically speak. 

Filmmaker Steve James masterfully uncovers the snags and strains hidden under Ebert’s prominence, including his battle with alcohol; his ongoing, sometimes ruthless, conflict with fellow critic Gene Siskel; and scorching debates among film critics about whether their television show reduced criticism to “consumer advice.” Ebert bridged high and low culture, defending film as a populist medium even as he championed films that challenged mainstream aesthetics and expectations. Insisting on bare honesty, Life Itself is as much a love letter to Ebert as it is an expression of Ebert’s own love—for his family, humanity in general, and, of course, the movies.  [ Sundance Film Festival ]

At the Q&A conducted after the Rooftop Films and Piper-Heidsieck-sponsored NYC premiere of LIFE ITSELF, Steve James shared that he originally thought “he’d just rip off the memoir,“ but that ultimately, the film isn’t really an adaption of the memoir – it’s more of a companion piece. While James leaned very heavily on Roger’s book, he also wanted to be sure to get things that weren’t focused on in the book, particularly his relationship to Gene Siskel which, as the film shows, was often competitive, contentious and challenging.

Chaz Ebert

When asked if she hesitated about allowing the cameras into this very intimate time in her life, Chaz explained, “I think that Steve did a beautiful job with the movie. I’m really glad it exists as a maintenance of Roger’s legacy…We are not reality TV people and didn’t want someone following us around all day every day but we trusted Steve.”

indie actress Kate Lyn Shiel

 

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The Mitt Romney documentary, “MITT,” from director Greg Whiteley, which provides an intimate, rarely seen, behind-the-scenes look at a candidate running for the presidency, will premiere exclusively on Netflix on Friday, January 24th. 

MITT, which World Premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival follows Romney’s presidential aspirations beginning Christmas 2006 to his initial run to become the Republican nominee in 2008 and through his Presidential concession speech in 2012. Given unprecedented access by Mitt and his family, director Greg Whiteley travels alongside the campaign through interactions with potential voters, preparations for the debates, personal moments with his family, and concluding with final presidential election night results.

“It feels like a full circle moment to premiere this movie at Sundance,” said filmmaker, Greg Whiteley. “I first met and filmed the Romney family in Park City in 2006 as they gathered to discuss whether Mitt should run for President. Over the next 7 years I couldn’t believe I was filming inside rooms and situations I had no business being in. Now that I’ve finished I couldn’t be more pleased to share this experience with audiences around the world through Netflix.”

 http://youtu.be/rLHxbemvpxY

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The Indian documentary ALGORITHMS, directed by Ian McDonald has been snapped up by New York based First Run Features for release in the U.S. The documentary which has screened at over twelve international film festivals and won four awards, including Best Film at Film SouthAsia in Kathmandu, follows three boys and a champion player turned pioneer over three years and uncovers the fascinating but largely unknown world of Blind Chess.

http://youtu.be/pHVZD2yrb7k

via dearcinema

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Check out the new trailer for the documentary film “THE UNKNOWN KNOWN,” directed by Academy Award winning filmmaker Errol Morris which opens April 2, 2014. The film offers a mesmerizing portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, the former Secretary of Defense whose career will cast a long shadow over the 21st century. 

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure) continues his exploration of post-9/11 American imperialism with this riveting, feature-length interview with notorious former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.Donald Rumsfeld has never been at a loss for words. As the US Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006, Rumsfeld wielded words both to charm and to bully. His press conferences were lopsided battles where he controlled the flow of information and rarely left time for follow-up questions. In The Unknown Known, he gives in to a different kind of interview with the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris. Whether you think Rumsfeld is a patriot or a liar, he’s never less than mesmerizing. His dialogue with Morris is like a verbal duel, retracing controversial flashpoints such as the invasion of Iraq, accusations of torture, and the revelations of Abu Ghraib.

“The unknown known” is a phrase that Rumsfeld defined in a memo as “things you think you know that it turns out you did not.” As a self-avowed “obsessive,” Morris has carefully studied Rumsfeld’s blizzard of memos (which he calls “snowflakes”) to ask: what did he know and when did he know it? He traces Rumsfeld’s career path from Illinois congressman to the youngest Secretary of Defense under Gerald Ford to the oldest Secretary of Defense under George W. Bush — a background critical to understanding the shaping of his alliances and ideology. Morris has the support of a first rate crew, including cinematographer Bob Chappell and composer Danny Elfman.

Rumsfeld will go down in US history as one of the dominant figures of the twenty first century’s first decade. Now that we’re into the second decade, it’s incumbent upon us to reflect on what that period meant, and how it’s shaped us. In the words of Rumsfeld, “Everything seems amazing in retrospect.”  [ via Toronto International Film Festival ]

http://youtu.be/qbz9I-x00RY

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Wayne Wang’s documentary film SOUL OF A BANQUET, is not yet completely finished but it has already been snapped up by Oscilloscope Laboratories for a late 2014 release. Wayne Wang is the director of more than 20 films that include THE JOY LUCK CLUB, MAID IN MANHATTAN and A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS.

