Documentary

The documentary THE WAITING ROOM, directed by Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Peter Nicks, that goes behind the doors of Oakland’s Highland Hospital, a safety-net hospital fighting for survival while weathering the storm of a persistent economic downturn, premieres on Independent Lens on Monday, October 21, 2013 as part of the first PBS Independent Film Showcase. 

Highland is the primary care facility for 250,000 patients of nearly every nationality, race, and religion, with 250 patients — most of them uninsured — crowding its emergency room every day.The film weaves together several stories from the hundreds being played out in the waiting room: a frightened child with a dangerous case of strep throat, a young man with a testicular tumor in desperate need of surgery, as well as those suffering from chronic conditions such as alcohol and drug abuse, heart disease, and diabetes. Young victims of gun violence take their turn alongside artists and uninsured small business owners. Steel workers, cab drivers and international asylum seekers crowd the halls.

We also meet the overwhelmed hospital staff who cope with under-staffing, insufficient beds, and a never-ending stream of ER patients who jump to the head of the line of those sitting in the waiting room. As one doctor says, Highland is “the institution of last resort for so many people.”

 http://youtu.be/15Fn32l_At8

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The documentary “DEAR MR. WATTERSON,” directed by Joel Allen Schroeder, which explores the phenomenon of Bill Watterson’s popular 1980s and 1990s comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, will be released in theaters and VOD on November 15, 2013 by Gravitas Ventures.

As described by the filmmakers:

Calvin & Hobbes dominated the Sunday comics in thousands of newspapers for over 10 years, having a profound effect on millions of readers across the globe. When the strip’s creator, Bill Watterson, retired the strip on New Year’s Eve in 1995, devoted readers everywhere felt the void left by the departure of Calvin, Hobbes, and Watterson’s other cast of characters, and many fans would never find a satisfactory replacement.

It has now been more than a decade since the end of the Calvin & Hobbes era. Bill Watterson has kept an extremely low profile during this time, living a very private life outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Despite his quiet lifestyle, Mr. Watterson is remembered and appreciated daily by fans who still enjoy his amazing collection of work.

Mr. Watterson has inspired and influenced millions of people through Calvin & Hobbes. Newspaper readership and book sales can be tracked and recorded, but the human impact he has had and the value of his art are perhaps impossible to measure.

This film is not a quest to find Bill Watterson, or to invade his privacy. It is an exploration to discover why his ‘simple’ comic strip made such an impact on so many readers in the 80s and 90s, and why it still means so much to us today.

http://youtu.be/sRnnGfuS4vU

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ZIPPER a documentary about “greed, politics, land use and public policy’ and the battle over the Coney Island amusement district in New York City will be in theaters this Summer. The film will open at the IFC Center in New York City on August 9th, 2013.

Directed by Amy Nicholson, ZIPPER is described as a story about greed, politics and the land grab of the century, – chronicling the battle over an American cultural icon. On a small rented lot in the heart of Coney Island’s gritty amusement district, Eddie Miranda proudly operates a 38-year-old carnival contraption called the Zipper. When an opportunistic real estate mogul sets his sights on the property, Eddie and his ride – along with many of Coney Island’s eclectic small businesses – are forced to leave. 

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 THE ROMEOWS (Retired Old Men Eating Out Wednesdays), a feature documentary directed by Kevin Raman and Robert Sarnoff about a “Band of Brooklyn Buddies” who break bread, and each other’s chops, every Wednesday evening, will open in theaters on July 19, 2013. 

What is the THE ROMEOWS?

Older people are using little blue pills, hooking up on Match.com, running marathons, flying planes and safely ditching them in the Hudson. Pull up a chair at this movable feast, break bread with this Brooklyn Band of Buddies who know each other for more than half a century as they break each other’s chops. Their generational perspective connects with “No Country for Old Men” and “Gran Torino” while repelling notions of “Grumpy Old Men” and “Bucket List”.

“When We Get Together We Get Younger” is the theme song playing in the background, highlighting the fun, affection and intensity of this weathered, vibrant group continuing to continue their affirmation of life on Wednesday evenings.

