Docsider

Full List of Sundance Documentary Fund Grant Awardees

2008-11-26T19:26:22Z

The Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program announced today the 20 film projects awarded financial and creative support from the Sundance Documentary Fund. The full list after the jump.

]]> DEVELOPMENT

Elinyisia Mosha TANZANIA PROJECT (Tanzania/U.S.) This film explores the impact of foreign direct investment in the filmmakers native Tanzania.

Priya Giri Desai and Ann S. Kim MATCH +: A STORY ABOUT LOVE IN THE TIME OF HIV (U.S./India) At the Y.R. Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG CARE) clinic in Chennai, India, Dr. Solomon and her staff launch a matrimonial matchmaking service for their positive patients.

Tina DiFeliciantonio and Jane C. Wagner SEEKING REFUGE (U.S.) At the Bellevue Hospital Center N.Y.U. Program for Survivors of Torture, three patients from around the world come together in a journey of healing.

Marianna Kaat THE PIT (Estonia/Ukraine) Once prosperous during the Soviet era, the small town of Snezhnoje in East Ukraine now lives in poverty. The town's desperate residents decide to start mining on their own. Macky Alston THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE (U.S.) An openly gay bishop from New Hampshire travels to London, where the Anglican Communion will decide to either retain or split gay leadership from their ranks.

Patricio Guzman NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ (Chile/France) In the desert of North Chile, astronomers study the ancient universe above, while women search below for signs of their family members disappeared under Pinochet's dictatorship of 1973.

Mahmoud Al Massad THIS IS MY PICTURE WHEN I WAS DEAD (Jordan) This is a film that artfully imagines the future of a four-year old boy who almost died in the assassination of his PLO lieutenant father 25 years ago.

PRODUCTION/POST-PRODUCTION

Lynn True and Nelson Walker, with Tsering Perlo A NOMAD'S LIFE (U.S./Tibet) In the mountains of Tibet, Locho and Yama struggle to maintain their family and way of life, and to reconcile their nomadic traditions amidst rapid modernization.

Andrew Berends DELTA BOYS (U.S./Nigeria) In the oil rich Niger Delta, Chima is a 21-year-old who is swept into the world of armed militants after a prison break. His story is part of a complex tale of oil, power, poverty and corruption.

Petr Lom LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT (U.S./Iran) Across Iran, villagers share their hopes and fears through letters to President Ahmadinejad and his Presidential Letter Writing Center.

Mona Nicoara OUR SCHOOL (Romania) Roma children struggle to break the barriers of segregation in a small Transylvanian school. Rejected by teachers, they find strength in the friendship of Romanian classmates.

Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer OUT IN THE SILENCE (U.S.) The filmmaker's same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaper ignites a firestorm of controversy in his rural Pennsylvania hometown.

Eric Daniel Metzgar REPORTER (U.S./Congo) New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof journeys into the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, inviting a consideration of the future of journalism.

Danae Elon THE EVIL TONGUE (U.S.) In the Orthodox Jewish family, those affected by sexual molestation may be unable to disclose the information to secular authorities.

Pamela Yates THE RECKONING (U.S.) The film chronicles the history and launch of the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the world's first institution created to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

DISCRETIONARY

Edet Belzberg Watchers of the Sky (U.S.) Drawing from Samantha Power's book "A Problem from Hell" four exceptional visionaries traverse time and continents to explore the world's response to genocide.

Oren Jacoby INJUSTICE (U.S.) This film uncovers the backroom maneuvering during the waning days of the Bush Administration which led to the unprecedented and illegal firing of U.S. Attorneys David Iglesias, John McKay and three of their colleagues.

Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman SEMBENE: REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST (U.S./Senegal) The story of independent filmmaker Senegal's Ousmane Sembene, providing an alternate history of contemporary Africa and a window into world cinema.

Thomas Wallner THE GUANTANAMO TRAP(Canada/Germany) Murat Kurnaz, born in Germany of Turkish heritage, was detained, tortured at the U.S. military base in Kandar, Afghanistan and in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and held for five years. This is his story.

Thomas Allen Harris THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE (U.S.) Using an experimental approach, Harris shows how black communities use photography and imagery to construct political, aesthetic, and cultural representations of themselves in the world.

