Docs in Theaters: “Follow Me” “Indie Game: The Movie” “Mansome” “Never Stand Still” “Tales from Dell City, Texas”
This week’s new releases for documentary profile heroes, geeks, manly men, dancers and citizens of one of the most remote parts of the U.S. It’s an interesting group of people to be sure, and most of these films provide a greater understanding of who these kinds of people are and what they do. I’m especially surprised at how much I enjoyed learning about the gamers and the “bad boy” male ballet stars.
Let’s not forget the docs already playing, such as ever-expanding films First Position, Marley, The Island President and Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview. And how about the wonderful Last Call at the Oasis, which really should be doing better than it is? Film fests to take notice of this week include Cannes, Seattle International, Mudfest, Riga Freedom Film Festival and Planete +. And there appears to be something going on in Rhinebeck/Woodstock, NY from Update Films.
Here are your five new theatrical releases followed by the weekly list of docs still in cinemas:
Paper Clips producer Ari Daniel Pinchot co-directs, with Jonathan Gruber, this historical biography of the titular Israeli hero, who was killed during the 1976 Uganda hostage crisis at Entebbe Airport. The young soldier’s life and last days are told through archive footage, including recently released audio material from Operation Entebbe, and interviews with his ex-wife and three Israeli Prime Ministers.
Winner of the award for Best Documentary at the 2012 Palm Beach International Film Festival — Best of the Fest at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival — Best of the Fest at the 2012 Charleston Film Festival.
Now playing throughout Florida and in the NYC metro area. For details and for upcoming openings in other cities, check the film’s playdates page.
“Warrior Champions,” “His & Hers” and “Murder By Proxy” to Premiere on Documentary Channel in June
Next month Documentary Channel prepares for the 2012 Summer Olympics with the U.S. television premiere of Warrior Champions, a documentary that follows four amputee or paralyzed Iraq War veterans for a year as they head to compete in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. Co-directed by brothers Brent and Craig Renaud, the film won the award for Best Political Feature at the 2011 Staten Island New York Film Festival. Debuts Sunday, June 10 at 8pm ET/PT.
Interview: “Indie Game: The Movie” Directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky on Crowd-Funding, Approval Culture, Benefits of Directing as a Duo and Scott Rudin’s TV Adaptation
For their debut feature, co-directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky dove into the world of independent video games, a subject they previously explored with a short business profile on game developer Alec Holowka and his company, Infinite Ammo (watch that here). Titled Indie Game: The Movie, the new documentary premiered at Sundance, where it won an editing award and was optioned by producer Scott Rudin (The Social Network) for a fictional TV series to be based on the film.
But the doc itself, which opens this Friday, is the very definition of independent, which fits right in with the subject matter. It was funded through Kickstarter and is now being completely self-distributed by Pajot and Swirsky. I chatted with the filmmakers this week about the many parallels the indie project has with its content as well as the future for the doc, both as a big Hollywood-produced TV show and an ongoing small, indie effort that’s still far from over.
Why a documentary about indie game makers? I know you were inspired by the Infinite Ammo project you did, but are you guys big video game fans?
Lisanne Pajot: I wasn’t really much of a gamer before. I played Nintendo when I was younger, but it wasn’t a big part of my life. So I came into this eyes wide open, not really knowing all that much. I discovered the indie games through the work we were doing. James had a little bit of background…
Trailer: “U.N. Me” Takes the Michael Moore Approach for an Expose on the United Nations
If you’re disappointed that Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t take the Borat and Bruno approach with his latest film, The Dictator, for an inside look at the United Nations, maybe the upcoming documentary U.N. Me will hit the spot.
As you can see in the above trailer, directors Matthew Groff and Ami Horowitz employ Michael Moore-like tactics for a first-person investigation (with Horowitz as our onscreen host) for a humorous yet important expose of the peacekeeping organization. Is most of the U.N. a big, incompetent scam that our taxes are partly funding? We’ll find out when the film hits theaters and VOD on June 1.
I just want to take a short moment today to wish D.A. Pennebaker’s landmark Bob Dylan doc Dont Look Back a happy birthday. And yes, I’ve left out the apostrophe on purpose, as that is the true way of writing it (I tend to forget this nearly as much as I accidentally mistake the film’s title for Don’t Look Now, which is a very different movie).
This is not a very special anniversary, especially given that its 40th was celebrated with a sort of sequel (65 Revisited) and an awesome “deluxe edition” box set from Docurama including both films, the transcript book of Dont Look Back and a little flip book animating stills from the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” opening bit. I recommend picking it up if you’re a fan of the movie(s).
Speaking of that early “music video,” here it is with commentary from the DVD by Pennebaker and tour manager Bob Neuwirth:
