Documentary

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that it will release Academy Award-nominated director Dan Krauss’ “powerful and incendiary” documentary THE KILL TEAM in 2014. THE KILL TEAM premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival where it won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary. The film has also screened at HotDocs, AFI Docs, and the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it picked up yet another jury prize.

Described as Equal parts infuriating and illuminating, THE KILL TEAM looks at the devastating moral tensions that tear at soldiers’ psyches through the lens of one highly personal and emotional story. Private Adam Winfield was a 21-year-old soldier in Afghanistan when he attempted with the help of his father to alert the military to heinous war crimes his platoon was committing. But Winfield’s pleas went unheeded. Left on his own and with threats to his life, Private Winfield was himself drawn into the moral abyss, forced to make a split-second decision that would change his life forever.

With extraordinary access to the key inpiduals involved in the case – including Private Winfield, his passionately supportive parents, and Winfield’s startlingly candid compatriots in the so-called “Kill Team”— Krauss expertly constructs a film that is a balanced and nuanced look at the personal stories so often lost inside the larger coverage of the longest war in US history.

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With the cost of movie-quality cameras becoming affordable in recent years, there’s hardly anything stopping somebody from picking up a camera and making a documentary about just about anything. In many ways, the last decade or so has really been the golden age of documentaries. With audiences paying more attention to big screen documentaries than ever, the quality of what is coming out from documentary filmmakers is astounding. Of course, that also means that more and more documentaries are being released to theaters than ever before – often unfortunately in limited release – and that means you’ve likely missed some great ones.

Here is a list of six of my favorite documentaries of the year. Unlike my indie film list, I found it impossible to limit this to only five choices because I’ve seen so many great documentaries this year. Again, these might not necessarily be the best documentaries of 2013 so far, but they shouldn’t be missed if you’re looking for a moving or thought-provoking experience.

KOCH

Being a native New Yorker, I get a kick out of people from other places who are convinced that New York City is a dangerous place to live. I think people are hung up on the New York City of the 1970s, or, in other words, New York City before Ed Koch. Koch served as Mayor of New York for three terms and for all those years he might have been the most colorful personality in the entire country with eccentric, completely New York personality. Koch the documentary, which was made only a few months before his death earlier this year, is a thorough biography of one of New York’s most memorable “characters.” The movie is incredibly funny, as the former mayor holds little back when sharing his opinions on society and politics, and though New Yorkers will get the most out of it I feel people all over the country will enjoy and be inspired by Koch.

ROOM 237

Stanley Kubrick left us too soon and with too few movies to remember him by. Of course, if Kubrick was more productive — in the last twenty years of his life he only made three movies — his movies wouldn’t be Kubrick movies. Kubrick marked his films by an incredible attention to detail and layers of hidden themes and meanings. But perhaps his most perplexing is The Shining, an adaptation of Stephen King’s horror novel, and decades after its 1980 release people still debate on what the movie really means. Room 237 takes a look at five theories surrounding The Shining and what it “really” means. The documentary is loaded with clips from The Shining and other Kubrick films, and any fan of Kubrick’s movies will doubtlessly enjoy delving even further into the mysteries of The Shining.

BENDING STEEL

I love documentaries like King of Kong that explore the high-stakes world of low-stakes competition. Bending Steel follows Chris, a man of below-average size who devotes himself to becoming an old-time circus strongman. Despite this being little more than a sideshow attraction to most people, Chris immerses himself in this subculture while he works hard and bending a seemingly impossible to budge bar of steel. Chris overcomes the adversity in his life, his lack of comfort in front of audiences, and even a hurricane to realize his dream of performing his craft on stage on Coney Island.

A BAND CALLED DEATH

Every once in a while, someone will make a discovery about art that completely changes the “textbook narrative.” A Band Called Death is about a Detroit band made up of three African-American brothers who were playing the punk sound before anyone else… but quickly faded into obscurity. It wasn’t until only a few years ago that the music world finally took notice. A Band Called Death follows the long, strange trip from obscurity to respected pioneers that Death has taken after decades of never getting any credit or even attention for their music.

HEY BARTENDER

I love a well-made drink. Who doesn’t? But if your kind of drink is whatever you can get cheaply at happy hour, Hey Bartender will change your mind very quickly. The documentary explores the revival in cocktail culture, in which dedicated bartenders devote their lives to finding new flavors and new mixes to please the palates of drinkers all over the globe. Like Bending Steel, Hey Bartender explores the high-stakes world of low-stakes competition as bartenders all over the world hope to be recognized for perfecting their craft, and, most of all, please their customers. You’ll never look at a well-mixed martini the same again!