DOX OFFICE | "Pray The Devil" Top Doc

2008-11-11T18:47:18Z

[Peter Knegt] Balcony Releasing's "Pray The Devil Back To Hell" had the highest per-theater-average of all documentaries this past weekend. The film, directed by Gini Reticker, grossed a decent $8,227 from its one show at New York's Cinema Village cinema. Chronicling the story of courageous Liberian women, "Hell" expands to the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and the Landmark E Street in Washington this Friday.

Other top docs included the second weekend of Zeitgeist's "Stranded: I've Come From A Plane That Crashed In The Mountains," which grossed $11,977 from 4 screens and brought its cume to $22,101 after 3 weekends, independent release "Call+Response," which grossed $12,246 on 5 screens, totalling $164,248 after 5 weekends, and Oscilloscope's "Dear Zachary," which took in $6,619 from 3 screens in its second weekend.

]]>

DOX OFFICE | "Matador," "Zachary" Open In NYC

2008-11-04T19:08:13Z

[Peter Knegt] Two 2008 SXSW Film Festival favorites opened on a single New York screen this past weekend, with one finding moderately good numbers, and another not so much.

Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey's "The Matador," released through City Lights Releasing, grossed a decent $6,695 on its one screen at the Angelika Film Center in New York. The doc - a story of a man truing to achieve his place in the world of Spain's greatest bullfighters opens in Tempe, Arizona this Friday, and two California screens the next.

Oscilloscope Pictures' "Dear Zachary," meanwhile, only managed $2,886 from its showing at the Cinema Village in New York. The film, which actually premiered prior to SXSW at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival, is director Kurt Kuenne's tribute to his murdered friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby. The woman who killed Bagby was pregnant with Bagby's son, Zachary, at the time of his murder. It opens in Chicago and Los Angeles this Friday.

DOCS-A-POPPIN' 10.31.08 | "Dear Zachary," "Monks," The Matador" & "The First Basket"

2008-11-02T19:09:17Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Four docs opened in New York City this week, Kurt Kuenne's "Dear Zachary," Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios' "Monks: "The Transatlantic Feedback," Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey's "The Matador" and David Vyorst's "The First Basket."

Of the four docs opening this week ("The First Basket" opened on Wednesday, the 29th) "Dear Zachary" is receiving the most attention, due to both its long festival play before release and of course, its gripping subject matter. The film's getting strong reviews as well, picking up a 73 on Metacritic.com and a whopping 100% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. In The Village Voice, Martin Tsai writes: "A true-crime story so gripping, devastating, and ultimately unforgettable that it easily trumps any thriller Hollywood has to offer this year."

]]> Next up is "Monks," which isn't yet on either of the ratings sites, but was reviewed in today's New York Times. Nathan Lee calls the film "ambitious but unfocused," going on to say that the film "bids to immortalize this short-lived if influential group. The case is compelling -- the Monks had an amazing sound that anticipated the avant-garde pop of the Velvet Underground -- and a little hysterical: one of the band's admirers claims that the social upheavals of 1968 would have happened two years earlier if everyone had been listening to the band."

"The Matador" isn't yet rated on Metacritc.com, but there are three divergent reviews posted. While The New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis writes: "Barbaric, elegant, primitive, erotic, revolting, thrilling: the movie, like bullfighting itself, is all of these." The New York Post's V.A. Musetto, begs to differ and writes: "There are many people who consider bullfighting antiquated and barbaric. Directors Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey, to their credit, give face time to the sport's detractors. But mostly "The Matador" romanticizes a brutal tradition that has no place in the 21st century." As for Rotten Tomatoes, the film receives a positive 75%.

"The First Basket," a film about the Jewish dominance in the early days of basketball get's a 49 (albeit with a limited sample of only 4 reviews) on Metacritic.com and an N/A on Rotten Tomatoes.

Doc Linkage | IDA Awards-All XY; "Chisholm '72" For Next Week's STF

2008-10-30T22:35:32Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Here, for your reading pleasure, is another lovely collection of letters and manybe the occasional number, as they are put together into an order which may (or may not) make some sense about documentary films and whatnot.

IDA Doc Nods: Whither The Women?
The International Documentary Association announced their annual award nominees earlier this week and while AJ Schnack was applauding them for nominating five noteworthy and known films, others have been wondering where the female doc directors are. While it's true that "Trouble the Water" by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin was not nominated, were there other docs directed or co-directed by women that deserved a nod? Weigh in, won't you?