In SOUL OF A BANQUET, Director Wayne Wang (THE JOY LUCK CLUB) takes us into the world of Cecilia Chiang, the woman who introduced America to authentic Chinese food. Chiang opened her internationally renowned restaurant The Mandarin in 1961 in San Francisco and went on to change the course of cuisine in America. The film is equal parts a delectable showcase of gastronomy and a touching portrait of Chiang’s journey from a childhood in Beijing before the Cultural Revolution to accidental restaurateur on the west coast of the United States. SOUL OF A BANQUET features interviews with Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, and Cecilia Chiang herself.

Filmmaker Wayne Wang said, “Cecilia not only changed the face of American cuisine when she opened the Mandarin, she also made the very best potstickers when I arrived in San Francisco from Hong Kong. I’m looking forward to partnering with Oscilloscope to introduce Cecilia’s story and her sumptuous cooking to a new generation of foodies.”

image l to r: Cecilia Chiang, Alice Waters in Soul of a Banquet via San Francisco Film Society

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The documentary REMOTE AREA MEDICAL, directed by Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman, has set a Spring 2014 release date courtesy of Cinedigm. Remote Area Medical documents three days in April 2012, nearly 2000 Americans waited in the parking lot of Bristol, Tennessee’s massive NASCAR speedway to receive free medical, dental, and vision care provided by the volunteer organization Remote Area Medical, the pioneer of no-cost pop-up health care clinics. 

By many estimates, more than 45 million Americans are without health insurance, which means they don’t get access to basic preventative medical care, much less coverage for catastrophic health events. Problems that should be easily rectified under regular care go untreated for years and become chronic, affecting quality of life and sometimes leading to serious illness.

Remote Area Medical follows a group of volunteer healthcare providers who organize a pop-up clinic of the same name at a NASCAR speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Over three long days in April of 2012, the dedicated staff attempts to give treatment to 2,000 folks from the surrounding communities who cannot otherwise afford it, for conditions ranging in magnitude from new dentures to diabetes and cancer. Throughout the film, it remains clear that while the Remote Area Medical team is making a big difference, many of the treatments rendered are just scratching the surface. While some folks receive life-changing new prescriptions for eyeglasses and crucial diagnoses of life-threatening illnesses, others are forced to triage the most immediately painful of their ailments and hope they can hold out until the next free clinic, or until they can scrape together some kind of coverage. However, without this effort, these working poor Americans would be left to completely slip through the cracks, helpless in the face of outrageous and ever-escalating healthcare costs.

Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman’s film forces us to confront a crisis in our own backyard, but eschews the politics of greed behind the crisis for a moving portrait of those affected. This heartfelt and carefully crafted film immerses us in this weekend-long struggle to make a difference for those who need it, and take a small step towards rectifying a tragic injustice. (J. Scott Braid) [ via Maryland Film Festival ]

http://youtu.be/fP4bQ7U0BW8

via Indiewire

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Pan Nalin’s feature documentary FAITH CONNECTIONS which had its World Premiere at the 2014 Toronto FIlm Festival, and the U.S. Premiere scheduled for this week at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, will be released in the U.S. by Kino Lorber. In Faith Connections, filmmaker Pan Nalin travels to Kumbh Mela, one of the world’s most extraordinary religious events. There, he encounters remarkable men of mind and meditation, some facing an inextricable dilemma; to embrace the world or to renounce it. FAITH CONNECTIONS explores such diverse and deeply moving stories as a young runaway kid, a Sadhu, a mother desperately looking for her lost son, a yogi who is raising an abandoned baby, and an ascetic who keeps his calm by smoking cannabis – all connected by one faith against the spectacular display of devotion.

A spectacular exploration of varied paths of devotion that converge at one of the world’s most extraordinary religious events — the Kumbh Mela — Pan Nalin’s thoughtful documentary is a genuinely spiritual journey.Precious few films bring genuine curiosity and reverence to the subject of spirituality. Fewer still approach the subject with anything like the diligence of Faith Connections, a spectacular, openhearted documentary that explores the frontiers of devotion.

Kumbh Mela is a sprawling religious event that occurs once every three years at one of four rotating locations. It is the world’s largest gathering, a destination for some 100 million Hindu pilgrims. Indian director Pan Nalin visited Kumbh Mela and found within that impossible throng of travellers the stories that make up Faith Connections. Nalin’s many subjects include naked holy men, taciturn policemen, desperate pilgrims in search of missing family members, a yogi ascetic who took it upon himself to raise an abandoned baby, and another who explains the usefulness of pot-smoking as a method of renouncing the world. But no single subject is more compelling — and heart-rending — than nine-year-old Kishan Tiwari, a tobacco chewing runaway who sometimes half jokingly claims he wants to grow up to be a Mafia Don. In more serious moments, Kishan says his real ambition is to be a sadhu, or wandering monk.