THE PROJECT

We all have heard about pirates off the coast of Somalia, but how many of us really know anything about them? The Project takes a hard look at the problem of piracy in the lawless seas and focuses on how little is being done about these horrific crimes. It looks at a group of well-meaning Westerners who come to Somalia to create a military force to battle against the pirates and shows all the hardships and red tape these individuals face when they’re just trying to do the right thing. But most excitingly it culminates in a real-life battle against pirates that was caught on tape only weeks before The Project premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The Project demonstrates that sometimes the best intentions are met with the most resistance, but individuals dedicated to making the world a better place will never quit.

How about you? Were there any documentaries you saw this year that you hope others won’t miss? Let us know what documentaries that should be on all of our radars in the comments!

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THE RUGBY PLAYER, which explores the unique bond between Mark Bingham, one of the passengers of United Flight 93 on 9/11, and his mother, Alice Hoagland, a former United Airlines flight attendant, makes its New York premiere at the 25th anniversary of NewFest, the NY LGBT Film Festival.

Winner of the HBO© Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2013 Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, THE RUGBY PLAYER, which explores the unique bond between Mark Bingham, one of the passengers of United Flight 93 on 9/11, and his mother, Alice Hoagland, a former United Airlines flight attendant, makes its New York premiere at the 25th anniversary of NewFest, the NY LGBT Film Festival in partnership with Outfest on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013 at 5 p.m. at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theatre. Within the shadow of a national tragedy, THE RUGBY PLAYER is an uplifting and stereotype-shattering documentary that tells the story of a mother, a son and what it takes to be a hero.

As an aspiring filmmaker growing up, Mark used his video camera as a form of personal expression, teenage rebellion, and as a diary capturing daring, hilarious and intimate moments of his life with his wide circle of family and friends. Mark left behind hundreds of hours of video documenting the final decade and a half of his life, from his teenage years until weeks before he died.

“These moments have allowed us to create a portrait of an individual that goes beyond the news headlines and sound bites and gets at the true heart of the human spirit,” said THE RUGBY PLAYER director Scott Gracheff. “In a very real way, Mark shot the film of his life and we’ve tried our best to tell that story as truthfully as possible.”

THE RUGBY PLAYER shows Mark developing from a gawky teenager into a self-assured leader, demonstrating a fearlessness and disregard for danger that often amazed his family and friends. A rugby player in high school, at the University of California, Berkeley and then with the San Francisco Fog, Mark applied the knowledge and character he acquired from the sport to challenges in his life, including coming out as a gay man to his family and friends in his early 20s. Mark’s legacy continues through The Bingham Cup, a biennial international gay rugby tournament started in 2002 and named in Mark’s honor. His story serves as an inspiration for gay athletes coming out even amongst prejudice, intolerance and homophobia, which should serve no place in organized sports.

Mark’s mother, Alice, along with Mark’s high school and college friends, former partners, family members, and his ‘gay parents’ reminisce about Mark throughout the film, tracing their interactions with him up until the day he boarded United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. With wrenching clarity, loved ones recall the last moments they saw or spoke with him. Alice heartbreakingly recounts the phone call she received from Mark from aboard the hijacked plane, their final conversation and her last desperate advice to him. Evidence from phone calls that Mark and fellow passengers made that day, as well as the recording made by Flight 93’s “black box” recorder suggests that a group of passengers, including Mark, heroically battled the hijackers for control of the plane. Thwarted by a lack of time and altitude, they lost their struggle for the cockpit controls, but spared Americans the sight of the Capitol Building- the presumed target of Flight 93- in ruins.

The film also follows Alice’s journey to rebuild her life in the aftermath of 9/11. Devastated by her loss but inspired by the memory of her son, Alice pours her efforts into becoming a nationally known writer, speaker and researcher on the issues of aviation security, petitioning the federal government and the airlines to commit to ever higher safety standards. Alice also advocates frequently in the national media for LGBT rights, including the right of same-sex couples to marry. By weaving together Mark and Alice’s stories, THE RUGBY PLAYER creates an intimate portrait of how a son’s heroism can inspire a nation, and how a mother’s love can turn unfathomable loss into unshakable resolve.

THE RUGBY PLAYER was 10 years in the making by a team of filmmakers including Director Scott Gracheff, Producer Holly Million and Director of Photography/Producer Chris Million. The team also includes Content Advisor Todd Sarner, Mark Bingham’s childhood friend who also appears in the film. The goal for the film is national broadcast. The filmmaking team is also planning an extensive national screening tour and robust community outreach campaign, and is seeking grants and corporate sponsorships to support this tour.

http://youtu.be/1Gx4i4I3CvE

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The rock and roll documentary “MUSCLE SHOALS” which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival will open September 27, 2013 at the IFC Center in NY and nationwide on VOD, and October 11th in LA. At the heart of the story is Rick Hall who managed to convince musical superstars like Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, and Etta James to come to Alabama and record their hit albums. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio

Directed by Greg ‘Freddy” Camalier, “MUSCLE SHOALS” is a documentary about a place filled with magic and music, legend and folklore, where the river is inhabited by a Native American spirit who has lured some of the greatest Rock and Roll and Soul legends of all time, and drawn from them some of the most uplifting, defiant, and important music ever created. In Muscle Shoals, Alabama, music runs through the hills, the river, and the spirit of the people. It is a place where, even before the Civil Rights Movement really took shape, the color of your skin didn’t matter inside the studio.