]]> "Chisholm '72" To Screen On Election Night
Shola Lynch's "Chisholm '72" screens at next week's Stranger Than Fiction documentary series at the IFC Center in New York and it's a pretty perfect selection. While I haven't seen the film, I certainly know the subject. the late Shirley Chisholm was an outspoken and groundbreaking congresswoman from Brooklyn who ran for president in 1972. My favorite Chisholm anecdote? In January of 1969, when given her committee assignments for the new congress, Chisholm discovered that she'd been assigned to the agriculture committee and remarked: "Apparently all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there." She successfully challenged her committee assignments and ended up on the education and labor committees.

After the screening, the hosts and guests will be adjourning to the Fat Black Pussycat bar at 130 West 3rd Street to watch the results on multiple TV screens. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it. I am a results junkie and will be glued to the set, with sound, when the early returns start coming in at 7:00pm, EST from Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.

DOX OFFICE | "Stranded" Opens, "Religulous" Top 2008 Doc

2008-10-28T15:01:43Z

[Peter Knegt] Gonzalo Arijon's "Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains" was the top doc opener this past weekend. The Zeitgeist Films release, about the members of a rugby team from Montevideo, Uruguay that survived a plane crash, grossed a mild $3,077 on one screen at the Film Forum in New York City. This is not a particularly promising number as the film expands in coming weeks. It opens in Detroit, Berkeley, San Francisco and Los Angeles on November 7, followed by numerous cities through November and December.

As specialty releases in general have been releasing a very competitive number of narrative films as awards season approaches, doc releases have slowed in comparison. Which suggests that Larry Charles' "Religulous," which recently became the highest grossing doc of 2008, may permanently hold that title. The Bill Maher anti-organized religion film has grossed $10,563,579, making it the ninth highest grossing doc of all-time, and the highest of 2008. Behind it this year, as of Sunday, are "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" ($7,720,487), "Young@Heart" ($3,966,690), "Man on Wire" ($2,730,908), and "Gonzo" ($1,242,996). Not bad considering last year only 3 films ("Sicko," "No End in Sight", "In The Shadow of the Moon") crossed the $1 million mark.

Doc News & Linkage | Cuban Films In Manila; Herzog Honored; Posh Doc?; Esther Goes Off on TONY!

2008-10-28T02:29:24Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Welcome to the last full week of the 2006-2008 election campaign. Whew! I don't know about you, but I am tired, but not too tired to keep my foot on the pedal and push on through to Tuesday night. But I digress.... I scoured the various doc sites and Google Alerts and picked out a few things I thought you, my faithful readers, might be interested in reading. They involve Werner Herzog, Cuba, Posh Spice and filmmaker Esther B. Robinson ("A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory"). How's that for a cross-section?

Another Career Honor For Werner
Werner Herzog, one of the world's greatest living filmmakers, will receive the International Documentary Association's Career Achievement Award at the annual IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony on December 5, 2008 at the Directors Guild of America Theater in Los Angeles and I wish I could attend! Previous recipients have included Sheila Nevins, Michael Apted, Ken Burns, Albert Maysles, Haskell Wexler and Michael Moore and while I'd argue that Werner deserved his before Moore, I won't nit pick too much! I you still haven't seen Werner's "Encounters at the end of the World," please do. It's a beautiful film. On a tengential note, what is it, do you think, that makes people feel comfortable referring to him in print as Wener? Or is it just me?

]]> Cuban Film Week
For my readers in the Philippines (a guy can dream, right?) I'd like to point out a series of Cuban narratives and docs, as written up in Business World online. Docs screening include the much heralded "Suite Habana" by Fernando Perez which won 6 awards at the 2003 Havana Film Festival (12, if you believe the IMDb) and screened all over the world. Cuban Film Week is presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in cooperation with the Embassy of Cuba in Manila, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and begins today, October 28th.

TONY's List Of 40 New Yorkers Ruffles Feathers
In this year of racially charged politics (don't listed to that guy on Bill Maher last week who said race isn't an issue in this election. He Cwazy!) Time Out New York has, in mine and others opinions, stepped in it. In their list of "40 New Yorkers who've made a positive impact on the city since TONY's been around," they included a whopping three people of color. Really? Three!? Even before reading Esther's piece, I had to say, Time Out got poop on their shoes and ain't admitting it. Our ol' buddy AJ Schnack has reprinted doc filmmaker Esther B. Robinson's brilliant rejoinder to TONY's piece.