No avatars, cyborgs, no Facebook, nothing virtual about this half century friendship. It’s the real deal.

http://youtu.be/7NF0eaqVHOI

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The documentary LEWD & LASCIVIOUS had its sold out World Premiere at the 2013 FRAMELINE LGBT Film Festival in San Francisco. LEWD & LASCIVIOUS directed by Dr. Jallen Rix documents police harassment and public abuse on New Year’s Day 1965 of a gay and lesbian Mardi Gras Costume Ball attendees and how it changed the Gay civil rights landscape in San Francisco.

According to the filmmakers, long before the rainbow flag, gay pride parades and even before “Stonewall” there was an incident in 1965 San Francisco that very few people know about. This critical event spotlighted in the film was actually what helped turned the tide on police brutality and gay bashing in the City By The Bay.

The filmmakers are seeking major distribution of the documentary so they can bring this timely piece about the LGBT struggle for equality, to the broadest audience possible. “Hopefully soon, we will be picked up by one of the giants like HBO, LOGOS, or BRAVO,” added Director Dr. Rix.

But first, the filmmakers are running a Kickstarter campaign to complete the production of the film. “Our friends and families have supported us in substantial ways up to this point,” said Director Rix. “We are confident with the exposure of Kickstarter and the ability it gives us to reach multitudes of people who understand how important our history is and what part this story played in the freedoms we enjoy today, we will raise the remainder of the funds we need by our deadline on July 23rd.”

Lewd & Lascivious plan is to be in as many festivals as possible and to share the story with as many people as possible.

http://youtu.be/ISmuXFsKSEM

via press release

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The punk roc documentary THE PUNK SINGER directed by Sini Anderson will be released in the Fall 2013 by Sundance Selects. The Punk Singer: The Documentary about Kathleen Hanna focuses on Kathleen Hanna credited as a founder of the third wave of feminism and Riot Grrrl movement.

Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill and dance-punk trio Le Tigre, rose to national attention as the reluctant but never shy voice of the riot grrrl movement. She became one of the most famously outspoken feminist icons, a cultural lightning rod. Her critics wished she would just shut-up, and her fans hoped she never would. So in 2005, when Hanna stopped shouting, many wondered why. Through 20 years of archival footage and intimate interviews with Hanna, “THE PUNK SINGER” takes viewers on a fascinating tour of contemporary music and offers a never-before-seen view into the life of this fearless leader. SXSW

http://youtu.be/xuhtI_Kgn3E

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Sundance Selects will release in the U.S., Hilla Medalia’s dance documentary “DANCING IN JAFFA,” which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Sundance Selects did not announce a release date, but a Fall 2013 date is expected.

DANCING IN JAFFA follows ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine as he returns to his hometown Jaffa, Israel expecting his old home but greeted by new racial animosity. A firm believer that dance can build self-esteem and social awareness, Dulaine brings his popular Dancing Classrooms program to 5 ethnically diverse Jaffa schools. Dulaine sends the best children to a dance competition, boldly pairing Palestinian and Jewish children and challenging the children’s and their family’s beliefs.

Executive producers of DANCING IN JAFFA include Morgan Spurlock & Jeremy Chilnick, La Toya Jackson & Jeffré Phillips and Nigel Lythgoe. 

http://youtu.be/DDBkUTHykoQ

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MISS YOU CAN DO IT directed by award-winning documentary director Ron Davis will premeire on HBO on June 24th. MISS YOU CAN DO IT chronicles Abbey Curran, Miss Iowa USA 2008 and the first woman with a disability to compete at the Miss USA Pageant, and eight girls with various physical and intellectual disabilities as the girls participate in Abbey’s Miss You Can Do It Pageant. Abbey founded the annual Miss You Can Do It Pageant in 2004 and girls and their families travel from all around the country to participate in this one night where their inner beauty and abilities reign.

Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age two, Abbey Curran never accepted her physical limitations. She admits her disability comes with lifelong challenges, but none that hold her back, playing sports (she “just falls more”) and driving a car with a special steering wheel and brake. Curran’s resilience and determination to pursue her dreams led her to become the first woman with disabilities to compete in the Miss USA Pageant in 2008.

Miss You Can Do It highlights the extraordinary work Curran is doing with the pageant she founded. Curran and a team of enthusiastic volunteers give participants a chance to be celebrated for all they are inside, not just defined by what the world sees on the outside. For one special weekend the young girls, along with family and friends, some who have traveled far distances, spend time in an oasis of fun, femininity and celebration.

No one leaves the pageant empty-handed, with each girl receiving a special award. The real winners of the pageant might be the families and friends, who proudly cheer them on from the audience.

Among the girls and families profiled are:

– Five-year-old Tierney, who gleefully zips around in a powered wheelchair in excited anticipation of the pageant, while her mom explains that she’s never walked and will progressively lose movement throughout her body. Tierney has spinal muscular atrophy type II, a slow deterioration of all muscles.

– Natasha, 14, who was born with cerebral palsy and suffers from seizures, and Kenna, her younger sister, who has intellectual disabilities. Despite these challenges, “they are a happy-go-lucky family,” according to their proud parents.

– Precocious six-year-old Ali, who has four best friends, one mischievous and imaginary, and three in their 60s: Judy, Judy and Rock, who enjoy watching Ali’s physical therapy sessions on a horse, which helps with her balance. Ali was born with spina bifida, a hole in the spine that caused paralysis of her lower body.

– Teyanna, a smart and creative preteen, whose mother says that after she was born, a nurse suggested they put her in an institution, but they refused and raised her at home. Teyanna has speech difficulty due to cerebral palsy.

– Seven-year-old Daleney, whose parents say her biggest frustration is her lack of independence. Still, she never shows it, even if she takes 15 minutes to tie her shoelaces. Daleney is a quadriplegic with a spastic form of cerebral palsy, causing her to have too much muscle tone and making her limbs cross her midline when she walks.

– Tiny Meg, who is shy, except when she’s with her brothers. Wanting Meg to have a sister to connect with, her parents adopted Alina, a girl from Ukraine. Both Meg and Alina have Down syndrome.

http://youtu.be/LeKQRcyNuO8

via HBO Docs

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The filmmakers of a documentary about Venus and Serena Williams face a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Tennis Association. In the lawsuit filed Friday, the USTA claims copyright infringement after the filmmakers of VENUS AND SERENA allegedly used unlicensed video footage from the U.S. Open without permission.

The lawsuit states that because the filmmakers never signed the standard agreement or made any payment, the USTA was led to believe the “project had been abandoned..”

According to The New York Times, the unlicensed video footage included an outburst by Serena Williams in the 2009 Open when she yelled obscenities and used threatening language against a line judge.

The documentary was originally released on iTunes in April and in theaters in May. The film is also scheduled to begin airing on Showtime on July 1.

Filmmakers Maiken Baird and Michelle Major have dismissed the accusations, calling the lawsuit a shameful effort to interfere. “In trying to censor this film about the Williams sisters,” they told The New York Times, “the U.S.T.A. is simply making up an agreement that never existed — we shot footage at the U.S. Open with the U.S.T.A.’s permission and of course never agreed to pay them for our own work.”

http://youtu.be/YvMWjtQN5HU

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The Weinstein Company released the trailer for the upcoming documentary “SALINGER,” about the notoriously reclusive “Catcher in the Rye” author J.D. Salinger. 

Directed by Shane Solerno who co-wrote Oliver Stone’s 2012 “Savages,” SALINGER features interviews with 150 subjects including Salinger’s friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle who have never spoken on the record before as well as film footage, photographs and other material that has never been seen.  Additionally, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, John Guare, Martin Sheen, David Milch, Robert Towne, Tom Wolfe, E.L. Doctorow, Gore Vidal and Pulitzer Prize winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank talk about Salinger’s influence on their lives, their work and the broader culture.  The film is the first work to get beyond the Catcher in the Rye author’s meticulously built up wall:  his childhood, painstaking work methods, marriages, private world and the secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.

