This week’s new theatrical releases for documentary include the latest from one of the most important nonfiction filmmakers ever. It doesn’t open until next Wednesday, though, so to tide you over are also great docs about small-town wrestlers, big-dream billionaires and a famous singer who tries to make the world a better place. Naked women, half-naked men, peace on earth and vacations to space, all real stories worth seeing in cinemas starting today.
Here are your four new theatrical releases followed by the weekly list of docs still in cinemas:
Crazy Horse
How many people would love to be a fly on the wall at the famed Crazy Horse cabaret? Legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman (Titicut Follies) got the chance and is sharing his experience in his latest observational film. Through his subjectively verite style we see the ins and outs of the Parisian club, including behind the scenes meetings, auditions, rehearsals and, most appealing, the nude dance performances themselves. Actually, he captures a number or full routines, which makes this more like a concert film than we’re used to from Wiseman.
Due to all the nudity this one won’t make it to PBS, and the filmmaker’s work isn’t easy to come by on DVD, so you’re best off trying to get to a theatrical engagement. [I’ll have an interview with Wiseman and hopefully a full review of the film early next week.]
Opens Wednesday, January 18, at Film Forum in NYC. For future openings in other cities see the film’s screening schedule.
The following trailer is NOT SAFE FOR WORK as it contains footage of the nude dancers.
Another great verite film comes to us this week from director Robert Greene (Kati With an I), who takes us to North Carolina for a look at a week in the life of an independent wrestling federation. Here’s part of my review of the film from last summer:
Nothing in “Fake It So Real” is quite as revelatory as Barry Blaustein’s 1999 pro-wrestling doc “Beyond the Mat,” perhaps because it doesn’t feature well-known figures like Mick Foley and Jake “The Snake” Roberts, whose personal issues and emotionality are felt stronger as a result. Actually their problems would be just as significant if they weren’t celebrities, but the fame does contribute to our sympathy and attentiveness. Greene’s film is nevertheless a very absorbing and heartfelt look at a world curiously relative to the WWE realm. Many of the men in North Carolina’s independent scene strive to go pro. It’s like “Fake It So Real” is almost the “Anvil! Story of Anvil” to “Beyond the Mat“‘s “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.”
Now playing in Brooklyn, NY, at the reRun Gastropub Theater. For future screenings in other locations check the film’s website.
Also known as Richard Garriott: Man on a Mission or Man on a Mission: Richard Garriott’s Road to the Stars, this new documentary from Mike Woolf is basically an unofficial sequel to Christian Frei’s DOC Channel favorite Space Tourists. I even like to call it Space Tourists Too since it’s about another “spaceflight participant” who paid to be a private citizen visitor to the International Space Station two years after Space Tourist’s Anousheh Ansari (who appears very briefly in this film).
The distinction with the subject here is that Richard Garriott, a wealthy gaming mogul best know for the Ultima franchise, is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Kay Garriott, so he’s the first American second-generation spaceman. It’s a more conventional and straight-focused doc than Frei’s but it also might be more accessible for that very reason. I also found it more intimate. Whether you’ve seen Space Tourists or not, there’s a lot to like about Garriott’s own story.
Winner of the Audience Award for the Spotlight Premieres section and the Audience Award for Excellence in Poster Design at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival.
Now playing at Cinema Village in NYC, as well as in Detroit, Chicago and Lake Worth, Florida. For upcoming openings in other cities, check the film’s playdates page.
If you primarily know Harry Belafonte for singing “The Banana Boat Song,” or even if you’re familiar with his importance as a Civil Rights activist, Susanne Rostock’s biographical music documentary is for you. With his full cooperation and the supervision of his daughter, Gia, as producer, the film lays out his life from his rise to stardom as the “king of calypso” to his struggles with Jim Crow laws and beyond through his years fighting for human rights around the world. It sounds inspiring. [Full review is hopefully forthcoming.]
Now playing at the IFC Center in NYC and the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, California, as well as at the Mountaintop Film Festival in Waitsfield, Vermont. For other upcoming openings and screenings in other cities see the film’s screening schedule.
Expanded releases this week (older films, new cities, some also still playing elsewhere). Links go to screening calendar listings:
American Teacher - Denver, CO [1/16]; Metairie, LA [1/16]; Maplewood, NJ [1/17]; San Francisco, CA [1/18]; San Diego, CA [1/18], New Brunswick, NJ [1/19]
Battle for Brooklyn - Arlington, VA [1/13-1/15]; Pittsburgh, PA [1/13-1/15]; San Francisco, CA [1/13 and 1/19]
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey - Hanover, NH; Paducah, KY [1/13-1/15]; Bryn Mawr, PA [1/14-1/15]; Jackson, MI [1/15]; Stockton, CA [1/15]
Dragonslayer - Tucson, AZ; Nashville, TN [1/18-1/19]; Oklahoma City, OK [1/19]
El Sicario, Room 164 - Seattle, WA [opens 1/19]
Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone - Providence, RI [1/13-1/19]; Salem, MA [1/13-1/19]; Gloucester, MA [1/14]
Farmageddon - Duluth, MN [1/15]; Moscow, ID [1/18]
Garbo The Spy - Hudson, NY [opens 1/19]
Granito: How to Nail a Dictator - New York, NY [1/17]; San Diego, CA [1/18]
Hell and Back Again - Spokane, WA; Santa Monica, CA [1/14-1/15]; Phoenixville, PA [opens 1/15]; Waitsfield, VT [1/16 and 1/19]
Inni - Hartford, CT [1/13-1/14]; Ghent, Belgium [1/18]
The Interrupters - Melbourne, Australia; Charlotte, NC [1/14]; Valparasio, IN [1/15 and 1/17]; Paterson, NJ [1/16]
Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life - Gainsville, FL; Hamilton, NY; Saskatoon, SK; Three Rivers, MI [opens 1/15]
Khodorkovsky - Hartford, CT [1/15-1/17]; Hudson, NY [1/15 and 1/19-1/22]
The Man Nobody Knew - Key West, FL [1/13-1/19]; Washington, DC [1/18]
My Reincarnation - Boston, MA [1/13-1/15 and 1/18-1/19]; St. Johnsbury, VT [1/13-1/19]; Austin, TX [1/18]; Gloucester, MA [1/19]
Nostalgia for the Light - Suttons Bay, MI [1/15-1/17]
Pianomania - Cleveland, OH [1/19-1/22]
PINA - Hollywood, CA; Kew Gardens, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Montreal, QC [opens 1/18]
Revenge of the Electric Car - Santa Cruz, CA; Portsmouth, NH [opens 1/19]; Tournai, Belgium [opens 1/19 for the Ramdam International Film Festival]
Urbanized - Fresno, CA [1/13]; Manchester, UK [opens 1/19]
The Whale - Hunter, NY [1/13-1/16]; Lake Park, FL [1/13-1/19]; Lambertville, NJ [1/13-1/15]; Wilmington, DE [1/13-1/15]
Where Are You Taking Me? - Los Angeles, CA [1/15]
Also still in theaters:
Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest
Born to Be Wild 3D (IMAX)
Eames: The Architect and the Painter
It’s About You (aka John Mellencamp: It’s About You)
Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness
If you would like a film’s opening or expansion included in the weekly Docs In Theaters post, click the contact link on the right and send me an email.