Personally? I think it's a really stupid list. Spider-Man? Oooooh! How cool of you! A fake New Yorker! Kelly Reichardt? Very nice and talented filmmaker, but Has she really made more of a positive impact on New York than, say, Spike Lee? Hell, I'd argue Patrick Ewing had a greater impact on New York in the past 13 years. However, like all lists, who's on it and who was left off in terms of specific people, is pretty irrelevant. We get back to diversity and on the matter of color, TONY gets an F.

Say it ain't so, Silvio!
According to Now Magazine, Victoria Beckham has been offered £10 million by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to produce (I guess...) a documentary about her husband David Beckham's move to Milan for a short (3-4 month loan) to Italian club AC Milan (which Berlusconi owns). Really? Seriously? £10 million for that?

DOCS-A-POPPIN' 10.24.08 | Zidane, Haring, Gay Marriage, Soviets, Israelis & Palestinians and a Plane Crash!

2008-10-24T20:36:58Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] No fewer than six docs opened in New York this week, five of them today and one, "Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains" on Wednesday the 22nd. I'm tempted to lower that to 5 and 4, but the New York Times decided to review Amos Gitai's "News From Home/News From House" even though it's screening as part of a Museum of Modern Art exhibition and not in a "traditional" theatrical release. But really, who am I to argue with the Old Gray Lady?

First on my list, if for no other reason than because I think it's a fantastic film is Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's "Zidane: A Twenty-First Century Portrait" which received a very unfair (IMHO) 53%, on Rotten Tomatoes and hasn't been ranked yet by Metacritic.com.

]]> Zeitgeit release "Stranded," directed by Gonzalo Arijón, opened last Wednesday and is being quite well received, picking up a 76 on Metacritic.com and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Onion AV Club's Noel Murray writes that "It's no exaggeration to say that Gonzalo Arijon's Stranded is the definitive version," of this well-known story.

Up next is Arthouse Films' The Universe of Keith Haring, directed by Christina Clausen which fares less well, rating a 55 and 43%, with Variety's Jay Weissberg calling the film "Warmly affectionate yet curiously hollow" and "a blow-by-blow account of Haring's life, replete with the kinds of numbingly ordinary details Haring's mentor, Andy Warhol, obsessed over." Yikes. However, the Seattle Times' Ted Fry calls it "An affectionate and absorbing look at the premiere artist of the '80s downtown New York art scene."

Mike Roth and John Henning's "Saving Marriage" (Regent Releasing) picks up a strong 70% but isn't on MetaCritic, yet.

Edvins Snore's "The Soviet Story" (opening at Village East Cinemas) gets an N/A on Rotten Tomatoes and isn't on Metacritic at all, but based on the few reviews out there it's not looking like it's going to make many waves.

Gitai's "News From Home/News From House" isn't listed on either service, but the New York Times gave it a mixed-to-positive review, as Neil Genzlinger writes: "Somehow it doesn't seem like enough of an insight for a freestanding film. "News From Home" is receiving a weeklong run at the Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition "Amos Gitai: Nonfiction." But the work no doubt gains resonance when paired with its companion pieces, which are being shown Friday and Saturday."

Doc Briefs | St. Clair Bourne Tribute At STF; New Face At Hot Docs

2008-10-24T01:15:16Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Once again, it's time for a few doc news nuggets. Stranger Than Fiction pays tribute to the late filmmaker St. Clair Bourne on October 28th and Hot Docs names a new director for the Toronto Documentary Forum.

Stranger Than Fiction To Tribute St. Clair Bourne
Next Tuesday, weekly doc screening series Stranger Than Fiction is guaranteed to be a special experience for all attending. A Tribute to St. Clair Bourne, will feature a special screening of Bourne's documentary "Making 'Do the Right Thing'" and guest speakers Danny Glover, Bourne's sister Judith Bourne and editor Sam Pollard. Saint, as his friends called him, passed away quite suddenly of a pulmonary embolism last December at the age of 64. Those of us lucky enough to have known him were and still are shocked by his untimely death and I urge you all to try and attend this special evening.

At the risk of getting a little too personal here, Saint was an old friend and comrade of my mother Joanne Grant from the days of the Movement and was, for a while, producing a documentary project she was directing. She passed away, also before her time, in January of 2005. Tickets can be bought here.

]]> Radshaw Named New TDF Chief
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival has announced that Elizabeth Radshaw has been named the new director of the Toronto Documentary Forum, the festival's market component. Radshaw was most recently head of acquisitions in London at U.K.-based non-fiction distributor TVF International Television Distribution. She also sat on this year's Toronto Documentary Forum's International Selection Committee. We at Docsider wish Elizabeth well and look forward to meeting her next spring in Toronto, if not sooner on the festival circuit! Read the full press release here.