The Weinstein Company anticipates a September 6 release date.

http://youtu.be/5IPsCA6ttbc

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[caption id="attachment_4116" align="alignnone" width="550"]OXYANA[/caption]

Sean Dunne makes his feature-film-directing debut with the documentary, OXYANA which looks at the OxyContin epidemic in the West Virginia town of Oceana. OXYANA had it’s world premiere earlier this year at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, where the film received a Special Jury Mention in the World Documentary Competition, as well as a nod for Best New Documentary Director for filmmaker Sean Dunne. OXYANA will be released by the filmmakers for sale starting July 1, 2013.

Struggling with poverty and unemployment after the demise of its only industry—the mining trade that had historically nourished the local economy—Oceana, West Virginia, has become the epicenter of a drug scourge devastating towns across the country and leaving many good and honest communities forsaken. Known among its residents as “Oxyana” after the OxyContin epidemic quietly washing over this sleepy Appalachian town, Oceana is a tragically real example of the insidious spread of drug dependency in the United States today. 

[caption id="attachment_4117" align="alignnone" width="550"]OXYANA[/caption]

Set against the eerie backdrop of abandoned coal mines within the lush West Virginia landscape, to the melody of Deer Tick’s haunting score, Sean Dunne’s unflinchingly intimate documentary probes the lives of Oceana’s afflicted. He turns the camera on its many residents, allowing them to tell their stories in their own words and homes to illuminate how their unique stories have led them each to the same tragic inevitability of pill addiction. Dunne eschews the high-drama mode in which drug dependency stories are often framed in favor of a simple, sympathetic immersion in the day-to-day experience of a town living in the harsh grip of addiction.

“We recognized when we set out to make OXYANA just how sensitive the subject matter was, but once we started showing the film at festivals, we saw an urgent need to get this message out to a wider audience,” says Dunne. “By distributing the film ourselves through our website, we can quickly get the film to those who want and need to see it and hopefully spark a dialogue about prescription drug abuse in this country.”

Sean Dunne has directed five previous short documentaries, including The Archive (nominated for an Emmy in 2011), Man in Van, The Bowler, Stray Dawg and American Juggalo (named documentary of the year for 2011 by the website, Short of the Week). Hailed as the “master of fringe Americana” for his ability to realistically capture half-mythical corners of the country, Dunne’s approach to documentary is to give his subjects the ease and opportunity to find their own voices and his viewers the freedom to form their own conclusions.

http://youtu.be/DW90pk0_NVs

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[caption id="attachment_4112" align="alignnone" width="550"]ENZO AVITABILE MUSIC LIFE[/caption]

ENZO AVITABILE MUSIC LIFE, directed by Jonathan Demme will open theatrically at Lincoln Plaza and a downtown theater in New York on October 18, and at the Royal and other Los Angeles area Laemmle theaters on October 25.  A national release will follow.

Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme (Silence Of The Lambs, Philadelphia, Stop Making Sense), turns his camera on Enzo Avitabile, a renowned Neapolitan saxophonist and singer/songwriter. This project is the fruit of the two artists’ reciprocal esteem for one another. It is also the result of many years spent following the musical artistry of Enzo Avitabile, a well-known figure on the world music scene recognized for his passion for research and experimentation.  

With this documentary, one of the world’s great directors tells us not just about the music of a singular artist in its fusion of Neapolitan world music (and especially Arab music, with performances by Naseer Shamma and Palestinian singer Amal Murkus) and jazz, but also of a city, Naples, with all of its treasures and contradictions.  The film follows Enzo, as he creates amazing new music with collaborators from all over the world, including Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Naseer Shamma, Daby Touré and Trilok Gurtu. 

Music has always played a decisive role in Demme’s films, which is evident in all his works for the big screen. Over the years, this passion has been expressed in various video clips, and above all, documentaries (The Pretenders, New Order, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young), which received high critical acclaim by the public, and film and music critics alike.

http://youtu.be/bMY73xNXDJk

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