Nalin complements his collection of personal narratives with images rife with mystery and beauty: portraits of hands and faces, vistas of busy footbridges receding into the hazy distance, and bodies performing seemingly impossible contortions. Faith Connections gives us glimpses of lives lived in pursuit of closer proximity to God — and each of those glimpses is itself a startling vision to behold.  [ via Toronto International Film Festival ]

http://youtu.be/eGKOLvyPl1U

via Screen Daily

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Tom’s Restaurant was the locale that inspired Suzanne Vega’s 1987 song “Tom’s Diner” but it is probably more known for its exterior which became famous worldwide thanks to the popular sitcom Seinfeld,  since Jerry Seinfeld’s and his friends regularly gathered to eat and chat at the diner. However, Tom’s Restaurant is a diner located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Frequented by artists, musicians, comedians, students and faculty of nearby Columbia University, it has been owned and operated by the Greek-American family of Minas Zoulis since the 1940s.

The documentary highlights past and present owners, clientèle and pop culture references. When President Barack Obama was a student at Columbia, he frequently used to eat at Tom’s Restaurant, and Senator John McCain often ate at Tom’s when he visited his daughter Meghan when she was a student at Columbia. 

http://youtu.be/7mphrlxJl5k

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Netflix has released the trailer for the Mitt Romney documentary, “MITT,” scheduled to premiere exclusively online on Friday, January 24, 2014. The Netflix original documentary,  provides an intimate, rarely seen, behind-the-scenes look at a candidate running for the presidency.

From director Greg Whiteley (“New York Doll,” “Resolved”) and executive producer Seth Gordon (“Undefeated,” “The King of Kong”), “Mitt,” which will make its feature debut at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival as the Salt Lake City Gala on Friday, January 17th, follows Romney’s presidential aspirations beginning Christmas 2006 to his initial run to become the Republican nominee in 2008 and through his Presidential concession speech in 2012. Given unprecedented access by Mitt and his family, Whiteley travels alongside the campaign through interactions with potential voters, preparations for the debates, personal moments with his family, and concluding with final presidential election night results.“It feels like a full circle moment to premiere this movie at Sundance,” said filmmaker, Greg Whiteley. “I first met and filmed the Romney family in Park City in 2006 as they gathered to discuss whether Mitt should run for President. Over the next 7 years I couldn’t believe I was filming inside rooms and situations I had no business being in. Now that I’ve finished I couldn’t be more pleased to share this experience with audiences around the world through Netflix.”

http://youtu.be/rLHxbemvpxY

 

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Netflix has released the trailer for its original documentary, “THE SQUARE,” described as a riveting, deeply human chronicle of the Egyptian protest movement from director/producer Jehane Noujaim (“Control Room”; “Startup.com”; “Rafea: Solar Mama”) and producer Karim Amer (“Rafea: Solar Mama”). THE SQUARE is set to premiere exclusively on Netflix territories on January 17, 2014.

Winner of this year’s Best Documentary Award at 2013 International Documentary Awards, the Best Documentary at the Dubai International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival Documentary People’s Choice Award and the Audience Award at the Montreal International Documentary Festival, “The Square” is an epic documentary that tells the behind-the-headlines story of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of young activists who have sought for the last two years to build a better Egypt.  An earlier version of “The Square” won the Audience Award at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The film was also an Official Selection at the 2013 New York Film Festival.

The film captures the immediacy and intensity of the protests in Tahrir Square from the 2011 overthrow of military leader Hosni Mubarak through the ousting of Mohammed Morsi in 2013, providing a kaleidoscopic, visceral portrait of the events as they unfold before Magdy, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khalid Abdalla, an Egyptian actor who played the lead in “The Kite Runner” and the charismatic Ahmed, whose poetic storytelling carries the narrative. Armed with nothing more than cameras, social media, deep consciousness, and a resolute commitment to change, these young revolutionaries give us a front-line perspective of the ongoing struggle fought with new weapons.

http://youtu.be/6eWBmVprInQ

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Amir Ramses’ award-winning controversial documentary film JEWS OF EGYPT from the 21st Annual New York African Diaspora International Film Festival, will be released in the U.S. by ArtMattan Films.  Banned in Egypt for a year by Egyptian authorities, JEWS OF EGYPT is described as a documentary that captures fragments of the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the twentieth century until their second grand exodus after the tripartite attack of 1956 

With this film, director Amir Ramses attempts to understand the change in the identity of the Egyptian society that turned from a society full of tolerance and acceptance of one another to a rejection of the minorities. 

The film asks the question: “How did the Jews of Egypt turn in the eyes of Egyptians from partners in the same country to enemies?” 

http://youtu.be/cYFwtgeOypQ

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