Doc Linkage | EFA Doc Winner; New Doc Club Films

2008-10-22T18:17:48Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Today's links bring you back to Europe for an award announcement and then to the Web for some hot and sweaty (not really) Doc Club action. Dig it, Cats and Kittens!

EFA Doc Award Winner
So...two days ago I posted the European Film Academy doc nominations (they were announced on Thursday, October 16th). The release noted that "the winner will be presented at the 21st European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 6 December, in Copenhagen." Silly me, I took that to mean that the winners would also be announced then. However, today I checked my email and found this press release that announced the doc winner as being "René," by Czech director Helena Trestikova. Ok, then.

]]> Doc Club Chooses Round 3 Films
The Documentary Club that I have mentioned a few times in these pages has gone and chosen two films for round three of their watch 'em and discuss 'em series. They are "King of Kong" and "Young at Heart." However, they come with a bit of a scolding from the folks behind the club: "...due to a total lack of participation in the forums we're going to go on previous results and a recommendation."

Sounds to me like we're not participating on the boards. We (and I am including myself here) need to be more active members of this community. It's a great idea, this Doc Club and we owe it to the guys that started it to take part. Also mentioned in the club email, they're scheduling a DC get together to watch "Young at Heart" and are hoping for similar gatherings in the Bay Area and NYC, so get thee to the boards!

DOX OFFICE | "Frontrunners," "Marriage" Find Modest Openings

2008-10-21T17:59:54Z

[Peter Knegt] The third film to be theatrically released through Oscilloscope Pictures, "Frontrunners" follows the race for the office of Student Union President at Stuyvesant High School, New York City's most competitive public school. So far, "FLOW: For Love of Water" is Oscilloscope's top grosser with $110,065. Since opening last Wednesday, Caroline Suh's "Frontrunners" has grossed $10,011 from its run at New York's Film Forum, and its weekend gross of $6,888 topped a slew of high-profile openers with modest numbers.

"It seems the timeliness of a campaign film that's crowd-pleasing, funny and smart is refreshing to NYC audiences and the press," said Oscilloscope's David Fenkel in an interview with indieWIRE. "This inherent interest and the local grassroots campaign we executed with [the filmmakers] and Stuyvesant High School really paid off for a strong opening weekend. We are really pleased with the consistent turnout for the first 5 days and expect more school groups to attend more weekday shows and for additional sold out shows this upcoming weekend." This Friday the film expands to Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Philadelphia and Boston.

]]> Behind "Frontrunners" was another modest opening, Regent Releasing's gay marriage doc "Saving Marriage." The John Henning and Mike Roth directed film, whic centers on the fight to attain marriage rights in Massachusetts grossed $8,044 from 2 screens in Hollywood and Boston. It opens this Friday at the Quad in New York.

Doc Linkage | State Of Russian Indies; EFA Doc Nods; Vérité Fest Winds Up

2008-10-20T19:26:36Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] I trolled hither and thither amongst all the myriad ones and zeros to bring you, my doc faithful, this three very special international edition of Doc Linkage. Included are a look at the current state of Russian independent cinema, the nominees for the EFA's doc award and the wrapping up of this year's Cinéma Vérité Festival in Tehran. I hope you like them!

A Look at the State of the Russian Indie Landscape
Albina Kovalyova, writing for Russia Profile presents a revealing look at the current state of Russian independent cinema, laying out some of the obstacles to indie filmmaking in a country with a rich cinematic history. It turns out that the modern film funding and distribution bodies are not exactly excited about indies or experimental films and this includes most of what we would call creative docs. Much of the article is comprised of descriptions of three festivals, the second of which is hosted by Kinoteatr Doc. Kovalyova describes the festival as focusing on "Russian documentaries that differ from the majority of television reportage often thought of as defining the genre. Unlike the narrator-driven television documentaries, here the emphasis is placed on telling a story from the perspective of the protagonists."

]]> European Film Academy Documentary 2008 - Prix Arte Nominees
The European Film Academy (EFA) has announced their nominations for their 2008 doc awards. Included were some of the more noteworthy festival hits from this year and a US box office hit, as well. Highlighting the list are James Marsh's "Man on Wire," Carlos Saura's "Fados," Pavel Koutecký & Miroslav Janek's "Obcan Václav Havel" ("Citizen Havel") and Gonzalo Arijón's "Naufragés des Andes" ("Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains").