At its heart is Rick Hall who founded FAME Studios. Overcoming crushing poverty and staggering tragedies, Hall brought black and white together in Alabama’s cauldron of racial hostility to create music for the generations. He is responsible for creating the “Muscle Shoals sound” and The Swampers, the house band at FAME that eventually left to start their own successful studio.

Aretha Franklin in Muscle Shoals

Jimmy Cliff, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Alicia Keys, Wilson Pickett, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, The Staple Singers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Percy Sledge and countless other stars have all been lured to this remote and mystical place in the backwoods of Alabama to work with the musicians and producers there.

Raw and candid interviews, inspiring music, live performances, and the magic of the milieu itself capture and convey this tale. Interviewees include legendary musicians Gregg Allman, Bono, Clarence Carter, Jimmy Cliff, Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Alicia Keys, Ed King, Keith Richards, Percy Sledge, and Steve Winwood among many others.

http://youtu.be/jU09t0smAWI

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The documentary “ANITA,” which recently screened as part of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival following its Sundance Film Festival debut earlier this year will be released this Fall by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Directed by Freida Mock, “Anita” reveals a rare glimpse into her private life with friends and family; she speaks openly and intimately for the first time about her experiences that led her to testify before the Senate about sexual harassment she endured while working with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

Hill’s graphic testimony was a turning point for gender equality in the U.S. and ignited a political firestorm about sexual misconduct and power in the workplace.

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THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!, directed by comedians Negin Farsad  and Dean Obeidallah will open in theaters in September, with New York on September 20 at the Quad Cinema. The film follows a band of Muslim-American comedians – “Muzzies” – lead by Farsad and Obeidallah as they visit big cities, small towns, rural villages, and everything in between to combat Islamophobia with the only weapons they have:  jokes! 

THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! is a road movie, that follows a comedy tour of middle America. A traveling band of comedians visit big cities, small towns, liberal enclaves, conservative hotbeds, rural unincorporated villages, and everything in between to explore the issue of Islamophobia! They’ll perform, meet the locals, and take the pulse of real Americans.

Islam has been duly tarnished by the mainstream media and the serious approach to repairing the political wedge hasn’t worked. We are so many years out of 9/11 and Muslim fear-mongering hasn’t dissipated. Whether it’s the mosque at Ground Zero, the perceived threat of Shariah Law, the NYPD surveillance of Muslim groups, or heated discussions of Muslims during presidential elections, the idea that Islam is somehow antithetical to American culture just won’t go away. THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! wants to change the discourse by unleashes the power of punch lines in reaching out to middle America! If all you’ve ever heard about Islam is that it’s a dangerous religion, that women cover themselves, and that those shifty eyed Muslims have evil ulterior motives, this movie wants to give you a new stereotype. Yeah, this movie is going to convince you that Muslims are just a bunch of hilarious people. By the end of this movie, you’re gonna love the pants out of Muslims.

In every town the comedians perform, using the stage as a sounding board not only for punchlines but for social commentary. Oh, and those shows are free – there are no barriers to entry with this gang. Each tour stop asks a particular question and examines an issue. The film is peppered with commentary from pop culture icons like the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Colin Quinn, Lewis Black, Rachel Maddow, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, Ali Velshi and the Young Turk’s Cenk Uygur as well as business tycoon Russell Simmons and even US Representative Keith Ellison.

This group of Muzzie comics is dispatched not only to perform standup at each tour stop but to create ridiculous interventions in unsuspecting town squares, like the ol’ classic, Ask a Muslim Booth. Downtown Birmingham was treated to a game of “Name That Religion” where contestants are presented with quotes from major religious texts and asked to “name that religion.” The comedians break bread with locals, invite fine southerners to Bowl With a Muslim, and even shoot guns at the neighborhood range all in the name of bridge-building and communal laughs.

The goal is to interact with people from a wide range of perspectives on the issue of Islam and highlight the various similarities between the major religions. At the end of the day, we all have daddy issues, all have too much credit card debt, and are all captivated by Instagram, Jeremy Lin, and Olympic curling. The only differences are on the margins, like yay or nay to pork. The ultimate goal: present an Americanized face of Islam, create awesomeness between Muslim- and non-Muslim Americans of all stripes, and get these crazy kids to fall in love (the crazy kids being Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere)! Rest assured, you’ve never laughed this hard at a Muslim!