Tehran's Vérité Festival Winds Up, Awards Films
Last week I wrote about the 2nd edition of Tehran's Cinéma Vérité Festival and the weeklong event has now concluded, handing out their awards on Saturday night, as reported by the Tehran Times. Maybe next year Docsider will be invited to attend!

DOCS-A-POPPIN' 10.17.08 | "Frontrunners," "Bigfoot," "Who Does She Think She Is" & "Morning Light"

2008-10-17T23:22:43Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] Four films open this week, one of them on Wednesday, three of them today and 75% of them seem to be getting generally positive reviews, with Mark Monroe's Disney release "Morning Light" the odd one out. Only two of the films were even included on Metacritic.com as of this posting. Let's get to 'em, shall we?

First up is Caroline Suh's Oscilloscope release "Frontrunners" which opened on Wednesday to generally favorable reviews. It's managed an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67 on Metacritic.com. I really enjoyed this film and it has a seriously rocking soundtrack, featuring the likes of Of Montreal, The Oranges Band, Mogwai and The M's, among others.

]]> Next we've got Jay Delaney's "Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie," which currently has a rating of N/A on Rotten Tomatoes and isn't on Metacritic at all, likely due to it's very limited release (currently screening at the Pioneer Theater in New York City).

Pamela Turner Boll's "Who Does She Think She Is?" from Artistic License received a 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, including positive reviews from the New York Times and NY Post, as well as Slate and the Village Voice. Sounds like a film right up my ally, so maybe I'll get a chance to see it. It's playing a limited engagement at NYC's Angelika Film Center before heading out to more festival play. Check their site for playdates in your area.

Last (and least, if you're to believe the critics) is Mark Monroe's "Morning Light." an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51 on Metacritic don't bode well for this Disney pic.

Photos: George from "Frontrunners" © Oscilloscope; Dallas and Wayne from "Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie" © 2008 Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, LLC; Janis Wunderlich and daughter Eliza from "Who Does She Think She Is?" © C. Lewis Studio

"Snag The Vote" Launches At SnagFilms

2008-10-16T19:51:01Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] SnagFilms (the co-presenter of this blog) recently launched the “Snag The Vote: Elections ‘08 Film Festival”, a 60+ collection of "election-themed" films, including the world premiere of "Inside The Bubble," director Steve Rosenbaum’s insiders’ view of the 2004 Kerry campaign. While the press release refers to the films as "election-themed," a more accurate description might be "issue-oriented" or simply "topical," as the films are not all directly related to the 2008 or any other election. What the series does do, however, is break the films up into eight categories, including: Economy, National Security & Iraq War, Healthcare, Education, Environment, Electoral Process, Government Ethics & Partisanship, Immigration and Individual Rights. In the lead up to what is arguably the post important election in more than 70 years, it would behoove us all to educate ourselves about the pressing issues of the day so that we can make an informed decision and help others to do the same!

Some of the films included are Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's latest film "The End of America" (2008, available 10/21), "Call It Democracy" (Matthew Kohn, 2005) and Steve Rosenebaum's "Inside the Bubble" (2008). For more on these and the rest of the slate, head on over to SnagFilms.

Doc Linkage | "Front Runners" Review; Vérité Fest In Iran

2008-10-15T21:53:03Z

[Mark Rabinowitz] A collection of some of the doc goings on around the web, including a review of Caroline Suh's "Frontrunners" and a preview of a doc fest in Tehran.

"Frontrunners" Review
The folks over at indieWIRE, courtesy of Reverse Shot (and I have been known to, erm...disagree with their tastes at times, have run a pretty good and fair review of Caroline Suh's "Frontrunners." Of course any election-themed film, even if it does take place in a high school, takes on extra resonance during election time but even if you have a little bit of election fatigue, I suggest you see this film. It's a pretty interesting look at just how much of a miniaturized mirror of adult life high school can be.

]]> Cinéma Vérité Festival kicks off in Tehran
The 2nd edition of Iran's "most prestigious event for documentary films" kicks off today and runs through Friday in Tehran, according to the Tehran Times. Featured are films from 86 countries and over 100 filmmakers will attend the event, according to the Times. Included in the program are retrospectives of doc legends Richard Leacock ("Lulu in Berlin"), Jørgen Leth ("The Five Obstructions" w/ Lars von Trier) and Peter Wintonick ("Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment"....yay, Pete!)