Sept. 12 Chicago – The Gene Siskel Cinema
Sept. 13 Seattle – The Grand Illusion Cinema
Sept. 14 Los Angeles – The Downtown Independent 
Sept. 20 New York – The Quad Cinema

Available on iTunes and Cable on Demand Sept. 24

http://youtu.be/1brf79VyF40

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Sundance Selects will release John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s feature documentary FINDING VIVIAN MAIER, which will have its world premiere in the Documentary section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER unearths the untold story of one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century, who was a mystery to even those who knew her. A nanny in the wealthy North Shore suburbs of Chicago, Maier’s secret world is unraveled slowly through her photo collections and interviews with those who knew her — parents who hired her, children she cared for, store owners, movie theater operators, and curious neighbors who remember her. The story that emerges goes beyond clichés of the undiscovered artist to offer a portrait of a woman who left a legacy of transformative work.

http://youtu.be/2o2nBhQ67Zc

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Jonathan Holiff’s award winning documentary MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK which explores the relationship between Johnny Cash and his longtime manager Saul Holiff (the director’s father who committed suicide after being estranged for 20 years) will open in New York City and Los Angeles on September 6, 2013.

Following his father’s suicide, director Jonathan Holiff discovers hundreds of letters and audio diaries, including recorded phone calls with Johnny Cash during his crazed pill-fueled 1960s jags, triumphs at Folsom and San Quentin, wedding to June Carter, and his conversion in the early 1970s to born-again Christian.

These artifacts are revelatory, for the filmmaker and for us: a behind-the-scenes look at the business of music, the pitfalls of success and the tensions of a friendship that would eventually dissolve. Mixing found footage, creative re-enactments and poignant voice-over narration, the documentary tells a riveting story with creative means as well as an act of catharsis for its maker.

http://youtu.be/jtovAxxPo2Q

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New trailer was released for Martha Shane’s and Lana Wilson’s directorial debut AFTER TILLER which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film title refers to Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who provided late-term abortions and was assassinated by anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder in 2009. AFTER TILLER will be released in theaters September 20, 2013. 

Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas in 2009, only four doctors in the United States continue to perform third-trimester abortions. These physicians, all colleagues of Dr. Tiller, sacrifice their safety and personal lives in the name of their fierce, unwavering conviction to help women. But for some in the pro-life movement, these doctors are “murderers” who must be stopped.

http://youtu.be/4vbqXzxnqzU

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Bill Siegel’s documentary THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI, that premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival will be released in the US by Kino Lorber. The documentary film opens in New York at the IFC Center on August 23rd with a national rollout planned through the summer and fall.

THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI is not a conventional sports documentary. As befitting its extraordinary and often complex subject, the film examines Ali’s life outside the boxing ring, beginning with the announcement of his deeply held Islamic religious beliefs which were a source of controversy, and his decision to change his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. It explores his refusal to serve in the Vietnam war (after his conscientious objector status was denied) on the grounds of protesting the racial injustice at home, and captures his passion and anger in interviews and TV appearances culled from a rich variety of archival sources.

Passionate and outspoken in his beliefs, Muhammad Ali found himself at the center of America’s controversies over race, religion, and war. THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI gives audiences the chance to experience this remarkable figure who took a strong stance on difficult issues, and transcended his fame as a celebrated sports figure to become a leader of global humanitarian efforts. His remarkable story is told through archival footage of his supporters and spiritual leaders including Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, as well as opponents of his views such as Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis. The documentary also features new interviews with those who know and have worked with Ali, including his brother Rahman, his wife Khalilah Camacho-Ali, sports journalist Robert Lipsyte and Louis Farrakhan.

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Alex Gibney’s Lance Armstrong documentary, THE ARMSTRONG LIE which tells the unfolding story of Armstrong’s life and career over the last four years.will be released by Sony Pictures Classics. No exact release date was announced.

Lance Armstrong was considered one of the greatest sports figures of all time and put competitive cycling into the global spotlight, by beating cancer and winning the Tour de France seven times. That success earned him an immense fortune and worldwide fame. His was also one of the most influential and inspiring sports stories of recent memory and became a pop culture phenomenon, thanks to his Livestrong initiative. Beginning in 2009, Academy Award winning documentarian Alex Gibney followed Armstrong for four years chronicling his return to cycling after retirement, as he tried to win his eighth title. Unexpectedly, Gibney was also there in 2012 when Armstrong admitted to doping, following a federal criminal investigation, public accusations of doping by his ex-teammates, and an investigation by the US Anti-Doping Agency, that led USADA’s CEO, Travis Tygart, to conclude that Armstrong’s team had run “the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

What began as the chronicle of a comeback became an examination into the anatomy of a lie. This film offers unparalleled access to Armstrong’s former teammates, doctors, and professionals, many of whom have never before spoken to the media about Armstrong and his bombshell doping admission – as well as unprecedented access to Armstrong himself.

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